Aotearoa 🇳🇿

The Kiwis - like the Aussies - have a very dry sense of humour - sometimes sarcastic & very direct - and there is a friendly rivalry between the two. The Kiwis have the Maori influence also. 

A greeting might go something like,

kiwi 1: "G'day mate, how's it going?" 

kiwi 2: " Good mate, how you goin?"

kiwi 1: " Sweet as, bro"

kiwi 2: "Chur!"

kiwi 1: " yeah, all good bro"

Listening to the radio as I was driving around, and snippets of the news, it seems the Kiwis have much of the same problems and issues as we have, back home, including cost of living and financial troubles.

I have noticed, however, that the Kiwis seem a lot happier, in general than us Brits.

I don't know what wages are like here but things seem a bit less expensive than in Britain. A Coffee out, for example, generally costs around $5 so £2.14. You wouldn't get a coffee out for less than £4 in the UK, not in the south anyway.

Most of the cars in Oz & here are automatic. Like America, they don't really do gears.

The young people seem much more 'out doorsy' in general - probably due to a better climate.

On the whole, I feel comfortable and at home here. I could live here easily - apart from having Christmas in the summer. That just feels wrong. I would need to have some kind of Winter solstice celebration on June 21st - 25th. Get a tree and lights and have log fires. Do some feasting.......perhaps barbeque a possom or two - roast possum with cranberry sauce......or maybe even a possum stuffed with rat, stuffed with stoat - a 3 pest roast!?......yummy 😋

What has fascinated me here are the birds. They seem so much more friendly and there are some very beautiful ones that I have seen:

The fantail

The Tui - which I've seen feeding on these plants

The Kea - these are often known as 'the cheeky Kea' as they have the intelligence of a 5 year old child and often act as naughty as one!

and these rather weird 'chicken like' birds called Weka. They can be cheeky too - stealing food - and move in a weird, almost prehistoric way

Last night, just wandering around Christchurch, I spotted some lad attempting to catch eels out of the lake with bits of raw meat - he might have been more successful if he could have used two hands......I thought his mates could have helped him!?

Today I have been sorting out stuff, filling out arrival cards for Singapore & Malaysia, doing washing.

I got out for a walk by around 2pm and there I came across this sculpture, in honour of the firefighters.

What was compelling was that these are actual girders from the twin towers - gifted to Christchurch from New York in 2002. The central suspended part actually fell from the 102nd floor of tower 2, in a red hot state, piercing the subway below!

I heard on the radio that the firefighters are striking for an hour every Friday in the summer. Its a sorry state of affairs that they feel pushed to do this. 

On a brighter note, I have been treating myself to the odd ice-cream and since I'm not really drinking at the moment, I feel its justified

So today I visited Rollickin Gelato, which is supposed to be the best ice-cream shop in Christchurch.

My ice-cream was bloody nice, but I don't know what it is about ice-cream that seems to bring out the worst in kids and their adults. The family in front of me were taking their time choosing their flavours, but they were being served by a young chap and the other girl behind the counter asked me what I wanted. 

The Mum from the family in front said loudly, " I haven't finished yet!" to which the girl looked shocked and said, " but he is serving you" pointing to the young lad who was busy sorting out their first order. 

Blimey! she gave the girl such a cross look that she carried on helping the lad and apologised to me.

I said, "no worries, I'm not in a rush". 

After the kids had chosen the Dad of the family was telling the lad what he wanted and the girl said to me, "sorry - what would you like?" I began to talk and this time the Dad said, "sorry, I haven't finished my order" - to which I turned round to him and said, "well I think HE is serving you, I don't think you need two people serving you!"

"oh" he said and the girl laughed and continued to serve me. He did then say, "sorry about that" but the Mum had a right evil look on her face.

They sat across the road and I was - ever so slightly - disappointed when the tram just missed her as it pulled up in the street........

as I sat outside, enjoying my ice-cream - 'lemon meringue pie' and 'strawberry patch kid' - yes two scoops! - there was an Indian family with two sons, taking a photograph with the gorilla (pictured above). The one son was complaining, very rudely, that he didn't like his flavour of ice-cream and so the Mum started eating it and he was wrestling with her and shouting, to which the Dad said, "I'll buy you another one" but the son continued to complain, calling his dad a sh*t! - unbelievable!

It then reminded me of another 'ice-cream related' incident, when I was at the Orakei geothermal park, on the North Island. There was a Chinese family - Mum, Dad (wearing a weird mask) and two small kids, a girl & boy of around five or six years old.

They had got the boat back over to the cafe with me and I bought a magnum and was sat outside, when they came out. Both kids also had an ice cream, which they had obviously only just chosen, and yet the little boy seemed to be dis-satisfied with his choice and was determined to have the ice cream his sister had chosen (an Oreo block in a wafer). The mum intervened and took both ice creams - causing much screaming and sobbing - and after a long negotiation to the two kids in Chinese, she then insisted that they both try a bite of each other's ice cream. After this the boy was still complaining so the girl let him have another bite, but he tried to take an enormous bite to which the girl pulled away and the ice cream fell on the floor. The girl screamed and cried and the Dad just burst out laughing (as did I.....I was in fits 😂 I couldn't help it!)........in a very un-Chinese way, the Mum used the five second rule, dusting off the ice cream and handed it back to her daughter, after which all was well.

Human behaviour and family life! - you can't beat it for entertainment!