Funny Things we noticed in New Zealand

The following are a few of the funny oddities that we found about New Zealand

#1? Roadside Coffee Kiosk’s that pop up anywhere. This includes at the various private Holiday Camping Parks.
#2? Sheep on the North Island are generally used for food and Sheep on the South Island are used for Merino Wool clothing.
#3? Freedom Camping is very structured and you can’t just pull off and park on the side of the road. It must be an approved site with only so many spots. Fines can be quite heavy if the rules are not followed.
#4. Holiday Park Campsites have a fairly standard layout. This includes Women and Men standard showers and toilet facilities. Everyone we stayed at had an expansive kitchen and mygathering area. Plus shelves and cupboard for storing your dry goods if you are tenting or freestyle. Plus there is always an area where you can leave extra food and or spices, etc that you can give away at the end of your vacation. Plus every Park had Washer and Dryer facilities ; although the price and number of machines varied greatly. Also, all Holiday Parks had a kids playground area and many organized kid activity events and/or kid activity days. In additions most had a jumping pillow, disc golf, mini golf, BMX track, large chess games, etc etc

#5? Road Kill was 95% Possums, 4% Hedgehog and 1% Deer

#6? A lot of the clothing is now Merino and Possum; not just Merino Sheep Wool. They have displays in the stored to show and demonstrate the softness of Possum Merino.

#7? Meat Pies – You can get them almost anywhere and they are delicious. A few varieties we have has include; Steak and Mushroom, Steak and Cheese, Bacon and Egg, Steak and Kidney, Mince Pie, Quiche Lorraine, etc – they are perfect for lunch

#8. Road Signs! The New Zealand people have an amazing sense of humour. You will drive through 30 to 40 km of twisty turned roads with the speed limits posted from 25 km to 50 km. Then and all of a sudden you come around a corner and there is a straight road stretch of 200 metres and the sign posted is 100 km! This is immediately followed by twisty turning sections for the next 30 to 40 km.

#9? One Lane Bridge – “Right of Way”. The signs show an arrow in both directions of travel. If you have the “Right of Way” there is a large arrow on your side of the road sign. Conversely if the arrow is small you must give way to approaching traffic.

#10? 99.9% of the time there is no biking on the roads as the roads are too narrow and there is no defined bike route or paved area.

#11? Pedestrians do not have the right of way on any roads or side streets. The only time they are given leeway is when the crosswalk has 2 well defined orange markers on poles at the crosswalk.

#12? Security at the Airport is very tight. Absolutely every person must walk past a drug sniffing dog and a food inspection dog. Also you must declare and be prepared to answer questions about what you are bringing in to the Country and where you have been and where you are going.