New Zealand - Culture

New Zealand Culture

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Although I've always enjoyed an order of lobster, I've never been much of an expert about them. After our trip to New Zealand, I am even more confused since crayfish seems to be a popular alternative.

For some reason, lobster sounds much more palatable to me than something called crayfish. At right, examples of such creatures await their fate in a restaurant holding tank.

On two occasions, our APT coach rounded a corner and a herd of cows or flock of sheep suddenly appeared. Scenes of farmers herding large groups of livestock is a popular topic for New Zealand post cards.

I was disappointed that I did not get any good shots of animals being herded across or along roadways. It can be an awesome sight. The photographs here (above and below) have been "salvaged". The images only look presentable because their reduced size disguises blur and imperfections. They were all taken from inside the moving coach on a rainy day. If you look closely at the center of the image below, I have "patched" the image to remove the coach's windshield wiper.

In many of the cities and towns there might be one McDonald's such as the one advertised on the back of a Christchurch bus at left. Of the chains familiar to us, we most commonly found Subway sandwich shops, but we also found a fair number of KFCs, and Pizza Huts. We may have seen one or two Burger Kings.

We ate at a McDonald's in Auckland, Wellington (2 locations) and Christchurch as I recall. We found the Filet-O-Fish sandwiches to taste noticeably more fresh than when we have them in the United States.

We also found the McDonald's restaurants to be usually less crowded than we are accustomed. We felt that perhaps New Zealanders do not patronize fast food restaurants as often as we might in the United States.

In New Zealand, Drug Stores are Pharmacies. While may not sound odd for United States citizens, Pharmacists do not fill prescriptions, Chemists do. At right is LaHoods The Chemist located at 43 Main Street in Gore, New Zealand.


Although our stop in Gore was a short one, there were a number of cultural elements to notice there.

At above left is a "P Meter". My sometimes sophomoric sense of humor simply finds that an odd way to label a parking meter. Above right is a railroad sign that I just love. I may have purchased one at the right price had I seen one for sale. The symbol was frequently used to caution travelers of a railroad crossing.

Goodman Fielder, an Australian based food company, consolidated their New Zealand flour milling operations in 2000 and affectively closed the Gore plant shown above. According to a newstalk broadcast by Rod Donald MP, Green Party Co-Leader, 36 jobs at the mill and income for 50 farmers were directly affected.

Above, The Romney Statue in Gore commemorates the sheep industry in New Zealand.

A seemingly abandoned rowboat lies in a picturesque spot on a sea of green grass near the Moeraki Boulders.

The shot at left was taken as the APT coach passed a dam with high water on the left and dry land on the right. Also as dramatic are the mountains in the background and the flat land in the foreground.

New Zealand is a special place for touring. The Double Decker bus at right was an interesting contrast to the coach we enjoyed.

On our first day in New Zealand, we managed to stop in a Post Office and buy a number of self stick stamps for post cards. We asked for whatever denomination was used to send cards to the United States which happened to be $1.50 (shown left).

We enjoyed a little Kiwi humor when the postal clerk originally told us that they don't offer change for transactions in New Zealand.

Shown at right is on a rooftop of Mainland Outdoors; a Sports Enthusiasts retailer in Christchurch. Backpacking and mountain climbing are very popular recreations in New Zealand. Many of the towns in which we stayed offered Backpacker Inns for such travelers exchanging minimal shelter and facilities for a sub-budget price.

A New Zealand Fire Service team (above) responds to a call in Christchurch.

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