Bellasmum

I think you may be jumping to big assumptions there Bo.

Which Kiwi said anything was worse elsewhere ? Which one was been mean or horrid ?

My post for starters was an observation which is what I thought the thread was about.

The actual tone of my post was suprise at the kinds of "weird" things people notice when they come to live here.

Perhaps one thing some of you haven't noticed is that a very large % of people living in NZ were not born in NZ.

sr71

There is no judgement at all, but if a topic is about weird things in NZ then it should be about that. There are plenty of odd things in NZ but a large number already mentioned are just not weird or exclusive to NZ at all.

irnbru14

Would you like to be creative yourself and add a few of your "genuine officially 100% New Zealand weirdness" or just grump at us mere mortals bringing up some stuff we may (and possibly erroneously, of which I can only appologise for not hitting your high standards) find as amusing, weird, strange or just made us chuckle a little bit when we compared it to what we have been used to in other countries, in what was a lighthearted thread on what is afterall an ex-pats website

lapsed kiwi

How about - Americans call chips "fries" and crisps "chips"
Brits, of course, get it right
But Kiwis call them all "chips", so you don't know what they mean. Until they clarify by saying "hot chips" (what if they've got cold?) or "chippies" (which sounds like you're three years old)

mickey_d

As in the UK

irnbru14

You mean chups?

Bo-Jangles

Slight difference being, it is possible to live in the UK for 40 years and not know this. Come to NZ and you find out within a matter of a few weeks, when they slap a nice $250 fine on your windscreen - as a recent new arrival at my office experienced only last week.

Another oddity, might just be an Auckland thing is 'Chalkman' AKA Parking Wardens. They have a very hi-tech gizmo to catch illegally parked cars (a big stick with chalk on the end) they mark your tires, so they know how long your car has been parked. Hence, you only usually get parking fines on sunny days, they don't bother if it's raining. They don't seem to notice if you visit your car every two hours and rub the ever more vigorous chalk marks off. It starts with one line, two lines, a cross and amazingly I have even seen a circle, if the warden is feeling very artistic.

southerner

Actually, the more I think about it, there's probably more weird stuff in NZ than any other westernised country.

Am Loolah

Excellent example - well done for thinking of that one!

And what about bread being sold as "Toast" or "Sandwich" ?

janek

I had to to do it to pass my test, that was in 1976, but I think it was called reverse parking then, it sure did help me when I went to live in London, where I found reverse parking to be the norm. I have to do it very rarely now. Which is nice.

BEVS

Give it a break guys. No reaction is the best reaction to defensive reaction.

Never mind all the other stuff. What about.....

irnbru14

No the chalk people are here in Welly too, I always hope its some long lost decendant of some Pictish rune carver, but no its some Maori bloke with a bit of chalk who works for the council anti car (parking) contractor

Bo-Jangles

Sometimes they do wee sneaky ones right under the wheel arch, so you have to check really carefully.

Kija

Keep them coming folks! Interesting thread, I'm learning more and more on this site everyday!

lardyl

People selling "garage" carpet.......to ...erm.... carpet your garage, which people do and in my experience can cause fires.....

"Lay-bys" being in the shops not on the highway......

No TV ads on a Sunday morning so we can all go to Church but when we listen to the radio later there are ads for "gentlemen's clubs", and lawyers who will get you off your drink driving ban......only to be followed by an advert on TV telling you that "you're a bloody idiot if you drink and drive"......mixed messages.

The daily race from the traffic lights...."no you can't get in front of me no matter what you do!!".....seems universal and rather dumb, but not exclusive to NZ, although there seem to be more traffic lights with multiple lanes where the lanes merge back quickly afterwards - hence jockeying for position.

Spend millions of $$$s getting the northern motorway extension done only for it to seem half-arsed cause no-one thought carefully about how to collect the toll. Hence, a 5 minute journey saving is wiped out (for some) by waiting 10 minutes next to the booth to make the payment.....doh, just widen the road midway along and put in toll booths. It works everywhere else in the world I've been to.

Fake belitia beacons - I know it's been mentioned but when I first arrived I thought, what are they for? As others have said, why bother if you don't light them up? Again though I vaguely recall seeing similar in Africa somewhere......