Interesting things...

Ok, there are some things that are quite different and unexpected here. There are big US sized fridges but the average ones are quite small and the openings in the kitchens of every rental house I looked at were for these little fridges. People who have the big fridges sometimes put them in the dining room! Here we are looking at an average fridge. It was $2199.00!!!! Really?! WTF?! AND it was made in NZ. So they can't say there were import costs. 

This is what they told me was an automatic ice maker. You have to pour your own water in and then flick the knob to get the ice to come out! Another WTF moment for me. For $2000 I want a flippin' LCD TV in the front of the fridge, not a built in ice tray!

Note the price on this slow cooker (aka crock pot)! Sticker shock was the theme for appliance shopping. (for any shopping for that matter!)

At the grocery I was so happy to see these. Even if I never made hard tacos in the states, it made me feel better to see them in the store. No luck finding corn tortillas though. Lucky for me, my MOPS group gave me a tortilla press as a going away gift! I only have to drive 25 minutes to buy masa. Don't even ask what that costs!

  

Another shocker: unrefrigerated eggs. And they sell them not just in 6's, 12's, and 18's, but also in 5's, and 10's and 15's. so comparing price is nearly impossible. They are all brown (hooray!) and one of Erik's friends was surprised to hear that white chicken eggs even existed. But none of them are as big as the jumbo US eggs  - probably because they aren't stuffing the NZ chickens with antibiotics, chemicals, sheep brains for food... So I just use 2 eggs when there is one called for in a recipe.

Below is an awesome, big playground at Bunnings. It's like Home Depot - even has orange signs and logo. Parents leave their barefoot kids here (despite a sign saying not to) and go shopping. Adults and kids walk around inside stores barefoot. Being a tiny bit on the germ-a-phobe and paranoid about accidents (cut feet), I am still freaked out about it when I see it. 

I took these two photos for Mom. She grows these in Colorado as ground cover but they must be a slightly different variety because these kind were on their way to being a bush - not ground cover at all. 

They are so pretty!

It's not a "trash can", it's a "rubbish bin". ;)

this is what they use to keep the kids in some of the shopping carts (some stores do have proper plastic clips). These might be Kiwi-kid-proof but they are not Maggie proof. She figured out how to get this off in half a shopping trip. It's velcro! (And yep, they make Huggies here but they are "nappies" not diapers and they measure the kids in kilograms! So it took me a minute to figure out Maggie's size. The first time, I just chose diapers with a picture of a kid that looked about her age on them! lol!)

This is the road to a beach/cliff town called Sumner. It's a gorgeous little town and I go there every chance I get. But there is a creepy road that goes right between the Pacific and these big cliffs. The cliffs started to fall down in the earthquakes and some of the houses fell off the cliffs and some are half up there and half at the bottom of the cliff! So the roadway people are protecting the road from falling rocks (and houses) with these shipping containers. The only place I have ever seen more of these things sitting around was at the port in Marseilles! 

A teetering house. 

Nope, I did not buy these. They were pretty amusing though. 

This is a flat-white. They are awesome! You can get lattes and cappuccinos here too, but these are my new fave. 

This is the beer selection at the movie theater. And they have assigned seating at the theater. They always try to give us seats in the back row! Somehow that is where they keep telling me are the best seats?! They think I'm crazy when I ask for smack in the middle of the theater - but here's the good part - now that I know to ask, I always get the middle because no one else wants it! So, now I think assigned seating is a good thing - as long as no other Americans get there first! :) 

Yet another wonderful Kiwi custom! There are parking spots at many stores for parents. My grocery in the states had ONE space for pregnant women but nothing for parents. Here, there are 5 or 6 of them at my grocery and I ALWAYS get to use one. There is always at least one available. I will be bummed when I feel like Maggie is too big to be a reason for one of these! :)  

Can you say lawsuit?! Yep, there would NEVER be one of these zip lines (they call them flying foxes) at a public park in the states. Unattended, no helmets, just a fabulously loooong rope going down a steep hill with a deck at the top. Even Erik and I went on it a few times. (We needed to make sure it was safe for Caty.) ;) It was like flying! They don't worry about accidents here much. And never about law suits. If you get hurt in an accident, the government pays for your medical treatment and then you can't sue. This could be a good thing, or a bad thing. No one seems to worry about making things safe, then again - this zip line is AWESOME! So I guess it's buyer beware. :)

The deck at the top of the hill. 

We decided Ben was too small to go alone so Erik went with. Good thing too because Ben let go at one point.  

Giant tree stump at Hagley Park. Being from AZ, I am just loving the huge, green trees. I can only imagine how big this monster was! 

Very cool idea that we should start using in the States. These are yogurt containers but this is tomato paste in them. Lightweight, recyclable. Pretty cool.

On the anniversary of the biggest earthquake every construction cone in town had flowers in it. And there is no shortage of construction cones. Even cooler: days later, the construction workers would move the cones around but never touched the flowers. 

Flowers in cones as far as you can see. 

Pumpkin season is in March/April! And the pumpkins are greenish-grey. (They are orange inside and taste pretty close to ours.) The orange ones aren't round. They're all bumpy and shaped like a yam. 

Flash-back! At first I thought it was a one-off but I have seen these towel dispensers all around. Erik and I can't remember the last time we saw one in the US. Maybe some gas station out on some lonely road in NM or somewhere! They are alive and well here! Germ-a-phobes beware!

They have lawn mowers here but they are double what they cost in the states. So we went green with a reel mower. I used to have one in Lake Charles and this one works fine. Erik hates it. But I just love it. The neighbor guy, Grahame, comes over to ask if I would like to borrow his motor-powered mower when I'm out with this one. I just smile and decline and explain it's good exercise. My lawn looks kind of natural and pastoral. His looks like a golf green. I'm sure it's hard for him to watch me walking behind this little guy. He's awfully nice (oh hell! I did it - I have let Kiwi-ese creep into my blog!) Before we moved here, I would NEVER have typed or said "awfully nice"!) Anyway, he's pretty nice but you can see that he wishes I would take him up on his kind offer. Erik says I should have! But Ben does a great job with this one and I don't worry nearly as much as I would with a gas mower (or electric).

Maggie loves Vegemite. It's like Marmite only less sweet - and for those of you who are still mystified here are some informative links:
What it is
Marmite shortage 
Ad campaign - these are pretty funny, they are all around town.
Maggie is less discerning and will eat Marmite or Vegemite. No one else in the family will touch it. :)

I really wish I could get Bud Light but this is nearly as good. There are lots of fancy-pants beers here but nothing that tastes good to a girl who likes Bud Light. So, I pay waaaay too much for these ($20 for a 12 pack) but once a week I sit down and really savor one of these. Erik has to get his own beer - these are mine!

I have learned to make flour tortillas. They cost a lot at the grocery and Ben lives on quesadillas. The grocery ones are not great - they are like the Old El Paso brand in the states: doughy with a funny after taste. Anyway, my tortillas ROCK! And yes, I use lard. Lard is what makes them fabulous - sorry Jilly, my vegan sister - it's true. This was my first batch. I am getting better at making them thinner and more round. Now, if I could just get my hands on Monterrey Jack... Funny story: in the grocery Caty asked me if we could get Colby-Jack cheese. I said, a bit louder than I meant to, "They don't have Jack in New Zealand!" Oops! that sounded wrong. I looked around and was getting some stares. Too funny!

Ben has been getting into the kitchen with me a lot. He has a gardening apron he never used and wears that to cook. He climbs up on the step-stool and muscles in on whatever I'm doing and says, "I'm a cooking-man!" and insists on helping me. It's tiresome sometimes but I went through it with Caty and now she can make her own grilled cheeses, scrambled eggs, and read and follow a recipe. (Plus it helps with fractions homework when they get to that in school.) Ben made this hot cross bun at preschool. He was very proud of it, so we took a picture of it. :)

This thing is what heats our house. We have an electric "heat pump" but it is really just a wall mounted space heater. It heats the living, dining, and kitchen but costs a fortune to run. (Electricity is about twice what it was in Phoenix.) So, wood is cheaper. Still, it only heats the same living space. BUT it also heats the water in the electric water heater. So if it's on, the water from the water heater in the closet behind this wall is routed through the wood stove and is heated. How cool is that?! Plus, it's fun to watch the fire. But, being from Phoenix, we started using it in Feb (like August in the Northern Hemisphere). It's not warm here compared to Phoenix. Erik has friends who haven't started using their heat. We bought oil-filled electric radiators for the kids' rooms and an electric forced air space heater for our bedroom.

Ok, there are a million other cool, weird, and annoying things to post but that's it for this post. More soon!