#ccstaycation Daphne from New Zealand

Hello everyone /Kia ora. My name is Daphne Potter and I live in Auckland, New Zealand.

New Zealand consists of two tiny islands and we have daily ferries between each island. It is possible to drive the whole length of New Zealand and most families are within driving distance of a beach. Our Beaches are lovely in the summer and are never too crowded because there is always one around the next corner! During the summer holidays, you will find the malls empty and the boat ramps crowded as kiwis love their fishing!

Auckland is often thought of as the capital of New Zealand as it is the largest town in the north island. Actually the capital is Wellington which is farther down the North Island. New Zealand became very popular during the filming of the Lord of the Rings movies and Hobbiton is a great place to visit. It’s a leisurely drive from Auckland. You can even dress up as a hobbit and enjoy a glass of stout at the local inn.

We enjoy visiting our local botanical gardens and in the summer we often go for long walks and see the sculptures and statues on display as well as all the lovely plants, including our famous silver fern which is the name of our ladies netball teams.  Ladies netball is a huge sport in New Zealand.

Maori are our indigenous people and we have statues dotted around our towns. The Maori word for New Zealand is Aotearoa which means Land of the Long White Cloud. Maori is taught in junior schools and preschools and we have a Maori television channel.

One of our speciality dishes is whitebait fritters. These are tiny fishes mixed into a batter and fried and are very popular as a snack. We also have our famous kiwi burger which is a normal hamburger but with pieces of beetroot. A proper ‘kiwi’ burger also has a fried egg.

We are nicknamed ‘kiwis’ by others due to our national bird the kiwi. The kiwi bird is nocturnal though so it is rarely seen. Kiwis are very small brown birds and they are about the size of a small chicken.

Kiwis have different words for some common items. We call our sandals jandals. Jandals are very popular throughout the year. They even come in fancy styles for a night out!

And of course no one would ever write about New Zealand without mentioning our famous rugby team, the All Blacks Rugby is one of the first sports which children play here and most kiwis would admit to owning a rugby fan shirt.   Children learn to do the ‘Hakka’, which is done at the beginning of the matches, at a very early age.

I hope you enjoyed this mini snippet of New Zealand life!  Most kiwis would end a conversation by saying...sweet as, bro....which roughly means....that’s great!

Interesting websites:

www.anitahendrieka.com/56-typical-new-zealand-slang-words

www.nzpocketguide.com/10-funny-place-names-in-new-zealand

Come back next week for another #ccstaycation feature!