Kiwi Quirks

One might think that because they speak English in New Zealand it wouldn't much different than living in Utah. Generally this is true, but every once and awhile I come across these quirky differences that keep life very interesting...

For example, in New Zealand they are willing to go to any length to please their customers. Can't decide which kind of cookie you want? No problem we'll just weld them all together so you can have some of everything! 

Although maybe I was being too stereotypical. It appears that the clothes stores haven't quite caught on to the pleasing their customers idea. $130 for a pair of jeans?! And these aren't those fancy kind they dress up the way-too-buff creepy-faceless dummies with, this is just a regular pair of jeans off the shelf!

Of course then there are "heaps" of funny words that I'm not very "keen" on yet. Haven't any of you ever wondered what the official word is for those escalators they have in airports that just go flat, not up or down? Ya, me too! Well now I know. They're called "travelators".

Well this is all "great fun", but at times New Zealand's quirks become quite a nuisance...

Who ever heard of putting the toilet in an entirely separate room from the sink and shower! I'm not even kidding! 

Oh, and all their toilets have two flush buttons... still not exactly sure why, and I'm not sure I want to find out :)

However, by far the worst mistake that was made in conception of New Zealand restrooms is their showers....

Let me explain. First off they seem to be very confused about the comfortable temperature for a shower. The shower is labeled, Cold - Warm - Hot. So of course I assumed I'd want somewhere in between Warm and Hot. NO! I could have boiled my breakfast with that water! I ended up getting the temperature right somewhere between Cold and Warm.

Secondly, who has ever heard of a shower a foot off the ground?... very weird. But worst of all is the height of the shower head. Now I can understand that I'm a little taller than average, but this much worse than that. I kid you not when I say that I kneel down to get my hair wet! Standing straight up the water hits just a little over my belly button.

Well, as you can see, just because we speak the same language doesn't mean everything about our countries are the same. These were a few of my favorite of many Kiwi quirks :)