Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Random stuff


I haven't eaten meat in a while, do we advertise rump steak as rump steak? Is it sold as the hind quarter in the States?

In NZ, they don't have the letter Zee. They have the letter Zed. So if you wanted to direct someone to my most frequently used website here, www.doc.govt.nz, you'd tell them to visit Double you double you double you DOT doc DOT guv tee DOT en zed. I'm not sure if that phonetic spelling works, but focus on the zed. When I first heard, I couldn't figure it out. Do they do the same in England and Australia?


Kaikoura beach and mountain range.

I will never drive like a Kiwi. I just don't have the courage to whip around blind corners with such enthusiasm. Even the bus drivers go faster than I do. While on the way up to Ohakune, I realized that we had a guard rail. That was odd because I hadn't seen many before that. Certainly, the drop off warranted it in the States, but there were plenty of unguarded drop offs. Why this one? It just about then that I realized the guard rail had no chance of stopping a car, let alone a bus. It was made from thin wire and wooden posts. The only thing that rail was meant to do was to keep the sheep from wandering into the road. A couple minutes down the road, I saw a car crumpled up in the bottom of a ravine.


Ohakune maybe seeing a new trend in an evening outing, steak and internet!

Walking doesn't make sense to me here (and I'm not trying to chew bubblegum). In the US, we drive on the right and tend to walk on the right. The one major exception I can think of is shopping malls - all bets are off. In New Zealand, they drive on the left so I figured I'd walk on the left. It doesn't always work. I doubt that it even works half the time (neither does walking on the right). I don't know if they don't have that loose rule or if there are just so many resident foreigners and tourists walking the streets that there is no one way to walk. No matter the reason, I'm probably part of the problem.


The world's largest carrot statue at 30 feet resides in Ohakune (The actual world's largest carrot weighed 19 lbs.).

4 comments:

  1. My mother says ZED! I think she studied the Queen's English in Vietnam and that's how they pronounce Z. It's amusing to hear you mention it as "odd" in a way. I thought the same thing growing up...

    Aren't you the ultimate Jeopardy Clue Team Member!?! LOL I love all these fun facts you're providing...it's refreshing to be reminded of how different the world is from the US.

    Random thought: the last sentence reminded me of this Demotivator quote -- "If you aren't part of the solution, there's a lot of money to be made in prolonging the problem."

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  2. Not sure about rump *steaks*, but rump roast is a thing advertised as such here as well.

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  3. Don't you google? Luckily, you have me...

    Rump Steak= Round Steak, from the hind quarter (I think- the back-end at least), and it usually isn't roasted as it dries out quickly.

    Yes, all those who speak the Queen's English (and the French, and probably more) say zed.

    According to Queenstown Dana, Kiwis drive on the left and walk on the right.

    I miss you, so I'm stalking your blog. Glad to hear you're having fun, the photos from the hike are breathtaking. You all are smiling like it was a good time-- Yay!

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  4. Maria and Katie, thanks a ton for setting me straight!

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