Kiwis Everywhere

(this sounds like a good business plan. Anyway, according to what I heard, one of their drivers was caught completely drunk while driving. Risk of losing the license is therefore shifted, but not risk of losing a healthy bone structure…)

SINGAPORE VS. NEW ZEALAND

Hello everyone!

Unbelievable, but I am back in Middle Earth after almost 2.5 years…I was quite shaky when I set my foot back on New Zealand soil after such a long time again..
You want to know about the differences between Singapore and New Zealand? Ok, besides the fact that one basically enters another world in cultural and meteorological terms this is like comparing apples and oranges. Well, here are the most important points from my point of view ;-)

1) Starbucks Coffee sizes: Surprisingly, one has to order a ‘Venti’ not a ‘Grande’ to get the biggest size. Extremely disturbing.

(little Bach-concert in Verandahs-Backpackers in Auckland)

2) People: As soon as I left the shuttle bus in Auckland central (the biggest NZ city with about 1.2 million inhabitants in this 4 million people country), I felt that two essential things were different. First, the presence of people. I found myself looking over my shoulder several times when I stood virtually alone on pedestrian traffic lights. There’s hardly anyone here! I had to ask a waitress in a local (almost empty) bar, to realise that this is indeed normal on a late Monday afternoon in the cbd! No EXTREME QUEUING (THE National Sport in Singapore) anymore. Going from an overcrowded Asian city like Singapore to New Zealand therefore means to go from one extreme to another. In addition, I always expected to look in Asian faces. Being suddenly among mainly Caucasian and Maori and accepting to belong to the racial majority again took a few hours.

(I took the overlander on Tuesday from Auckland down to Palmerston North...including nice scenic views on the way. This pic is taken on a stop..)

3) Temperature: First time in 8 months (leaving aside the trip to Mt. Kinabalu) that there was constant need for long sleeve. AND, the unpleasant feeling of cold feet found its way back into my shoes. Great. I had only one cardigan with me, not even a pullover. No wonder that I felt like catching a cold for the whole first week here. The most positive thing though: Absolutely no need to sweat! T-Shirts can be worn for more than 1 day (Incredible! Absolutely revolutionises my washing rhythm!) and condensation now happens on the inside of building and car windows, not on the outside!

(One thing I do not understand: It is standard in New Zealand to have separated taps for hot and cold water, so it is virtually impossible to wash your hands with warm water..you either freeze or scald your hands. I must be too narrow-minded from my European point of view to understand this. Help?)

4) Asking for Chili Sauce in Burger King only returns a questioning look. Also, although there supposedly is Asian food available, this is more or less westernized like in Europe. Kiwis are best on their own food, like mince pies (yummy!)

More in the next post...

One last thing to clarify:

If you ask: ‘Wow…New Zealand, are there really many Kiwis there?’, you can answer self-confidently: ‘Heaps n heaps, there’re virtually EVERYWHERE!’ and go away. It’s one slight 'mistake' I made in my time here then and applies especially to Germans from my point of view. In our language ‘Kiwi’ mainly refers to the fruit, here in NZ it is a bit different:

- Kiwi fruit: the fruit of an East Asian climbing plant, with a thin hairy skin, green flesh, and black seeds.
- Kiwi bird: a flightless tailless New Zealand bird with hair-like feathers and a long downcurved bill.
- Kiwi: informal: a New Zealander (male / female)

You will definitely get a very questioning look when you ask a local how much a Kiwi is ..:-)

More later,

Maikinnz

(picture taken on the overlander train to Palmerston North)