THE LIGHTS ARE ON, BUT......

New Zealand or at least the North Island is a pretty laid back place, its hard to put your finger exactly on it, or find a word that sums it up. On the whole the Kiwis are extremely friendly and polite, they seem to get out into the great countryside and have fun. They go to sporting events, they drink in bars in fact they do everything everyone else does. Its just that they do it differently.

For example, I was in a bar in the centre of downtown Wellington to watch the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup 2011 and the first game between New Zealand and Tonga. 90% of the customers were Kiwis all watching the events on various large flat screen TV’s around the bar. But despite the All Blacks victory, the Kiwis remained reserved and polite, clapping instead of cheering and smiled instead of screaming their heads off.

When Ireland beat Australia, the number one foe here in New Zealand, the headline news the next day was, “Irish show Kiwis how to party and really support their team”. At the games we have been to, the Bok fans have been very vocal, singing, cheering and having fun and really getting behind their team. If you looked around the crowd you could spot the Kiwis, they were the ones who dress in the colours of whoever is playing the Boks and sit smiling and clapping politely. I am not saying that Kiwis don’t have fun, or enjoy themselves at rugby matches, but they just do it differently. I know from comments made by Kiwi’s who have been sitting around us at the various matches, that they have never seen a mexican wave before and get very excited in their own way, when one starts up.

Everyone observes the speed limits and every god dam road sign, people cross the road at zebra crossing, even the sheep stay in their fields and do not try to escape. You can drive through hamlets, villages, even towns without seeing anyone. I know this is a reasonable sized country with only 4.5 million people living in it, but if there are houses and shops you would expect there to be people to put inside them.

Take today, okay I know its a Sunday, okay its raining, okay there are three RWC games on the TV, but this morning I visited three reasonably sized towns and saw no-one. As I drove past shops and houses you could see the inside the buildings, the lights were on, but no-one appeared to be in. That saying must of originated here in New Zealand.

Even better, I visited the town of Waitianga, which is a proper town, with supermarkets and even an airfield. But as I walked the streets of the town, nothing moved, no car, no person, not even sheep. I walked into a launderette and 5 out of 8 of the washing machines were in operation, doing someone’s washing and 3 dryers were merrily tumbling clothes. But there was absolutely no-one in the launderette, outside on the street there was no-one in sight. Further on I walked into a large liquor store to check out the wine prices. The automatic doors opened as I approached, as I crossed the threshold a bell ding donged, the Doobie Brothers were playing, I walked around the store, checked out the wine and left. Other than me there was no-one else in the shop not even an assistant, maybe it was run similar to an honesty bar, but I doubt it. I walked past an estate agents, the large double doors were wide open, inside the lights were on, but I couldn’t see anyone inside. Why was it open, who was going to pop in, who were they hoping to sell a house to, surely not passing trade because that was me and I don’t want to buy a house. I tell you all of this is very spooky, what concerns me is that all around this area there are tsunami warnings, escape routes and meeting points. From what I understand a tsunami moves pretty quickly, but experts can give many hours warning of such an event. My concern is many hours may not be enough for the Kiwi’s. As I say this is how it appears to be in the North Island, worryingly I had lunch with some locals yesterday and they told me that we would notice a big change when we went to the South Island. They said they were really slow and laid back in the south and everything was how it was 20 or 30 years ago. They added that the south didn’t have the pace of life of the north and clearly saw themselves as busy bees, rushing around. No, New Zealand is a very nice place, full of very nice people and could be a great place to live provided you keep taking the sedatives and stop wasting electricity by switching the lights off.