Today I would like to talk about New Zealanders or rather Kiwis as they generally refer to themselves. At the age of sweet 16 I spent one year as an exchange student in New Zealand. Living with a Kiwi host family and going to the local school gave me a deep insight into their culture and I learned how to live and act like a real Kiwi. This post is not going to be about my ups and downs which I experienced Down Under, but rather about the cultural differences between Austria and NZ. Some of these difference you can see right when you get there - others you can't. You'll have to live there for quite some time and get to know the people in order to notice in what ways they behave differently and then the next step is to understand why they actually do it differently. I think this is going to be a loooooong entry, so I might divide up and make two or three parts. I could write pages and pages about this topic, but don't worry, I'll try to limit myself.. :)
Kiwis in general
On the very first day of my stay in NZ I already realized how unbelievably friendly and open Kiwis are. I was riding on the bus from the airport to my host family when a woman sat next to me and started talking to me. She asked me where I was from, what I was doing here and how much she had heard about Austria. Then she told me everything about the town I was travelling to. In the end she even gave me her number and address in case I wanted to come and visit her. Kiwis are generally very hospitable. It's not a big deal at all to just call in at somebody's place and stay for lunch or even the night. You'll always hear: "Just make yourself at home, will you".
Kiwis are very open, relaxed and easy-going people. Even so, I found it very hard to make real friends. I guess in this respect NZ is similar to the US. People are a bit superficial and it takes very long to make close friends. Especially at college (= high school) it's hard to become part of a group. They already have the cliques and don't need any more friends. So it's up to you to make the effort and try to make friends. The best thing to do is just go and talk to someone and when you hear about a party you'll have to invite yourself. That might sound rude to us, but in NZ it's not. It's the only way to get to know them a little better.
Housing
When it comes to housing you'll find huge differences between NZ and Austria. The first thing I noticed when I was looking out of the window during my busride were those weird looking houses. I didn't really believe that people were actually living in such 'houses' until I got to were I was to spend my next 12 months: a green, rectangular shoe box with sliding doors and windows and walls as thin as cardboard. Oh yes, I loved to hear my host brother snoring at night!! You could really compare their houses with camping trailers. Usually they don't have a second floor and pretty much always there's no central heating. Now you might think that NZ is a warm place where you don't need central heating, but believe me you do!! The climate on the South Island is about the same as in Austria and even though they don't have very cold winters on the North Island you'll often find it much colder inside than outside the house. So what you do when it's getting cold is to curl up by the fireplace in the living room with a couple of blankets and your sheep wool slippers. At night though, the tip of my nose would usually freeze as I slept right next to the window and sometimes I would even feel a chilly breeze blowing in from the closed (!) window. Some beds have electric blankets, but soon I discovered that there was not much use to it: If you forget to turn it off before you go to bed you'll wake in the middle of the night sweating heavily and if you don't, well then you'll wake early in the morning freezing to death. The mornings are actually the worst. Grudgingly you leave your warm bed (after you've heated it up again) and not later than when entering the bathroom you'll be frozen stiff. Kiwis just love to keep their windows open in any room at any time...
I have to mention though, that I can only speak of those living in the country. It might not be quite the same in the big cities such as Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.
Appearance
Kiwis love to complain about being cold, but it's really no wonder if you see how they dress. No matter which season they always wear shorts, sleeveless shirts and jandals (= sandals or flip flops). And don't be surprised when you see people walking barefoot in the middle of town (and even in the supermarkets) - they even drive their car barefoot. I haven't seen that in the cities though.
If you're in a hurry in the morning and don't have enough time to dry your hair, well no problem: In NZ it's not uncommon to leave the house with wet hair (even in winter of course).
What I thought was really interesting is how Kiwis dress when they go swimming. The common dress code for girls and boys are shorts that usually go way down to your knees. Girls wear their normal bathing suit underneath and boys like to keep their boxer shorts on. Sometimes, and his true, you would see people swimming with their t-shirts still on, even in an indoor swimming pool. Now don't ask me why they are so prude and dress like this. I've thought about it many times and I even asked some Kiwis about this matter, but somehow no one really knows the reason. Maybe it's simply because there are so many overweight girls who are ashamed of exposing their bodies. But it still doesn't explain why everyone is doing it.
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