6 Immediately Obvious Ways NZ differs from the UK

After one month in Norman the Camper Van, there were some overwhelming differences between the UK and NZ, so I wrote them down.

Fancy single storey stuff

1. Kiwi's dislike upstairs living.

Kiwi’s seem to overwhelmingly choose to build their houses as a single storey. Whether that’s because they have 100% more land to spread out on than their friends in the UK, or they just don’t like stairs, is yet to be confirmed.

No photos of roadkill so enjoy these cute ducks

2. Roadkill is everywhere.

Possum makes up most of the roadkill. Most Kiwi’s rejoice over this as Possum were introduced to NZ in the 1850’s and became an agricultural and conservation pest. They are a vector of TB and compete with native animals for food, as well as eating their eggs. Unfortunately a lot of Harrier Hawk also get killed on the roads whilst eating the roadkill. Another reason why Kiwi’s hate possum.

Norman did his best

3. Overtaking is an art form.

I have named the procedure of allowing someone to overtake as Signal, Slide and Slow. Signal left, Slide left and Slow down so the car can go past your inconvenient camper van. You also have to do this soon enough after they approach your backside but not too soon as that they’re not ready to avoid an annoyed honk.

Clearly a tourist....

4. Strangers are really nice.

London probably skewed my perception, but everyone here says G’day as if we had just met on a quiet Devon lane both walking our yappy Jack Russells. This is despite clearly being tourists clogging Kiwi roads with a camper van. Our rental company (PiwiWiwi) offered to look at a car for us, and when we eventually bought one, were trusted to test drive it for 20minutes - no questions asked. I remember having to test ride my roadbike in London in a 4m x 4m fenced grass garden.

Contemplating what the Kiwi person just said...

5. An E is an I.

When you talk, it doesn’t matter that it’s actually spelt with an E, you have to say it as an I. Yis. Bid. Tist. Whin. Pipper. You git it.

Excitement for cheap red pepper

6. Red Peppers are like Gold.

I always resented paying 70p for my red pepper in the UK, but here, either they’re really rare or have some sacred Maori meaning, as we shelled out 3.99NZ$ (£2) for a very underwhelming red capsicum. It seems, if you shop around, one of the 3 main stores will have an offer, but sadly red peppers did not meet budget requirements for the camper van meals.