Daily Observations Continued....

I noticed soon after arriving that there was a general “something different” about the houses here but could not immediately define what it was. It hit me one day as I was walking through town and I realized what a couple of the notable differences were. First is that most houses here have nearly flat roofs. It is not something you will find in all of New Zealand, but is noticeable in most of the Northern Island (with the exception of places in the mountains or close to them where it actually gets cold). Since there is no snow, there is much less need for the peaked roofs that is so common to much of the Midwest and other part of the US where you need to keep snow from causing your roof to cave in halfway through winter. When I mentioned this difference to a local, they seemed a bit amused at the idea of a steep peaked roof. I suppose “normal” is relative. In addition to having mostly-flat roofs on their houses, nearly every house in town has a fenced yard. I do not feel that a fenced backyard is that uncommon in the states, especially if you have pets or a garden, but I found it interesting to note that front yards here are also fenced. I have been told by locals that it is for privacy, which is quite logical I suppose. I have also been told by locals who have visited the states that they find it odd Americans do not fence their yards, as they cannot imagine why you would not want to. Once again, “normal” is relative I think J

I feel that many of us have pre-conceptions about other countries (my travel experiences have provided me with some amusing pre-conceptions about America), and there also seem to be certain myths or stereotypes that are somewhat generally accepted about other countries or cultures. As I was preparing my first journey over here, one thing that I kept hearing was that the toilets here flush the other direction. The most common explanation was that gravity must work backwards in this hemisphere so therefore the water goes around the bowl backwards to what you see in America. Well, I can now tell you that this is one myth that turns out to be true. Let me clarify that I am not scientific enough to discuss whether gravity functions differently here, but I can confirm (I have even consulted with Kiwis who have travelled around the world and they agree) that toilets flush one direction in the US and the other direction in NZ.

Moving to the topic of communication, prepaid cell phone plans are much more common here than in the US. The major phone companies of 2 Degrees, Spark, and Vodafone do offer contract plans the same as you might find with AT&T or Sprint in the US, but they are not the only options. From what I can tell, those plans are most common if you have purchased a phone with the company. If you already have a phone, or are not under a contract, a prepaid option is available where you simply top up each month. The benefit to this sort of arrangement is you are free to change your plan anytime you like, or add something (such as options for usage in Australia for a month if you are traveling) for short or long term. The interesting thing about most plans is how few minutes of call time you get, but part of that is due to the fact that you are only charged minutes if you make a call; there is no charge for incoming calls to your phone. The plan I am on (yep, it’s prepaid) only has 60 minutes of calling per month but any unused minutes roll over each month if I continue with the same plan (I think I was up to 1200 minutes last time I checked…). Free mobile to mobile calling is only just recently becoming popular here. Last year 2 Degrees introduced “favorites” where you got free calling to your 5 most used numbers (T-Mobile a few years ago anyone?). This year they have introduced free calling to any 2 Degrees number. As someone coming from the US who is used to such conveniences, it was a bit amusing to watch the reaction socially as advertising came out for the changes.  

Hope you had a wonderful and relaxing weekend and are staying warm. Check back soon for details of my weekend spent enjoying the warm weather before it disappears under rain clouds.