New Zealand Culture Shock: 10 Things to Adjust To
Some people love to travel, some people hate it.
There are pros and cons to the whole experience, of course, and sometimes the process of adjusting is really difficult.
Lucky for you, I took note of the things that required some adjustment in New Zealand, so you'll be better prepared than I was for your trip down south!
Here are some things that my Study Abroad friends and I struggled with.
New Zealand is a little behind the times with access to wifi. The airport has very slow, low Gig wifi accommodations, and only for a limited amount of time. The hotels are also subpar with their bandwidth.
Some of us got local Sim cards that provided a small amount of data to use as we were out and about as well.
But the best way to stay connected was to take a trip to the local library, which was awesome.
There's a hole in the Ozone layer down undah', which means the sun is angry and cruel. You can feel the difference as you step outside and instantly feel the rays glaring down on your exposed skin.
You'll either have to get used to the constant oily layer of SPF 50 on your skin, or the terrible, itchy pain of a sunburn. Most of us dealt with both for most of the trip.
In the States, everything stays open pretty late into the evening. Many restaurants close down around 11 PM or later, and you can almost always find something nearby that stays open until at least 9 on the weekdays.
New Zealand, on the other hand, sticks to the daylight hours and closes down around 5. I mean that literally. The entire country seems to just close up shop for the night. The only places you'll find open in the evenings are bars, fast food, or entertainment places that thrive off of the nightlife.
Coming from a land of convenience at all hours, this was quite an adjustment.
Being poor college students who already spent a fortune getting to New Zealand in the first place, the pricey products and restaurants were an added hardship to overcome. Where America is built off of dollar menus, New Zealand is more about building a more sophisticated menu.
Much like the motherland, Great Britain, New Zealand cars drive on the left-hand side. It took me a good solid month to stop looking in the left front seat and thinking that the car was driverless. I also finally got the hang of looking the correct ways before crossing the street.
Once, I saw a dog in the passenger seat and thought that the Labrador was driving a blue Mazda.
Much like Central America, the digits on the clock are more of a guideline than an exact time on the island. If you say you'll be there at 7, Kiwis will take that to mean they will begin to tidy up and prepare for visitors around 7:05 and you'll probably show up sometime in the next hour.
For Americans, and even worse, American college students conditioned to show up 15 minutes before the bell, this was an adjustment. We would catch buses that left half an hour before our meeting time and wait around for an hour before any of the locals began to trickle in.
As someone who struggles with timeliness, I am a huge fan of Island Time, but I understand why it's not for everyone.
Never have I been somewhere more concerned with the environment than New Zealand. I grew up in Colorado, close to Boulder where the push for caring for the earth is incredibly strong. I am very familiar with recycling, compost, reusable grocery bags, etc., but New Zealand still completely blew me away.
None of the grocery stores give out plastic bags.
All of the rubbish bins come in threes, one for compost, another for recycling plastic, and a third for glass or paper or whichever option that specific location offered.
There is little to no litter to be found anywhere.
Most national parks require you to brush off and sanitize your shoes to prevent contamination from different plants or animals. Many of them have a "rubbish in, rubbish out" policy where whatever you bring into the park, you must take back out.
Everywhere you go, someone will tell you all about New Zealand's rare indigenous species and what we can do to help preserve them.
Some of the lingo took us for a loop when we arrived. It was hard enough to pick out what they were saying in the thick, mumbled accent that I love so much, but when you throw in little foreign terms and phrases, it was a bit like learning a new language.
Things like "sweet as", which is the most common slang we heard in New Zealand, sounded more like "sweet a**", which takes on a fairly different and crasser meaning in the States and it took a minute for us to really catch on.
(For more on the endearing Kiwi Slang, check out my blog post, Some Sweet As Kiwi Slang.)
For the ketchup lovers of the US, prepare yourselves for a harsh life when you get to New Zealand.
Personally, I'm not a fan, but from those of us that could drink ketchup from the bottle, the vinegary tomato sauce in the Hunts container on the island was greatly disappointing.
However, they do have aoili sauce available pretty much everywhere, and it's amazing. A delicious sauce that looks like mayo, but is made from olive oil and garlic... wow my mouth it watering just reminiscing about it. You'll never be the same once you've dipped your chips in this incredible condiment.
(Chips meaning french fries. Potato chips are "crisps" in New Zealand, which was cause for confusion.)
Also, don't expect meat to be the same as it is in the States. Sausage, beef, and bacon in particular are very different from how America prepares them. But the seafood is spectacular! You must try the fish and chips.
Expect to eat a lot of Asian food. Most places in the cities were either fast food places, cafes, pubs, or asian cuisine. I recommend the sushi, the Korean pancakes, and the dumplings.
Oh, and the desserts....wow. Kiwis really know how to do their desserts.
Sometimes, when you're in a foreign country and you're surrounded by the unfamiliar and the inconvenient, it can be easy to feel a little homesick.
When you have to put that much more effort into finding a place with wifi to contact your loved ones, or to find food to eat past 7 PM, or to get groceries and remember to bring a big enough bag... our flawed homeland seems like a pretty sweet as country after all.
Personally, I didn't feel homesick at all in the paradise of New Zealand, but for my dear friends who were, there were moments of doubt and sadness.
For them, the best solution was to surround themselves with people who understood and who carried with them a little piece of home in their accents, their slang, their stories, and their smiles.
Through them, I discovered that you can find your family anywhere.
So when you finally make it down to the island, remember that there are hundreds of new experiences you will gain and treasure for the rest of your life... all it costs are these 10 little things to adjust to. The payoff will be worth it, I promise.
That's not so bad, is it?
There are pros and cons to the whole experience, of course, and sometimes the process of adjusting is really difficult.Lucky for you, I took note of the things that required some adjustment in New Zealand, so you'll be better prepared than I was for your trip down south!
Here are some things that my Study Abroad friends and I struggled with.
1. No Wifi
New Zealand is a little behind the times with access to wifi. The airport has very slow, low Gig wifi accommodations, and only for a limited amount of time. The hotels are also subpar with their bandwidth.
Some of us got local Sim cards that provided a small amount of data to use as we were out and about as well.
But the best way to stay connected was to take a trip to the local library, which was awesome.
2. Sunburn
There's a hole in the Ozone layer down undah', which means the sun is angry and cruel. You can feel the difference as you step outside and instantly feel the rays glaring down on your exposed skin.
You'll either have to get used to the constant oily layer of SPF 50 on your skin, or the terrible, itchy pain of a sunburn. Most of us dealt with both for most of the trip.
3. Eight to Five
New Zealand, on the other hand, sticks to the daylight hours and closes down around 5. I mean that literally. The entire country seems to just close up shop for the night. The only places you'll find open in the evenings are bars, fast food, or entertainment places that thrive off of the nightlife.
Coming from a land of convenience at all hours, this was quite an adjustment.
4. Expense
Being poor college students who already spent a fortune getting to New Zealand in the first place, the pricey products and restaurants were an added hardship to overcome. Where America is built off of dollar menus, New Zealand is more about building a more sophisticated menu.
5. The Other Side of the Road
Much like the motherland, Great Britain, New Zealand cars drive on the left-hand side. It took me a good solid month to stop looking in the left front seat and thinking that the car was driverless. I also finally got the hang of looking the correct ways before crossing the street.
Once, I saw a dog in the passenger seat and thought that the Labrador was driving a blue Mazda.
6. Island Time
Much like Central America, the digits on the clock are more of a guideline than an exact time on the island. If you say you'll be there at 7, Kiwis will take that to mean they will begin to tidy up and prepare for visitors around 7:05 and you'll probably show up sometime in the next hour.For Americans, and even worse, American college students conditioned to show up 15 minutes before the bell, this was an adjustment. We would catch buses that left half an hour before our meeting time and wait around for an hour before any of the locals began to trickle in.
As someone who struggles with timeliness, I am a huge fan of Island Time, but I understand why it's not for everyone.
7. Environmental Conservation
Never have I been somewhere more concerned with the environment than New Zealand. I grew up in Colorado, close to Boulder where the push for caring for the earth is incredibly strong. I am very familiar with recycling, compost, reusable grocery bags, etc., but New Zealand still completely blew me away.
All of the rubbish bins come in threes, one for compost, another for recycling plastic, and a third for glass or paper or whichever option that specific location offered.
There is little to no litter to be found anywhere.
Most national parks require you to brush off and sanitize your shoes to prevent contamination from different plants or animals. Many of them have a "rubbish in, rubbish out" policy where whatever you bring into the park, you must take back out.
Everywhere you go, someone will tell you all about New Zealand's rare indigenous species and what we can do to help preserve them.
8. The Slang
Some of the lingo took us for a loop when we arrived. It was hard enough to pick out what they were saying in the thick, mumbled accent that I love so much, but when you throw in little foreign terms and phrases, it was a bit like learning a new language.
Things like "sweet as", which is the most common slang we heard in New Zealand, sounded more like "sweet a**", which takes on a fairly different and crasser meaning in the States and it took a minute for us to really catch on.
(For more on the endearing Kiwi Slang, check out my blog post, Some Sweet As Kiwi Slang.)
9. Food
For the ketchup lovers of the US, prepare yourselves for a harsh life when you get to New Zealand.
Personally, I'm not a fan, but from those of us that could drink ketchup from the bottle, the vinegary tomato sauce in the Hunts container on the island was greatly disappointing.
However, they do have aoili sauce available pretty much everywhere, and it's amazing. A delicious sauce that looks like mayo, but is made from olive oil and garlic... wow my mouth it watering just reminiscing about it. You'll never be the same once you've dipped your chips in this incredible condiment.(Chips meaning french fries. Potato chips are "crisps" in New Zealand, which was cause for confusion.)
Also, don't expect meat to be the same as it is in the States. Sausage, beef, and bacon in particular are very different from how America prepares them. But the seafood is spectacular! You must try the fish and chips.
Expect to eat a lot of Asian food. Most places in the cities were either fast food places, cafes, pubs, or asian cuisine. I recommend the sushi, the Korean pancakes, and the dumplings.
Oh, and the desserts....wow. Kiwis really know how to do their desserts.
10. Homesickness
Sometimes, when you're in a foreign country and you're surrounded by the unfamiliar and the inconvenient, it can be easy to feel a little homesick.
When you have to put that much more effort into finding a place with wifi to contact your loved ones, or to find food to eat past 7 PM, or to get groceries and remember to bring a big enough bag... our flawed homeland seems like a pretty sweet as country after all.
Personally, I didn't feel homesick at all in the paradise of New Zealand, but for my dear friends who were, there were moments of doubt and sadness.
For them, the best solution was to surround themselves with people who understood and who carried with them a little piece of home in their accents, their slang, their stories, and their smiles.
Through them, I discovered that you can find your family anywhere.
That's not so bad, is it?
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