The Same but Different

It is so interesting being here in New Zealand where so much looks the same as it does in Canada, but is so very different. Unlike our experiences in India where frankly everything looked so very different, we were always surprised when we found similarities.

Looks pretty similar...

What is different?

Traffic patterns! Yes I knew that people here drive on the “other side of the road” (not the wrong side….) and I know that Indians drive on the “other side too”, so I should not have been so discombobulated with trying to learn to drive on the left side of the road. But we never drove in India, so this is really my first experience with it. And it was weird. Where do you look when you pull out onto a busy street? Right …? Left… ? yikes.! Also, I had not been in a car virtually for 3 months prior to arriving here, so driving itself was just plain different – and was a bit weird! Now I am used to it, but in the beginning it was strange.

Hot and cold water taps. Don’t know why but they are reversed here. You can wait along time for the water to warm up if you turn on the left faucet.

North versus South – The best garden or house exposure is a north facing slope…Makes sense when you think about it because we are in the southern hemisphere, however, it is so non intuitive that it really threw us for a loop, especially to start. Initially when looking for a place to stay, we automatically dismissed anything that advertised a north facing deck for example. Duh… that is what we should have been looking for! In the forest on a hike, I can’t just subconsciously look up to see where the sun is and then orient myself. I have to consciously look at the sun, and then calculate which way is east or west by a conscious thought process. Getting better now, but it was really a mind warp to begin with.

Grass  & Weeds– Somehow here the grass is green and healthy looking, but it barely grows. We have been here for a month now, and the grass has only grown about 1-2 inches. And in our very small vegetable garden, the weeds were so incredibly whimpy! That section of land had not been dug up probably for several years, and yet when I dug it up, it was really easy – no deep roots, no roots that clung to the soil… Dealing with the insects is a challenge, but the weeds are whimps!

Language - Yes I know people here speak excellent English – the difference is the accent. People typically try to hold back a growing grin when they hear me speak. “You’re not from here are you?” they ask. But to my ears it sounds like “Yau nut frum heah, ah yu? And often I don’t really fully understand what people are  trying to tell me! Vowels are all different, and you never pronounce an “r in the middle of a  word,  A long A sounds like a long I, so mate sounds like mite. A short E becomes a  short I, so wet becomes wit.  And a short I becomes a short U, so fish becomes fush.  Lots of “plices” serve “fush and chups ”! Add to that the fact “wh” sounds like an “f”, and one can get pretty confused. And lastly of course, there are numerous  expressions we need to learn. “Put your togs in the boot!” means “Put your bathing suit in the trunk of the car.”  Or  “ I am totally nacked” evidently means “I ‘m really tired…”. All in all the language is different!

Friendly people – Everyone here is totally friendly and very safety conscious,  (not that different from Canada) but put them behind the wheel of a car, and they forget all sanity. The posted speed limit is 100 km/hr on small winding roads. Imagine the bottom of Deep Hollow Road with a speed limit of 100.  Hmmm.

Looks pretty different...

Animals and Vegetation – Wow. From a distance the forests look like forests, but up close they are full of giant tree ferns, palm trees, incredible vines and other trees which only grow here. The bush” here is absolutely amazing. New Zealand has no indigenous mammals, so no bear, coyote, cougar , no dangerous animals in the wild. No poisonous snakes either. So no problem camping or tramping in the bush.  They do however have possums, rats, ferrets and some weasels all of whom  don’t belong here, and are doing terrible damage to the ecosystem. The possum were imported for trapping for fur, in the early 1900’s but with no natural predators they run unchecked, and are deadly to some species of trees, and birds.  The ferrets and weasels were imported in misguided attempts to control rabbits (which also were imported for fur). Unfortunately flightless birds are a lot easier targets for ferrets and weasels, so the indigenous species suffer. And rats, well they just came uninvited on ships, with devastating effects to unsuspecting birds. It is hard to wrap my mind around possible solutions to the problems these non native species cause. One solution – which is really different for me – is widescale poisoning. Current government policy is just that, and it is widely supported by conservation groups, environmental groups, the scientific community, and the general public. I need to understand the ins and outs better, but for now all I know is that it is just very different!

Yipes!

So it is a different world for us, even though on the surface one expects it to be so similar to our world in Nova Scotia. Having said that, it is an incredible experience here in New Zealand, and truly New Zealanders are among the friendliest, least pretentious and most accommodating folks I have ever met. And the mountains, and plants and animals are incredibly fascinating. It is like living in the Lord of the Rings, when we are hiking in the bush. And that is remarkable!

So all is well with us. Hope all is well with you.