November 27 – December 5, 2012
Back when we were getting ready to leave from Big Mama’s in Tonga, I had started reading a book called “Culture Shock New Zealand.” Culture Shock books are a series of insightful guides to understanding and adapting to various cultures around the world, and I’d been reading up on New Zealand. We had just gotten to know Danny and Mo, a Kiwi couple on the boat Sam, and I had asked them about a couple of things I’d read.
When we all left for New Zealand, our radio net was so small and informal that Danny suggested I could make it more interesting by doing a Kiwi Tip of the Day. I’d had the same idea! I would find find some interesting tidbit of information in my book, have Rich relay it over the net (he does the radio nets), and Danny and Mo would then confirm or deny the information.
As it happened, we ended up doing a Kiwi Tip of the day twice a day, for both radio net times. I hadn’t intended to do this many and was often anxiously reading to come up with something interesting and worthwhile. Sometimes the things I came up with seemed like a bit of a stretch. After all, is it really worth noting that a culture likes to go barefoot in the summer? As it turned out, yes, it was noteworthy! I haven’t seen more bare feet anywhere than I have in New Zealand! Kiwis will go barefoot to work, to restaurants, across gravel parking lots and gas stations, etc. It’s impressive! (And if you ever visit someone’s home in New Zealand, be prepared to take your shoes off when you enter.) In the end, Danny and Mo confirmed every tip I managed to come up with. Rich and I lost radio contact with the group as we got closer to New Zealand as there was so much interference, but we had learned a lot about New Zealand along the way.
Here are some more of our Kiwi Tips of the Day (and after spending time here; we’ve found them all to be so true!).
1. Kiwis (New Zealanders) have a strong sense of fairness, thinking everyone deserves a chance to prove and improve themselves. They root for the underdog. (Also, you will probably never see a Kiwi cut in line.)
2. Kiwis are not impressed by status symbols. I’m sure there are exceptions, but for the most part there’s no point in carrying around status luggage, wearing a designer watch, or driving a fancy car to try to win respect. They just aren’t into that class/status/wealth thing at all. The best way to impress a Kiwi: be great at a sport, or fishing, or sailing, etc.
3. There is something here called The Number-8-Wire Mentality. Number-8 wire can be used to fix everything; sort of the New Zealand version of America’s Duct tape. The Number-8-Wire Mentality refers to the strong Kiwi tendency to “do it yourself,” and be self-sufficient and able to work with whatever you have on hand. (Apparently this mentality has caused a lot of disastrous home remodels).
4. There is something called The OE, which is short for Overseas Experience. Young people in New Zealand are strongly encouraged to take off after graduation and travel to other places in the world, perhaps even live there for awhile and experience the culture. Kiwis strongly value travel and for young people to expand their horizons through experiencing foreign places.
5. With the exception of one or two seldom-seen spiders, there are no dangerous critters in New Zealand. I wouldn’t say this in itself is all that noteworthy. What is noteworthy is the response of these strong, resilient and independent people to the idea of deadly creatures. So often when we tell a local that we plan to go to Australia, the first thing we hear is, “Everything will kill you there!!!” To the average Kiwi, Australia is one big ongoing episode of When Animals Attack! Rich and I grew up in California and have hiked in areas where people have been mauled or killed by mountain lions or bears and have swum in waters frequented by white sharks. As children we played in fields harboring rattlesnakes, and moving lawn or home furniture that hasn’t been moved in awhile generally includes squashing the Black Widow Spiders who’ve homesteaded there. (And of course there are the serial killer sprees that happen every so often in California; human predators are the scariest of them all!). I guess we’re just used to being around deadly creatures. New Zealanders aren’t and find the idea rather horrifying. (Note: Sadly, there was a deadly great white attack recently off the western shore of New Zealand. They are not immune to sharks.)
6. If you get invited to a Kiwi summer evening barbecue, use insect repellent. Alas, they do have these black flies that tend to bite like mosquitoes: you don’t feel it; you only know by the itchy bump the next day.
7. The All Blacks are the winningest Rugby team in the world. Kiwis Danny and Mo readily agreed with this. Tom, a Brit on another boat, was highly doubtful. I never confirmed this either way. I’m sure if you asked anyone who has the best rugby players in the world, Kiwis would say New Zealand!, Brits would say Great Britain!, Aussies would say Australia!, South Africans would say South Africa!, and Americans would say, “What’s Rugby?” I do know that the All Blacks are very important here as Rugby is the most popular sport, and the players are national heroes. If you want to fit in here in New Zealand, you’d better be an All Blacks fan. If you’re from Australia and visiting New Zealand, keep your mouth shut about rugby until you get back home.
I think that about covers it, but if I could have added one more, I would say that New Zealand is a dog-loving country. It seems as though everyone has at least one dog! Having a dog is just, well, something you do. They are very well cared for, like part of the family, and I can’t imagine ever seeing a stray dog here—I’m not sure they even exist. They especially seem to love terriers (and Jack Russells in particular). (They have cats, too, but you don’t see them everywhere like you do dogs.) -Cyndi
