Aotearoa "the land of the long white cloud" (Maori for New Zealand, pronounced “how tay ah row ah”)

So there are a LOT of rainbows everyday in New Zealand, and I still get excited and shout and point at one every time I see one (multiple times a day)! Below are some pictures of a typical sunset from our backyard (talk about movin on up after spending almost 3 years in a studio apartment in NYC).

There’s a particularly beautiful side street down the block from where we live named Minnehaha, and they literally built the road around the trees. I haven’t seen this often so perhaps these are special trees of some kind with preservation rights. See below please. I LOVE it!

The car is just parked in front of the tree!

A small, funny difference is that most mailboxes here have a tube for magazines. It’s these little things that I enjoy picking up on.

I decided to take the back way into our apartment the other day, and had my camera with me so here’s the journey. I walked down Winnehaha, and saw Rangitoto Island so I knew I was heading in the right direction.

Then I walked down these stairs and the path . . . 

until I came to the lava rocks below.

That’s where our apartment is! Not a bad alternative route as long as the tide is low.

The cracks and crevices in the lava rocks create little waterfalls and streams throughout the beach area which I love to explore.

This picture is for my uncles (all three of them) and my dad-this fisherman could be you, and only steps from your guest bedroom! Apparently you can catch great snapper right here.

Continuing my back entrance to the apartment. I walked through the small beach area. . .

Here's our back gate, though with the sun it was tough to get a good shot. The huge stone chair is known as the Giant’s Chair, and it’s a great marker when telling people where we live.

I remembered a few more differences when coming from the states to NZ.

They call breakfast brekkie, and I mean not just like casually saying, “Oh I had a great pie for brekkie,” (They eat a lot of pies here, and I don’t mean apple pies or pecan pies. Like meat pies-beef, chicken, sausage, anything pies.) They use the term “brekkie” on commercials and packaging all over the place.

Another thing that will really get all the coffee drinkers out there is that they don’t have brewed drip coffee anywhere-not even the Starbucks! Thankfully I’m not much of a coffee drinker, but I’ve learned the following about ordering here:

There is no skim milk here, it’s called slim milk (so you have to say, “I’ll have a slimmy vanilla latte please, which just makes me giggle).

If you want a café au lait/latte order a flat white.

If you want an Americano, order a long black.

This brings me to a whole other discussion-the names of the teams in NZ. Ok, the rugby (aka football here) team is called the All Blacks. The soccer team is called the All Whites, and the basketball team is the Tall Blacks. Perhaps it’s the over politically correct American in me, but I still raise an eyebrow when I hear people talking about these teams. I mean I grew up in a country where some grade schools had to change their mascots from the "Redskins" because it was offensive. Brian and I both concur, there is no such thing as being politically correct here. Which in some ways is good. People just say what a lot of Americans are thinking but only say in certain company. 

Moving onward, they say fit instead of in shape. So when people see how many stairs there are to and from our apartment (which I'll have to post a picture of at some point) they say, “Great way to get fit!” As Brian and I have sampled several different gyms, the one universal difference is that they do not have towels. You must bring your own for your sweat, wiping the machines, and if you shower there. This is a major change for both of us, but thankfully those ever-ready Kiwis have a system in place should you get in the shower and realize afterwards that you forgot a towel. They will kindly bring you one for a small fee :c).

One other thing is that all of the electrical outlets have switches to turn them on and off. I think this is due to the fact that electricity is far more expensive here, and Kiwis seem more green in general. Below is a picture, and I will say there have been a few times either Brian or I thought the microwave or stove was broken only to remember to flip the electrical switch.

A few of examples of how the Kiwis just seem to be more earth-friendly and aware in general are that everyone has dryers, but no one uses them. They all have clothes lines outside, and hang everything out on the line. Learning from the "natives" I too have been hanging our wash on the line, but it never dries! First off, it randomly rains for anywhere from 1 - 15 minutes at various intervals everyday, and it's too cold. In time I suppose I'll learn the secret to drying clothes without the dryer. For now, I eventually put the clothes in the dryer after hanging them outside, bringing them in when it seems as though it might rain, repeating that bit again about 3-4 times, and then leaving the clothes hanging on a rack inside our apartment for a day or two (it's too cold in our apartment for anything to dry). Thankfully I'm able to appreciate the comedic value of my initiation into the life and ways of New Zealand.
Thank you to those who solved the Zed mystery. It seems that Zed is how the English say Zs, in reference to the Greek Zeta, and Americans had to go and say it all differently. 

I need to get ready for our first outing with new Kiwi friends, so I’ll leave you with the funniest thing I’ve heard since I got here. It will not be nearly as funny, and perhaps not funny at all, in writing, so you’ll just have to trust me on this, or come visit and I’ll have someone say it. I heard a Kiwi teenager turn to her friend and say, in her best American accent, which I imagine is about as good as my Kiwi accent (read dreadful), “Oh no you didn’t!” Hilarious!
Cheers and hope everyone's doing well!