Don’s keen observations, part deux

Ok, few more items that I’ve observed over the last week or so.

Sheep – there seem to be a large number of sheep here. I think someone may have mentioned this before we left. When I ask the locals about it I just get an odd look. I’ll keep researching this. Seems there are about 30 different types but they all look the same to me.

Item size – I’ve noticed most things are smaller here. everything from vans to refrigerators to bags of potato chips. Not sure why this is but as I recall this is the same as Europe. I just keep telling people, “well, in the States we have adult sized items. Everything here seems to be built for Hobbits.” Suffice to say that joke doesn’t go over well at all but I laugh every time.

Towns – I’ve noticed that most towns here aren’t really towns but simply a café and a house or two. We’ve driven through so many towns that are nothing more than this so I think if you have a café on the side of the road, the government must require you give it a name and throw it on a map.

News – seems to be the same but less emphasis on the US and more on New Zealand and the newscasters talk with an accent. World is still pretty much messed up in the news here too. Weather report is almost the same – they report but really it’s 50/50 if they get the report right. They use ‘fair’as a weather term, still not sure if this means sunny or partly cloudy or cloudy. Think it is used to cover all basis that don’t include rain.

Driving – everyone wants to drive on the left side of the road here. I don’t particularly like it and after trying to drive on the right I just gave up and let Angela drive everywhere. I do love the round-a-bouts (I’ve decided to call them roundies).

Music – when was the last time you heard Europe’s Final Countdown on a radio in the states? I’d say late 80’s (True, I considered the ringtone but settled on Slaughter’s ‘Up All Night’). Also got some Howard Jones, Suzanne Vega (Luka was it?) and Shaggy. Nickleback is huge here – on all the time. I did hear a song by some band called Nirvana – something about team spirit – they seem to have some potential.

Oil – prices have only seem to go up since we moved here, I hope this isn’t due to us. Good thing our car is getting about 33mpg even fully loaded with about 300lbs of luggage.

Sport – still haven’t figured rugby but I do know that NZ All Blacks have one of the top scrums in the world. I don’t know much about this but I do know good scrums win championships. All the national teams are some variation on the ‘Blacks’ - Tall Blacks is the basketball team (they just hammered Australia the other night 72-52, even though Australia has the #1 pick from last years NBA draft). Black Sticks is the hockey team (here it is women’s field hockey and the NZ team scored once in 5 games). Not sure what the women’s net ball team is called, I’m just trying to figure out why they play it – It’s like basketball but no backboard and no dribbling. Wha? More on this as I figure it out – focusing on the Tour at this point.

That’s it for now.