New Zealand - Culture

New Zealand Culture

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New Zealand culture can be appreciated in all of the pages of this Web site, but there are types of images that deserve a section of their own. I hope you enjoy the commentary as well as the images.


	There are no elevators in New Zealand buildings. Like Europeans, New Zealand refers to those devices as Lifts (above). They also do not count the Ground Floor as the First Floor (left). A building with 6 floors actually has 7 in New Zealand.

It was not a surprise that New Zealand electrical standards differ from those in the United States. At right is a typical 220 volt wall outlet (the U.S. standard is 110 volt).

What was interesting is that every wall outlet in every building throughout the country had its own dedicated power on/off switch. It seemed odd, because we never found appliances that did not have an on/off switch and if we were at the outlet's location, we could just as easily unplug a device rather than "switch" it off. We also found that rocking switches down was actually the "on" position of these switches while in the United States, we generally move the switch up to turn on power.

Many hotels, as nice as they were, did not offer individually air conditioned rooms. This was especially true once we reached the south island of New Zealand. At the Blenheim Country Hotel, we were provided oscillating fans such as the one shown at left. It is the first hotel I remember ever staying in, where a portable fan was provided as a form of air conditioning.

For what it's worth, it did the job and we were relatively comfortable.

We were very impressed that New Zealand is so connected to the Internet. In many of the hotels, Ethernet cables were provided in our rooms such as the one shown at right. Most businesses we encountered had an Internet home to shop or obtain additional information.

At left is a scan of the front and side of a cereal box provided by one of the hotels as part of their buffet breakfast. United States citizens know the name brand of Skippy Peanut Butter as a popular peanut butter (above) spread.

In New Zealand, Skippy is a corn flake manufactured by Sanitarium; a New Zealand health food company. In the United States, sanitarium and sanatorium

are nouns the referring to mental health facilities. Similar to asylum, they are all popular venues for dark cinema and literature.

This one (right) was unusual for us although some our European friends found it to be familiar. Vegemite is a bread spread popular with Australians and, evidently, New Zealanders.

(That's Lynn's hand in the background.)

New Zealanders clearly enjoy their drinking pleasures as much as any of us anywhere. Hotel rooms were commonly stocked well of travel size spirits (at an added cost of course) like those shown at left.

Lynn and I are not avid drinkers, but we did take a liking to Speights Gold Beer. We liked the taste and Speights ("Pride of the South") advertising offers consumers a hearty laugh with their trademark approach to humor. Thanks to Speights television and billboard ads we learned the expression "Good On You, Mate" and that a "ute" is a New Zealander's pickup truck.

Early in our trip we stopped for a "morning tea" at a rest stop across the Waikato River from the Huntly Power Station (right). It is the country's largest thermal power station generating 1000 Megawatts of electricity from coal and/or gas.

Huntly is located between Auckland and Hamilton. The Huntly Power Station is operated by Genesis Energy. That one power station can provide up to 20% of the country's electricity requirements.

At left is part of a complex network of thermal pipes connected to the power plant. I understand that the "humps" in the pipes are part of the design to allow the pipes to swell and contract.

I never had the chance to take a photograph, but at least one point, there was a hillside where someone carved the words "No Pylons" in a protest fashion. Pylons are the tall metal structures that help string power lines across the country. Apparently, the country is in the midst of a popular debate of how to get economical power to everyone without affecting the environment and landscape.

Visitors to New Zealand from the United States might find it interesting that their are no "restrooms" or "washrooms" in New Zealand that we could find. In fact, if you ask for one, merchants often have to pause and think about what is really being requested. Throughout New Zealand, the blunt term toilet seems to be accepted. The good news is that I observed that men appear to wash their hands more religiously in New Zealand toilets (that just doesn't sound right, sorry) than those I've seen using washrooms in the United States. We found that New Zealand toilets are well maintained and clean. APT also did a great job making regular stops along the way that included the ability to access clean toilets.

The Timber Industry is the second largest industry in New Zealand; just after agriculture. Radiata Pine is the most popular type of timber harvested. At left, stockpiles of timber await processing.

Forms of timber export include raw timber, pulp and chips, paper, building boards, plywood, veneers, and oils. Australia and Japan are the largest customers of timber related exports from New Zealand. At right, a rig hauls a new load of timber.

I didn't realize it when I squeezed off the photograph of the Cookie Time DC-3 in Mangaweka at left, but it's more than just a billboard. The plane has actually been converted to a café.

Click for more photographs of the café.

Many of the bridges we crossed along the way were a narrow one lane design (above) and used by traffic going in both directions. One bridge was designed with railroad tracks on one level and the single lane roadway beneath it. While stopped at one bridge awaiting our turn, the driver of a newspaper truck popped out and gave our driver one of the copies off his truck. We thought of it as another great example of Kiwi hospitality.

The image above might remind someone of the Pacific Coast Highway in California instead of the Pacific Coast Highway in New Zealand except for one small detail. The car is on their left side of the road.

Hold down your left mouse button while pointing to see the way PCH might look with traffic on the right side of the road.

I was lucky to grab a shot of a enormous hen sculpted from a lush tree as our coach passed by. A rock near the base of the tree looks like a freshly laid egg. The photo at left has been retouched to restore the original impact of the image.

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