Easter, Kawhia, and a list

Above (click to enlarge pics) Winston opens his Easter gifts and, later, digs on Ocean Beach at Kawhia.

We waited until this morning to give Winston his Easter gift from his Nanny and Granddad in England. It was a toy recycling truck and containers and, man, was it a hit! Thanks so much, Nanny and Granddad!

Later we drove to the west-coast ocean town Kawhia, where Winnie dug in the black sand for an hour. The drive to Kawhia was much, much more full of severe bends and dips than we had imagined although, on the way back, turning off to Pirongia seems to make the drive a bit milder. Anyway, a lovely day for the journey and it's a magnificent part of the coast. On the way home we chatted with Winston about what Easter is and why it is celebrated. You have to take quite a bit of care to explain the concepts in an okay way. He's three but he listens and asks questions, as you might expect. Fantastic.

For a bit of an Easter laugh, and as we have been in NZ for pretty much exactly nine months, we thought we would jot down a few of the differences and NZ idiosyncrasies we have noticed since we arrived. Anyone who wants to drop us a Comment with more very welcome... maybe we'll post in a few days' time with any additions. Here goes:

We dry our clothes outside, on rotary and straight-across drying lines. We have no drying machine. We usually start with the rotary line, dashing out and switching the clothes to the straight lines under the carport if rain threatens. We have a good old familiar 'Gentle Annie' washing machine made by NZ favorite Fisher & Paykel.

Our only loo -- as in almost all the Kiwi homes we have seen -- is in its own little room just off the laundry room. Talking of toilets very many Kiwi loos have two flush buttons: the one on the left is for shorter flushes, the one on the right for longer flushes.

We have stopped buying juices for Winston because he now has a drink made from lemons from our tree (boy, aren't we proud of that tree?!)

We have no central heating but our wood stove heats the cottage nicely after 20 minutes or so.

Our light switches get flipped down for 'On', and up for 'Off'... opposite to what we were used to in the USA.

DVD players here are powered by votive candles. (Sorry, this one's not true.)

We buy officially stamped garbage (rubbish) bags for NZ$1-2 each, at the local supermarket. This is how garbage collection is funded around here. If you put out an unofficial bag, they won't collect it.

Underneath the slot for letters in NZ mailboxes is a bigger space. We think this is where the milk used to be put to give it a bit of shelter from the sun.

Some public libraries charge a small upfront fee for each book borrowed. But this does not seem ever(?) to apply to children's books, and even among adult books some libraries charge only for, e.g., very new fiction. Videos, CDs and DVDs, though, almost always attract a fee, up to about NZ$5 per item. But I'm sure this is just to make these items available: it's necessity given the library's funds, not opportunism.

It really is true that some houses, some days, can seem a lot colder inside than outside. This isn't just a wry joke: it exists. Our new cottage is carpeted in the bedrooms and living room and is insulated quite well, so we think it probably will not happen here. But other places we have lived in (including an Auckland house) could sometimes feel very cold first thing. Getting outside was quite a pleasant surprise. Put on an extra t-shirt at bedtime, or have the heater no more than a sleepy arm's reach away for the morning!

Vera was looking through a clothes-store flyer this afternoon. It was advertising its late-Autumn goods. She laughed at one panel that showed "Winter School Shorts"! Hmm... are those akin to a summertime parka?! Nice oxymoron. Anyway, Kiwi children do wear school uniforms and, yes, shorts are often worn by boys even at draughty times of year.