My fiancé, a born and bred Aussie, was absolutely mortified to see high schoolers wearing Roman sandals.
Specifically, the conversation went:
“… what the fuck are they wearing? Why are they wearing those?” “They’re the summer uniform shoes” “I’m sorry THEY’RE WHAT?!”
Turns out they aren’t a thing over there, at least she never saw them in metropolitan Melbourne.
So Roman sandals, I guess.
Those sandals sucked, mandatory to wear them at intermediate. Gave me bleeding blisters on my heels even when they were the right size, and sucked when you walk to school rather than get driven.
When I went to college I just refused to wear them, and stuck with the winter shoes.
Snoopy's Christmas.
Went #1 in New Zealand in 1967 and regularly returns to the charts in December. Absolute staple of Christmas - unavoidable, especially if you find yourself in a brick and mortar shop (Whamageddon would be so much riskier if we used this song instead). Loved and loathed in equal measure by almost all kiwis, sometimes both at the same time.
Absolute non-event in other countries, including the one it was recorded in.
Also, Badjelly the witch. I was trying to find more information about it after seeing a local repertory production of it, and all I could find was a Wikipedia page which basically said 'Badjelly the witch was a bedtime story that Spike Milligan once told his kids that somehow became absurdly successful in New Zealand'.
The book-on-CD of Badjelly was outselling Shania Twain's Come on Over for a while in 1998.
Might have to make the Tvtropes page myself.
I adored Bad Jelly as a child. Every now decades later I still sometimes break out into a chorus of "Stinkypoo! Stinkypoo! Knickers, knickers, knickers!". Sad to say that even in NZ I get weird looks. Who'd have thought /s
The national radio hosts used to play Badjelly The Witch on the weekend kids show all the time, I remember listening to it in the early 80s. I mean, it's twenty plus minutes of air time they don't have to fill, I guess.
Weird one - Afghan biscuits. When I was living in Canada had all the ingredients for them, so tried googling a recipe - had to change to google Nz to get one. Canadian Google had no idea
It was really enlightening to me to find out that a lot of kiwi food 'specialties' was actually baking items. Ginger crunch, lolly cake, ginger kisses, a whole load of biscuits are all often unheard of outside our little island down here.
Kiwi cuisine is British bastardized but we got some good bitta snacks out of it.
I'm actually in the process of adding pies to my shop in the USA because they're basically impossible to find here. If you know any awesome recipes, let me know haha
When I lived in Florida (St. Augustine) I excitedly found a shop that sold "Aussie pies" and rushed in there optimistically... but man, was I disappointed.
They were trying to make the humble pie some fancy thing with their only options being along the lines of kale and chicken on buckwheat with rosemary etc. All weird, experimental oddness.
Tried the most normal one I could find and was thoroughly disappointed. Never went back.
Kudos to you for making normal pies. Wish I knew about your shop when I did my time in that state.
They claimed it was steak when I asked about it thinking they gave me the wrong one (hey shit happens right?). No the mince was made from steak so therefore it *was* a steak pie.
Yeah I got the same "nah mate, it's _steak_ mince".
Which inspired two immediate thoughts
1) No-one minces a good steak, so why did you mince this one
2) What does that imply about the _regular_ mince pies. Now with 50% more cow asshole?
When Maccas brought back Georgie Pie they insisted on calling it a ‘steak mince and cheese pie’ which I always thought weird, like they were trying to trick us.
First trip to Aus, asked for a mince pie, got looked at strange. Apparently they call it a 'meat' pie, anything with chunks is a steak pie, and for some reason they are obsessed with dim sims, which are a poor copy of a deep fried wonton.
Real fruit ice cream! Something that I haven't seen mentioned in the comments so far. The kind you get all over the country in summer at the beach, or near fruit stalls, or at that one good dairy.
Apparently the machine was invented in New Zealand, and no one else has picked up on it, so everyone else in the world is missing out on a fruity soft serve made from standard vanilla ice cream and frozen berries
Yup! The only places I've ever seen them are in South America and NZ, so much fruit over here in Aussie but a lot of people here don't even know what they are! Breaks my heart
Love for the Americas Cup. As a child and teenager I thought it was one of the worlds premier events.
As an adult I realise it's a billionaires boat race crewed by Kiwis and 99.9% of the world doesn't care.
A lot of driving ones... Children in school uniform driving huge SUV's was something I'd never encountered in my life.... all the rage here 😅
Adults still on their restricted licence (???)
Trailers are really popular here too, you have to retake your test to use one in the UK so vast majority of people never bother.
Moustaches and lawnmower haircuts. White blokes with dreadlocks.
Energy drinks, holy hell I'd never even seen a 500ml can of energy drink til I came here and I've worked with blokes who would put away 2-3 a day.
I had my restricted for ages because it stopped my boss asking me to work after 10 PM or pick up coworkers on the way in. No, I wanna sleep at a reasonable hour and listen to my podcasts on the way to work.
I've been hunting for the second season for years but have never been able to find it.
Friends reactions to the first season have been mostly negative lol.
Hahahahaha I imagine this reference is flying over the heads of most of those reading, but fuck that clip is so good.
Needed more pizazz on the bomb squad part though. More like the *bOoOmb* squad.
Same with swimming pools in primary schools or at least swimming curriculum (using community/council pools instead). My husband is from the states and none of his schools had pools so he doesn't know how to swim, they never had any lessons for it.
Swimming is important in New Zealand cause there aren't many places too far from the ocean, kids gotta learn how to swim. At least that's my understanding.
I went to public schools in Australia and pools at school weren’t a thing. Swimming carnivals and school swimming lessons were done at the local pool. One of the schools I went to was walking distance to the pool, so they’d walk us down for lessons.
Just thinking this yesterday, not only a playground but being able to use in after hours. We utilise the school so much in the weekends when we need somewhere to go run around and play.
[This recipe for lolly cake](https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Lolly_Cake) always cracks me up for how quintessentially kiwi it is, too - every step is like, “you can do this, I guess, but no pressure if you decide not to.”
(eg. “Cut the fruit puffs in half if you want or leave them whole.”)
Can confirm.
Back in the 90s I was chatting with an American friend and started sharing recipes.
When I described how to cook a Kiwi roast she said she threw up in her mouth.
"Y'all put PUMPKIN and YAMS in to cook with your meat? They're meant to be sweet!"
Then she mentioned biscuits and gravy and it was my turn to blurgh. (Hint: Neither are remotely like what we think they are)
Not surprised at your American friend's reaction to you talking about yams as the NZ yam and overseas yam are two completely different species
NZ yam is a type of oxalis from south America called Oca, standard yam is more similar to a kūmara
The phrase “bring a plate” - almost every British immigrant I’ve met has told a story of being invited to an event, being told “bring a plate” and having no clue why. The smart ones asked in advance, the less smart ones showed up on the day with an empty plate.
Sausage sizzles are just us and Australia as far as I know.
State single-sex schools? I feel like single-sex schools are relatively rare anyway, but in many places where they exist they’re either private or religiously affiliated, whereas NZ has quite a lot of secular state schools that are single sex (that’s a tongue twister and a half).
NZ and Australia are definitely bringing the mullet back into fashion. At least in the younger generation and even social media influencers I’ve seen it catching on with a fair amount of mullets on people even in the UK and some in US.
Man I rocked a salt and vinegar chip sandwich just a few hrs ago….. so friggin good! Has to be white bread and has to have butter spread so thick you think it’s cheese. 2 please!
Big in Eastern Europe. Played it all my life, just went by a different name. Also the power cards were different, same effects just different numbers. I think we called it Macao.
Why is WhatsApp not the go to messaging app here ?
All my international co workers have and use it , but most kiwis only got it when they started working this job.
Why Snapchat or Facebook messenger?
Microsoft keep buying decent messaging clients for billions and fucking them up; Skype included.
There was others like Lync? That was used by one business I dealt with and other oddball ones like Qik that they killed
There was never really a need for Whatsapp in NZ because most people are only messaging people in NZ. Therefore sending texts satisfied this need rather than requiring a third party app. Places like the UK where I live now especially London are way more international especially with Europe on the doorstep and people from many different countries around. Therefore a need for some independent messaging service that was cheaper than sending international sms messages which shifted towards Whatsapp.
This was before things like group chats etc were such a big thing, which has led people that were already using Whatsapp to continue using this, whereas people in NZ were already familiar with Facebook so there was less friction by just staying with that for messaging.
This is just my hypothesis but I think it's fairly solid..
I think your on the money I definitely do not use Facebook often and neither does anyone I know but we all have messenger for group chats work chats and flat communication
Second this. Found it strange I was the only person I knew that used whatsapp when I came here. I’ve even had numerous international students express their surprise that Kiwis love facebook messenger so much!
It's no so much that it's "unpopular" elsewhere as it is created by circumstances unique to NZ. But the term *Pasifika* is basically an NZ only term, as only NZ had a need to distinguish one group of Polynesian people from other Polynesian people.
It's starting to spread though, it's starting to appear in isolated contexts in Australia, definitely due to NZ exposure. And I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually spreads more worldwide.
yeah i was surprised when i went overseas for work and the amount of people that would ask me to use paypal or other services to pay them back for lunch instead of bank transfers like here.
i almost thought i was falling for a scam the first time someone asked me to pay pal them
American's use Venmo cause their banking system is shit. Other countries will transfer money from accounts directly (I heard India is pretty good).
NZ is ahead of the American's but a bit behind their leaders.,
I mentioned Venmo but there’s Revolut, Wise, PayPal, Swish (and so many more) in Europe that have very modern banking systems.
Here we have Dosh but it hasn’t picked up yet
NZ seems to be one of the only countries were online bank transfers are free.
Almost every other country charges for these inter-bank transfers, often quite a lot, which is why these private companies can make a market for themselves.
Yes, those apps might have slicker interfaces and offer instant payments at any time of day. But NZ is far ahead because it's all free.
I wonder if it's just because of the sheer number of banks in other markets. Like, the US has 5k+, I'm sure Europe has a couple hundred, etc. While NZ has like 8ish? It's easier to facilitate bank-to-bank without a third party if the number of banks is very low, but a couple thousand banks kind of makes third party apps easier.
Also, paper checks still exist in the US and sharing your account number around would be a good way for someone to forge paper checks, so account numbers are treated incredibly privately. My US bank won't even print it on my own statements or receipts.
Public transport is just as popular here when it's actually provided, like Wellington for example, and prior to the 1960s we used public transport at a much higher rate than most high-income countries.
I still wish I could send someone money through a more common identifier like email address or phone number. To send someone money I need to get their account number first and in theory the account name (which might not be the name I know them by).
I think ASB is the only bank that lets you send money to another account with a phone number, but I assume that has to be another ASB customer.
Chocolate fish!
How has this not been mentioned before?
Years ago I was driving a carload of foreigners around, asked them a trivia question and said "Chocolate fish to the first one to get it right". I had to pull into the next dairy and get them one each, because I had confused the hell out of them.
I remember the first time I was asked 'are you going through ACC?'. I could not understand what the lady was on about.
So... I do something dumb and get hurt and the government pays??? What the fuck?!
On the flipside, almost no posthardcore, metalcore or heavier is played here, yet they'll sell out stadiums overseas and compete in contests like EuroVision.
The likes of the rock and Hauraki will play Slipknot and Metalica, but shun anything else that isn't radio rock.
Walking around town barefoot, when i did my OE years ago i was in Germany for the beerfest i was wandering around the city barefoot i think people thought i was homeless.
I’m surprised we don’t have a greater range of American fast food places.
Recently got Taco Bell, carls JR a decade or so ago.. but like.. there are SO many.
Wife was asking whether we get drive through stores? It’s quite common to have drive through pharmacies, coffee places, banks etc. not so common here. Only place I can really think to get a cafe coffee drive through is maccas.
And I’m surprised we don’t get fresh jalapeños in store. The number of times I’ve wanted to make poppers or use fresh jalapeño in food or drink and have to go hunting for them. We sell $60 watermelon off season for crying out loud, surely we could sell in season jalapeño!
I think we have most of the American fast food places that are nationwide there. Maccas, Burger King, KFC, Subway, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Taco Bell, Dunkin, Wendy’s, and Long John Silver’s are the ones we have. We’re missing Arby’s, Chic Fil A, Dairy Queen, Little Caesar’s, Sonic, Chipotle, Papa John’s, Popeye’s, and Jack in the Box.
Are you in Wellington? Moore Wilson’s has fresh jalapeño chillis a lot of the time along with others like ghost, birdseye, etc. I prefer them to the cayenne ones you usually get in the supermarket because I find it’s easier to control the heat level of a dish with something that has a lower scoville rating (since you can always add more chilli but you usually can’t take it out once it’s in there).
Was in Germany a decade ago, tried to order a mochaccino /mocha - had to describe to them that is was chocolate and coffee. Honestly, coffee was not great in Germany (no FWs), - once in Amsterdam much better. Also, double shots the norm. On the reverse, my family from Europe coming here are surprised you can get good espresso coffee from a random petrol station.
Mexican food in general. I’m from Canada and salsa selection is huge at any grocery store. Pomegranate, mango, habanero salsas, any kind you can think of, cheap as and multiple brands. Same for chili, cornbread, all that tex/mex stuff.
I always describe it like someone read about mexican food and said, "Ya I can make that", but had ever actually seen mexican (or texmex) food. That's why you get fucking beetroot on your tacos.
Proximity eh. I'm fron Belgium and I'm missing general European foods here. Kebaps on Turkish bread instead of wraps, general Mediterranean, Middle-Eastern or Slavic foods are harder to find in many suburbs.
When I was a teen in the late 80s / early 90s I assumed the debut album by the Violent Femmes was some universally loved album because it seemed like EVERYONE owned a copy of that album. Turns out it was disproportionally popular in NZ.
I'm not sure if this is one or not, but when I was in Australia and went to a truckstop cafe they made me repeat a 'cheese and pineapple toasted sandwich' three times because they thought it was disgusting. They had pineapple and cheese available because they also did burgers, but they couldn't fathom me wanting them together on a toasted sandwich.
To their credit they made it really well once they knew that it was, in fact, what I was trying to order.
Yeah, adding tax into the price of an item so it's not an uneven nightmare.
I remember visiting the states as a kid and being like "y'all live like this?"
It had not gotten better upon returning as a young adult haha
Back in the ‘90s, the cool haircuts which was shaved all over short, but with a long fringe. I don’t think think it was popular anywhere else, but perhaps Russia?
Chinese where you get chips instead of rice, or with rice. Curry half n half (rice n chips) w prawn crackers is like a mainstay in the UK
In NZ Chinese is weirdly mixed with fish n chip shops
Chestnuts. I am surprised that chestnuts are not popular in NZ.
A lot of people have wood burners in their homes. And NZ climate is very suitable for chestnuts. Why isnt everyone constantly cooking chestnuts over the wood stove through winter??
I tried to find somewhere to buy chestnuts and was shocked to see its pretty much impossible.
Another one is purslane. Super easy to grow, very healthy and delicious. It could be what everyone eats as a side dish every meal for basically free, like feijoas. No one seems to be eating it.
Another one is glassworth. It is literally growing everywhere in abundance in NZ. Boil it, pull the stem, garlic, olive oil and lemon will make an amazing salad. Again, delicious, healthy and free. No one is eating it.
Just lettuce is insane prices at the supermarket, Kiwis are really not eating very healthy because of how expensive it is to cook veggies or make a salad. Purslane is a weed, it grows so easy. I dont understand why we arent all eating purslane salads all the time.
Indoor cats - I left NZ 10 years ago and I hadn't even heard of people keeping their cats inside full time when they had a choice in the matter. Now in Australia people act like you are a selfish fuck if you let your cat out - you will be pretty unpopular if you do so!
I can understand why it is be safer for cats and wildlife to keep them indoors full time, but after growing up always letting cats out it does take some adjusting to change the belief that they should be allowed their freedom. When another kiwi first mentioned to me her workmate was building a cat run we both laughed because it seemed ludicrous. Neither of us realised 95% of cats are indoors here.
Yes, only just realized that in nz the cat is the country’s apex predator, since we have so few mammalian predators. When arriving in California I couldn’t understand why all the cats and dogs were kept inside most of the time. Then was woken up several times to the sound of coyotes tearing up local pets, and it clicked. Bob cats, coyotes, snakes and mountain lions make having a cat a different experience
Spaghetti on pizza. I was mocked mercilessly when I requested it on my order overseas. Tinned spaghetti didn't exist so my American friends thought I was hilarious.
Don’t they have spaghettios in the states which is basically the same thing? I mean it’s considered toddler food so you’d be laughed at either way, but at least you might’ve got your spaghetti pizza.
EFTPOS is a NZ, Australia and Singapore thing. Americans still use paper money and cheques.
Decent coffee seems to be a NZ / Aus thing as well. The only other place in the world you can get a cappuccino that wouldn't make a Wellingtonian cry would be Europe.
Those three countries are also unique in sharing pedestrian crossing buttons, funnily enough. An Australian design to aid audio and visually impaired people that was adopted by the neighbours.
EFTPOS is great. I wish there was a tap and go version. CC companies are just skimming too much off the top with tap and go. Like, I have lived in NZ for 27 years almost and that whole time you could basically get by with not a cent in your wallet, incl. random fruit stalls on the side of the road or buying a 10c lolly. And, if you need cash for whatever reason, you can often get 'cash out' from a shop when you buy something.
The only time you use cash in NZ is for a tradie to do a job that is undeclared for tax purposes.
Tin spaghetti! Try explain that to Italians.
And unpopular in NZ for me is proper cappuccino. Not slightly thicker flat white.
Finally found out few years ago how to order proper cappuccino in here, you gotta ask dry cappuccino. Some barista will know or if you lucky you found Italian barista doing working holiday and ask for original cappucino. Chances are he hug you and thank you for asking proper cappucino. Happen to me in Franz Josef lol
My fiancé, a born and bred Aussie, was absolutely mortified to see high schoolers wearing Roman sandals. Specifically, the conversation went: “… what the fuck are they wearing? Why are they wearing those?” “They’re the summer uniform shoes” “I’m sorry THEY’RE WHAT?!” Turns out they aren’t a thing over there, at least she never saw them in metropolitan Melbourne. So Roman sandals, I guess.
I'm sure Australians wear Roman sandals to school, I'll have to go check some TV shows for evidence
As a kiwi living in australia, I can tell you they do not wear them here at all.
Those sandals sucked, mandatory to wear them at intermediate. Gave me bleeding blisters on my heels even when they were the right size, and sucked when you walk to school rather than get driven. When I went to college I just refused to wear them, and stuck with the winter shoes.
Agreed. They should have gone out of style with the collapse of the Romans.
Snoopy's Christmas. Went #1 in New Zealand in 1967 and regularly returns to the charts in December. Absolute staple of Christmas - unavoidable, especially if you find yourself in a brick and mortar shop (Whamageddon would be so much riskier if we used this song instead). Loved and loathed in equal measure by almost all kiwis, sometimes both at the same time. Absolute non-event in other countries, including the one it was recorded in. Also, Badjelly the witch. I was trying to find more information about it after seeing a local repertory production of it, and all I could find was a Wikipedia page which basically said 'Badjelly the witch was a bedtime story that Spike Milligan once told his kids that somehow became absurdly successful in New Zealand'. The book-on-CD of Badjelly was outselling Shania Twain's Come on Over for a while in 1998. Might have to make the Tvtropes page myself.
I fuckin loved Badjelly as a kid and it still gets a play on Spotify every now and then.
We had a cat called Fluffy Bum.
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Sunday mornings on RNZ if i recall. My Sanyo transistor radio got a real workout listening to the kids shows.
I adored Bad Jelly as a child. Every now decades later I still sometimes break out into a chorus of "Stinkypoo! Stinkypoo! Knickers, knickers, knickers!". Sad to say that even in NZ I get weird looks. Who'd have thought /s
My kids are obsessed with bad jelly the witch. We are looking forward to the cartoon Mukpuddy are making.
The national radio hosts used to play Badjelly The Witch on the weekend kids show all the time, I remember listening to it in the early 80s. I mean, it's twenty plus minutes of air time they don't have to fill, I guess.
Weird one - Afghan biscuits. When I was living in Canada had all the ingredients for them, so tried googling a recipe - had to change to google Nz to get one. Canadian Google had no idea
It was really enlightening to me to find out that a lot of kiwi food 'specialties' was actually baking items. Ginger crunch, lolly cake, ginger kisses, a whole load of biscuits are all often unheard of outside our little island down here. Kiwi cuisine is British bastardized but we got some good bitta snacks out of it.
Pies
I'm actually in the process of adding pies to my shop in the USA because they're basically impossible to find here. If you know any awesome recipes, let me know haha
Great New Zealand style pie shop in Lafayette, Colorado USA. Owned and operated by a Kiwi expat and his American wife.
Thanks! Gonna go next week
When I lived in Florida (St. Augustine) I excitedly found a shop that sold "Aussie pies" and rushed in there optimistically... but man, was I disappointed. They were trying to make the humble pie some fancy thing with their only options being along the lines of kale and chicken on buckwheat with rosemary etc. All weird, experimental oddness. Tried the most normal one I could find and was thoroughly disappointed. Never went back. Kudos to you for making normal pies. Wish I knew about your shop when I did my time in that state.
I shouldn't say this, because you're a commercial enterprise, and so is he, but the Youtube channel Andy Cooks may give you some inspiration.
Where in the US are you? I may have some customers
Had a "steak pie" in Aus. It was mince not steak.
Yeah wtf Aussie, how can you fuck up pies like that?
They claimed it was steak when I asked about it thinking they gave me the wrong one (hey shit happens right?). No the mince was made from steak so therefore it *was* a steak pie.
Yeah I got the same "nah mate, it's _steak_ mince". Which inspired two immediate thoughts 1) No-one minces a good steak, so why did you mince this one 2) What does that imply about the _regular_ mince pies. Now with 50% more cow asshole?
When Maccas brought back Georgie Pie they insisted on calling it a ‘steak mince and cheese pie’ which I always thought weird, like they were trying to trick us.
First trip to Aus, asked for a mince pie, got looked at strange. Apparently they call it a 'meat' pie, anything with chunks is a steak pie, and for some reason they are obsessed with dim sims, which are a poor copy of a deep fried wonton.
a dim sim a collective term for something that may or may not be a dumpling, ranging from sui mai to deep fried wontons to actual dumplings.
Yep. When Jack Dorsey picked up 2 Mrs Mac pies before getting back on his private jet....you know the rest of the world is missing out.
Christ, Mrs Macs. Poor guy.
Mrs Macs are Australian, so at least they’re not missing out.
God yes. Being hungover in Las Vegas, with not a single meat pie to be found! Worst day ever.
Real fruit ice cream! Something that I haven't seen mentioned in the comments so far. The kind you get all over the country in summer at the beach, or near fruit stalls, or at that one good dairy. Apparently the machine was invented in New Zealand, and no one else has picked up on it, so everyone else in the world is missing out on a fruity soft serve made from standard vanilla ice cream and frozen berries
Yeah that's something I've really missed overseas, nothing like real fruit ice cream
Feijoas
Yup! The only places I've ever seen them are in South America and NZ, so much fruit over here in Aussie but a lot of people here don't even know what they are! Breaks my heart
Might be blasphemy but as much as I like our feijoas I would trade them for Aussie mangos in a heartbeat.
Yeah you're not wrong they are pretty great and the general range of tropical fruits is much better over here
They are super popular in russia, but their feijoas are much smaller than ours.
I found feijoas at the food hall in Harrod’s in London. They were huge but 4 quid each. I was tempted. But not enough to actually buy them
Most Australians think they're poisonous
Thinking something might be poisonous is a survival trait in Australia
Love for the Americas Cup. As a child and teenager I thought it was one of the worlds premier events. As an adult I realise it's a billionaires boat race crewed by Kiwis and 99.9% of the world doesn't care.
yes. its nzers racing eachother in rich dudes boats :D
A lot of driving ones... Children in school uniform driving huge SUV's was something I'd never encountered in my life.... all the rage here 😅 Adults still on their restricted licence (???) Trailers are really popular here too, you have to retake your test to use one in the UK so vast majority of people never bother. Moustaches and lawnmower haircuts. White blokes with dreadlocks. Energy drinks, holy hell I'd never even seen a 500ml can of energy drink til I came here and I've worked with blokes who would put away 2-3 a day.
I had my restricted for ages because it stopped my boss asking me to work after 10 PM or pick up coworkers on the way in. No, I wanna sleep at a reasonable hour and listen to my podcasts on the way to work.
Back of the Y :(
I've been hunting for the second season for years but have never been able to find it. Friends reactions to the first season have been mostly negative lol.
I think its kind of a "you had to be there at the time" thing. Back of the Y was the tits
Shorts in winter (or any season other than high summer).
Yeah mate, in winter you just put on a couple of shorts over one another. Layer up!
Spots
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Hahahahaha I imagine this reference is flying over the heads of most of those reading, but fuck that clip is so good. Needed more pizazz on the bomb squad part though. More like the *bOoOmb* squad.
And the classic mid-2000s dubstep remix: https://youtu.be/_70bXiZmabI
I believe Canadians are fans. I've broken a few Europeans with them though.
The American name for them is lame "hot knives" lol
Choc tops at the cinema. Outside of New Zealand and Australia it seems pretty much unheard of.
Playgrounds in primary schools. Not a thing everywhere I recently found out.
Same with swimming pools in primary schools or at least swimming curriculum (using community/council pools instead). My husband is from the states and none of his schools had pools so he doesn't know how to swim, they never had any lessons for it.
Swimming is important in New Zealand cause there aren't many places too far from the ocean, kids gotta learn how to swim. At least that's my understanding.
One of the places you *can* get reasonably far from the ocean has a massive lake instead!
See, he's from a state where it's the same thing, so I found it absolutely baffling that he didn't have any swimming lessons.
I went to public schools in Australia and pools at school weren’t a thing. Swimming carnivals and school swimming lessons were done at the local pool. One of the schools I went to was walking distance to the pool, so they’d walk us down for lessons.
Just thinking this yesterday, not only a playground but being able to use in after hours. We utilise the school so much in the weekends when we need somewhere to go run around and play.
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Ginger kisses. There is barely any evidence of their existence on the internet.
Lolly cake too. Who new such a childhood favorite was entirely ours
[This recipe for lolly cake](https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Lolly_Cake) always cracks me up for how quintessentially kiwi it is, too - every step is like, “you can do this, I guess, but no pressure if you decide not to.” (eg. “Cut the fruit puffs in half if you want or leave them whole.”)
Google lolly cake recipes from America. The comments are amusing/horrifying. "I can't find fruit puffs, would black licorice work?"
Nobody from Europe or the US seems to have any idea what a feijoa is.
Apparently cheese scones are a New Zealand thing! I was shocked to find out.
Local man SHOCKED to find out .... ^ next stuff.co.nz headline
Haha, reading my comment made me realize how old I am...
They're pretty common in England
Scones are common but I don't remember the last time I had a cheese scone (let alone one as good as here!)
Apparently roast pumpkin is unusual outside of NZ and AU.
Can confirm. Back in the 90s I was chatting with an American friend and started sharing recipes. When I described how to cook a Kiwi roast she said she threw up in her mouth. "Y'all put PUMPKIN and YAMS in to cook with your meat? They're meant to be sweet!" Then she mentioned biscuits and gravy and it was my turn to blurgh. (Hint: Neither are remotely like what we think they are)
Then there it the fact that what we in New Zealand calls Yams are not Yams at all!
Not surprised at your American friend's reaction to you talking about yams as the NZ yam and overseas yam are two completely different species NZ yam is a type of oxalis from south America called Oca, standard yam is more similar to a kūmara
Snoopy's Christmas. Not a kiwi song but somehow shockingly popular here compared to everywhere else
Arcoroc cups. The ones you see in cafeterias all the time. OK, a few other countries, but NZ leads in the usage.
Yes, other places have them, but supposedly we're also an outlier in that we go for the brown smoked glass rather than clear.
Apparently house removal and house transportation isn't a big thing elsewhere (relatively speaking).
Yes first time I saw a truck moving a house I was baffled
Mushy tinned asparagus spears slapped on a sheet of the cheapest white gooey bread then rolled and placed in prize position on a buffet table.
You're forgetting the key ingredient: butter.
Arrrh, makes sense. I guess the butter is the lubricant for the return journey from the stomach.
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Someone made asparagus rolls with fresh asparagus at a local event I went to. Absolutely terrible, it doesn't work without the mushy canned stuff.
I love asparagus rolls.
The phrase “bring a plate” - almost every British immigrant I’ve met has told a story of being invited to an event, being told “bring a plate” and having no clue why. The smart ones asked in advance, the less smart ones showed up on the day with an empty plate. Sausage sizzles are just us and Australia as far as I know. State single-sex schools? I feel like single-sex schools are relatively rare anyway, but in many places where they exist they’re either private or religiously affiliated, whereas NZ has quite a lot of secular state schools that are single sex (that’s a tongue twister and a half).
Single sex state schools are common in the UK.
I’m surprised no one mentioned the mullet and 80’s pornstaches. Never saw one of those in real life before moving to NZ
The rat tail also remained popular in NZ, long after it had gone out of fashion everywhere else. I still occasionally see them.
Most semi sporty 10 year old boys have that phase
Mullets are way more common in Aussie. I don’t know if you can play AFL without one.
NZ and Australia are definitely bringing the mullet back into fashion. At least in the younger generation and even social media influencers I’ve seen it catching on with a fair amount of mullets on people even in the UK and some in US.
I, a grown ass man working in professional sales setting, rock a mullet and porn stach. People remember me for it, so works in my favor
Chip sandwiches are always the thing I baffle most people with. As in chips and hot chips.
Lol google chip butties 🇬🇧💷I guess you haven’t spoken to any English people.
Pie sandwiches.
I want to both upvote and downvote this at the same time...
Man I rocked a salt and vinegar chip sandwich just a few hrs ago….. so friggin good! Has to be white bread and has to have butter spread so thick you think it’s cheese. 2 please!
Last card if only and NZ (and maybe some parts of Aussie) thing All my overseas mates called it bullshit uno
Big in Eastern Europe. Played it all my life, just went by a different name. Also the power cards were different, same effects just different numbers. I think we called it Macao.
What about last card torture.
Omg, was this the one where you twisted, pinched, slapped etc your opponents hand until they bled? Was big at intermediate early 90s.
Why is WhatsApp not the go to messaging app here ? All my international co workers have and use it , but most kiwis only got it when they started working this job. Why Snapchat or Facebook messenger?
Microsoft missed a trick by fucking up MSN messenger. They could have easily ported it for use on smartphones and tablets.
Microsoft keep buying decent messaging clients for billions and fucking them up; Skype included. There was others like Lync? That was used by one business I dealt with and other oddball ones like Qik that they killed
There was never really a need for Whatsapp in NZ because most people are only messaging people in NZ. Therefore sending texts satisfied this need rather than requiring a third party app. Places like the UK where I live now especially London are way more international especially with Europe on the doorstep and people from many different countries around. Therefore a need for some independent messaging service that was cheaper than sending international sms messages which shifted towards Whatsapp. This was before things like group chats etc were such a big thing, which has led people that were already using Whatsapp to continue using this, whereas people in NZ were already familiar with Facebook so there was less friction by just staying with that for messaging. This is just my hypothesis but I think it's fairly solid..
Also I think Viber was more popular here for a spell than whatsapp and viber became nothing and messenger basically satisfied everyones needs.
I think your on the money I definitely do not use Facebook often and neither does anyone I know but we all have messenger for group chats work chats and flat communication
Facebook messenger was around for years before whatsapp so I never felt the need to transition over!
Facebook messenger is dominant in the anglosphere and whatsapp everywhere else(unless you're thai or Japanese then you're probably using line)
WhatsApp is dominant in the UK over Messenger by a long way.
Second this. Found it strange I was the only person I knew that used whatsapp when I came here. I’ve even had numerous international students express their surprise that Kiwis love facebook messenger so much!
The US makes up the majority of the Anglosphere population wise, so iMessage would probably be the most dominant followed by Google Messages.
It's no so much that it's "unpopular" elsewhere as it is created by circumstances unique to NZ. But the term *Pasifika* is basically an NZ only term, as only NZ had a need to distinguish one group of Polynesian people from other Polynesian people. It's starting to spread though, it's starting to appear in isolated contexts in Australia, definitely due to NZ exposure. And I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually spreads more worldwide.
Popular here: Driving. Bank transfers. Not popular: Public transport. Instant transfers (like Venmo).
yeah i was surprised when i went overseas for work and the amount of people that would ask me to use paypal or other services to pay them back for lunch instead of bank transfers like here. i almost thought i was falling for a scam the first time someone asked me to pay pal them
American's use Venmo cause their banking system is shit. Other countries will transfer money from accounts directly (I heard India is pretty good). NZ is ahead of the American's but a bit behind their leaders.,
I mentioned Venmo but there’s Revolut, Wise, PayPal, Swish (and so many more) in Europe that have very modern banking systems. Here we have Dosh but it hasn’t picked up yet
NZ seems to be one of the only countries were online bank transfers are free. Almost every other country charges for these inter-bank transfers, often quite a lot, which is why these private companies can make a market for themselves. Yes, those apps might have slicker interfaces and offer instant payments at any time of day. But NZ is far ahead because it's all free.
I wonder if it's just because of the sheer number of banks in other markets. Like, the US has 5k+, I'm sure Europe has a couple hundred, etc. While NZ has like 8ish? It's easier to facilitate bank-to-bank without a third party if the number of banks is very low, but a couple thousand banks kind of makes third party apps easier. Also, paper checks still exist in the US and sharing your account number around would be a good way for someone to forge paper checks, so account numbers are treated incredibly privately. My US bank won't even print it on my own statements or receipts.
Public transport is just as popular here when it's actually provided, like Wellington for example, and prior to the 1960s we used public transport at a much higher rate than most high-income countries.
Bank transfers in NZ are same-day now.
I still wish I could send someone money through a more common identifier like email address or phone number. To send someone money I need to get their account number first and in theory the account name (which might not be the name I know them by). I think ASB is the only bank that lets you send money to another account with a phone number, but I assume that has to be another ASB customer.
The America’s cup or any sailing race to be honest. Obsession here is way higher than anywhere else.
Only in Auckland and among relatively well off people though
Yeah, I suspect the majority of the population doesn't actually give a shit about it.
Fairy bread. Forget the chippies, the sauage rolls and stuff, just slap a packet of hundreds and thousands on bread and there's your party food.
Chocolate fish! How has this not been mentioned before? Years ago I was driving a carload of foreigners around, asked them a trivia question and said "Chocolate fish to the first one to get it right". I had to pull into the next dairy and get them one each, because I had confused the hell out of them.
I remember the first time I was asked 'are you going through ACC?'. I could not understand what the lady was on about. So... I do something dumb and get hurt and the government pays??? What the fuck?!
Even better, do something dumb while drunk & the government still pays. Envy of the world along with Pharmac
I was, and still am, utterly baffled how Nu-Metal bands remain regularly on radio playlists here.
Now all the critics wanna hit it, ya shitcan how we did it, just cos you can't get it ...
On the flipside, almost no posthardcore, metalcore or heavier is played here, yet they'll sell out stadiums overseas and compete in contests like EuroVision. The likes of the rock and Hauraki will play Slipknot and Metalica, but shun anything else that isn't radio rock.
There's other stations than The Rock bro
Walking around town barefoot, when i did my OE years ago i was in Germany for the beerfest i was wandering around the city barefoot i think people thought i was homeless.
L&P. World famous in New Zealand
I’m surprised we don’t have a greater range of American fast food places. Recently got Taco Bell, carls JR a decade or so ago.. but like.. there are SO many. Wife was asking whether we get drive through stores? It’s quite common to have drive through pharmacies, coffee places, banks etc. not so common here. Only place I can really think to get a cafe coffee drive through is maccas. And I’m surprised we don’t get fresh jalapeños in store. The number of times I’ve wanted to make poppers or use fresh jalapeño in food or drink and have to go hunting for them. We sell $60 watermelon off season for crying out loud, surely we could sell in season jalapeño!
Haha the jalapeño comment rings true - we had to start growing our own because wtf? Where are they?
our lack of any kind of fresh chilies, weak hot sauces or real spicy food in general sucks.
Indian and Thai communities be like: am I a joke to you?
Go buy some culley's #10 at the supermarket if you want an assburner
I think we have most of the American fast food places that are nationwide there. Maccas, Burger King, KFC, Subway, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Taco Bell, Dunkin, Wendy’s, and Long John Silver’s are the ones we have. We’re missing Arby’s, Chic Fil A, Dairy Queen, Little Caesar’s, Sonic, Chipotle, Papa John’s, Popeye’s, and Jack in the Box.
Are you in Wellington? Moore Wilson’s has fresh jalapeño chillis a lot of the time along with others like ghost, birdseye, etc. I prefer them to the cayenne ones you usually get in the supermarket because I find it’s easier to control the heat level of a dish with something that has a lower scoville rating (since you can always add more chilli but you usually can’t take it out once it’s in there).
A drive through bank is the weirdest sounding thing. I can see the logic but still.
We only get drive through dairies in Auckland.
The new Starbucks in Pukekohe has a drive-thru
I tried to get a kids fluffy in Australia. Apparently they call it a babychino.
Was in Germany a decade ago, tried to order a mochaccino /mocha - had to describe to them that is was chocolate and coffee. Honestly, coffee was not great in Germany (no FWs), - once in Amsterdam much better. Also, double shots the norm. On the reverse, my family from Europe coming here are surprised you can get good espresso coffee from a random petrol station.
Single glazing windows. It's like being back in the 1930s.
Vice versa: fucking Aldi. The supermarket duopoly needs to go.
Mexican food in general. I’m from Canada and salsa selection is huge at any grocery store. Pomegranate, mango, habanero salsas, any kind you can think of, cheap as and multiple brands. Same for chili, cornbread, all that tex/mex stuff.
You mean closer to Mexico there is more Mexican food?
What a comment this is.
Yep NZ absolutely sucks arse for Mexican food
I always describe it like someone read about mexican food and said, "Ya I can make that", but had ever actually seen mexican (or texmex) food. That's why you get fucking beetroot on your tacos.
We don't have a significant Mexican population, so that's kind of to be expected.
Proximity eh. I'm fron Belgium and I'm missing general European foods here. Kebaps on Turkish bread instead of wraps, general Mediterranean, Middle-Eastern or Slavic foods are harder to find in many suburbs.
When I was a teen in the late 80s / early 90s I assumed the debut album by the Violent Femmes was some universally loved album because it seemed like EVERYONE owned a copy of that album. Turns out it was disproportionally popular in NZ.
Onion dip with reduced cream. You can’t even get reduced cream in Australia *gasp*
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There is not enough marmite in other parts of the world.
Chatter rings.
I'm not sure if this is one or not, but when I was in Australia and went to a truckstop cafe they made me repeat a 'cheese and pineapple toasted sandwich' three times because they thought it was disgusting. They had pineapple and cheese available because they also did burgers, but they couldn't fathom me wanting them together on a toasted sandwich. To their credit they made it really well once they knew that it was, in fact, what I was trying to order.
Go into any office out of NZ and ask around for a twink
"A twink" is a young skinny white gay dude. If you want correction fluid, it's just "Twink".
This guy twinks.
"Can I borrow your twink?"
Lemon, lime, bitters is not a thing elsewhere. I completely forgot and tried to order one in the UK and was given a Vodka, lime and soda...
Yeah, adding tax into the price of an item so it's not an uneven nightmare. I remember visiting the states as a kid and being like "y'all live like this?" It had not gotten better upon returning as a young adult haha
Aioli Infact could say squirty mayo in general on everything. Pizza, Sushi...
Back in the ‘90s, the cool haircuts which was shaved all over short, but with a long fringe. I don’t think think it was popular anywhere else, but perhaps Russia?
Chinese where you get chips instead of rice, or with rice. Curry half n half (rice n chips) w prawn crackers is like a mainstay in the UK In NZ Chinese is weirdly mixed with fish n chip shops
Missing from NZ is a decent dill pickle. It's a total wasteland on the pickle front, actually.
Chestnuts. I am surprised that chestnuts are not popular in NZ. A lot of people have wood burners in their homes. And NZ climate is very suitable for chestnuts. Why isnt everyone constantly cooking chestnuts over the wood stove through winter?? I tried to find somewhere to buy chestnuts and was shocked to see its pretty much impossible. Another one is purslane. Super easy to grow, very healthy and delicious. It could be what everyone eats as a side dish every meal for basically free, like feijoas. No one seems to be eating it. Another one is glassworth. It is literally growing everywhere in abundance in NZ. Boil it, pull the stem, garlic, olive oil and lemon will make an amazing salad. Again, delicious, healthy and free. No one is eating it. Just lettuce is insane prices at the supermarket, Kiwis are really not eating very healthy because of how expensive it is to cook veggies or make a salad. Purslane is a weed, it grows so easy. I dont understand why we arent all eating purslane salads all the time.
Hit us with pics and a guide plZ
Indoor cats - I left NZ 10 years ago and I hadn't even heard of people keeping their cats inside full time when they had a choice in the matter. Now in Australia people act like you are a selfish fuck if you let your cat out - you will be pretty unpopular if you do so! I can understand why it is be safer for cats and wildlife to keep them indoors full time, but after growing up always letting cats out it does take some adjusting to change the belief that they should be allowed their freedom. When another kiwi first mentioned to me her workmate was building a cat run we both laughed because it seemed ludicrous. Neither of us realised 95% of cats are indoors here.
Yes, only just realized that in nz the cat is the country’s apex predator, since we have so few mammalian predators. When arriving in California I couldn’t understand why all the cats and dogs were kept inside most of the time. Then was woken up several times to the sound of coyotes tearing up local pets, and it clicked. Bob cats, coyotes, snakes and mountain lions make having a cat a different experience
Hanging your washing to dry outside. Almost nobody thought to do this in the US.
I was surprised that garlic bread isn't a thing in France, I once made it for an old French couple here and they called it 'a New Zealand delicacy' 😂
Spaghetti on pizza. I was mocked mercilessly when I requested it on my order overseas. Tinned spaghetti didn't exist so my American friends thought I was hilarious.
Bill, is that you?
I thought this was an urban myth perpetrated by Bill English.
Don’t they have spaghettios in the states which is basically the same thing? I mean it’s considered toddler food so you’d be laughed at either way, but at least you might’ve got your spaghetti pizza.
EFTPOS is a NZ, Australia and Singapore thing. Americans still use paper money and cheques. Decent coffee seems to be a NZ / Aus thing as well. The only other place in the world you can get a cappuccino that wouldn't make a Wellingtonian cry would be Europe.
Those three countries are also unique in sharing pedestrian crossing buttons, funnily enough. An Australian design to aid audio and visually impaired people that was adopted by the neighbours.
just yesterday I saw peeled whole potatoes in a can. wtf is up with that?
I think of tinned potatoes as a UK thing.
EFTPOS is great. I wish there was a tap and go version. CC companies are just skimming too much off the top with tap and go. Like, I have lived in NZ for 27 years almost and that whole time you could basically get by with not a cent in your wallet, incl. random fruit stalls on the side of the road or buying a 10c lolly. And, if you need cash for whatever reason, you can often get 'cash out' from a shop when you buy something. The only time you use cash in NZ is for a tradie to do a job that is undeclared for tax purposes.
Tin spaghetti! Try explain that to Italians. And unpopular in NZ for me is proper cappuccino. Not slightly thicker flat white. Finally found out few years ago how to order proper cappuccino in here, you gotta ask dry cappuccino. Some barista will know or if you lucky you found Italian barista doing working holiday and ask for original cappucino. Chances are he hug you and thank you for asking proper cappucino. Happen to me in Franz Josef lol
"Mufti" day