Originally Posted by Purrball

Returning to New Zealand for the first time in over 20 years, things that immediately struck me:

• Cicadas - Love them

• Utes - Hate them

• Soft water - we still use water filters

• Unbelievably crappy TV advertising - My favourite was the advert for bovine mastitis- on at peak viewing time.

• Lots of cannabis smokers - Wouldn't know about that one.

• Sparrows inside public buildings - Agreed, which is fine until they cr@p on you.

• Bare feet shoppers - We never do it (though I have driven barefoot - what a rebel!)

• How many Asian people in Auckland compared to the 1980s

• Chain link fences

• Unnervingly quiet town and city centres at night, especially when you're a pedestrian - Not in Courtenay Place!

• Lack of decent pubs with a (generalised) middle-class aversion to even visiting them - Couldn't agree more.

• Calling a goverment department and getting through to a person straight away, with no call waiting or 'choose option 2'. That person then followed up with an email within five minutes. - Unless its IRD in my experience...maybe they didn;t want to give me my rebate!

• How humid Auckland can be

• Corrugated iron roofs - Noisy

• Strange interior decorating choices

• Unsatisfying clothes shopping - We still get M&S, Debenhams stuff sent over.

• Public loos in parks and reserves with toilet paper in them - and invariably very clean

• Over-friendly supermarket checkout people* - I like someone packing my bags for me!


Also, on the trust issue, two incidents come to mind:

• Waiting at a bus stop in Wadestown, within minutes, being offered a lift by a complete stranger back into town.

• Office premises leaving their front doors open for anyone to walk upstairs and inside. Few door buzzers/intercoms.

*Originally coming New Zealand, it's easy to now see how many British people appear standoffish, when I think it's more about privacy and initial reserve, rather than rudeness per se.

Originally Posted by Bo-Jangles

You can refer to your GP on first name terms when you phone to make an appointment or turn up at the reception ....... it still seems a bit wrong.

Originally Posted by Bo-Jangles

You can refer to your GP on first name terms when you phone to make an appointment or turn up at the reception ....... it still seems a bit wrong.

Originally Posted by moonie2011

........ ' Hi I'm the doctor, Sean' err 'Hello Sean' I said

Originally Posted by Bo-Jangles

Shocker of the week for me was in trying to make an appointment for a 'routine' screening of the lady kind and being told I first needed to see the Doctor first to get permission; $46 kerching ta very much ma'am. Two days later the test is done; another $33 kerching.