First Two Weeks in New Zealand

We have been in Palmerston North, New Zealand for two weeks, and it is about time, or maybe past time, to write of some of our experiences.

The flights were better than expected and we quickly recovered from jet lag. While we were traveling, New Zealand went to daylight savings time, so we are now eighteen hours ahead of Austin and nineteen hours ahead of Marquette. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are ambiguous words.

Driving on the other side of the road is not as hard as I thought it would be, and we no longer turn on the windshield wipers when we need a blinker. There is, however, one driving rule unique to New Zealand, which I will explain in US driving. Suppose you are driving and want to turn right onto a street, and the car coming toward you wants to turn left onto the same street--the other car has the right of way! You must stop and let that car make the turn first-quite frightening and makes no logical sense to us. The law will be changed but not while we are here.

I might call Palmerston North the city of fences. Almost all houses have privacy fences on both sides and back, and some type of fence in the front yard. Most are low fences, but quite a few are privacy fences in the front yard as well. I guess I won’t get to know my neighbors!

As we had heard, people here are extremely pleasant. In getting settled I have been to many stores, businesses, and government offices, and without exception everyone has been cheerful, helpful, and efficient. I remember experiencing some of those pleasantries when we moved to Texas, but they seem to be disappearing.

A few quick observations:

I finally found a “normal” broom; everyone uses push brooms, even in the kitchen.

All of the stores(other than grocery stores) close at 5:00 or 5:30 except on Thursday night and most are not open on Sunday.

Most people do not use a clothes dryer, if they even have one, and hang out their clothes. A challenge with all the rain. Our dryer is in the garage-not so convenient when it is raining.

Many house do not have central heat, but heat with wood stoves and space heaters. There are those who seldom turn on the heat. We have central heat and turn it on! It has been cold here.

Pumpkin is used a lot. We had some pumpkin lasagna which was very good.

Lots and lots of sheep...

We saw two people walking along a road, one with a dog, and the other had a lamb. This was in the city limits, and not far from a residential area.

We are having a good adventure!