[kimandgareth]

Hi all

Our reccie is about to start (hurrah!! :raebanana ) this time next week and I wondered if I could ask everyone if there is anything we should avoid from a 'tourist' point of view. Basically we want to feel as much as we can like we are able to see NZ life as it is day to day and not be like tourists. Is there anything we should experience or totally avoid with this in mind? So far we have read that only tourists go to Starbucks so we can steer clear of those :exit

Thanks all!!

[Moorf]

Learn how to order a beer in the pub ;).

I still look like a tourist nearly 3 yrs on, clutching the camera!!

Dress down, wherever you are (except job interviews!).

Chill.. ;)

If you're in Chch let us know.... have a fab trip!

Moorf

[kimandgareth]

Learn how to order a beer in the pub ;).

Moorf

:laugh now thats good advice!!

we will be relaxed thats for sure, although i may be forced to jump up and down like a small crazy person when we see Welly harbour come into view from the ferry through pure excitement :laugh I will just do it from the other end so Gareth doesn't get too embarassed!!

[Moorf]

i may be forced to jump up and down like a small crazy person when we see Welly harbour come into view from the ferry through pure excitement

Careful, you might trigger an earthquake! :laugh

[Moorf]

Did you know that they can't legally sell you a "pint" here?!

http://www.realbeer.co.nz/blog/2005/04/legality-of-pints-official-view.html

[StevieD]

So come on, how do you order a beer then??

:) Don't want to look like a tourist LOL

[zardell]

To order a pint Steve, just follow my Steves example..........

With a glazed look on your face, point to one of the pumps and say 'I'll have one of those and the wife will have a small glass' Works everytime !!


:laugh :laugh :laugh


Julie

xx

[StevieD]

Did he say he would have his shaken, not stirred in true playboy style?? :laugh

[sarahw]

Did you know that they can't legally sell you a "pint" here?!

http://www.realbeer.co.nz/blog/2005/04/legality-of-pints-official-view.html

Interesting... we ordered a beer last weekend at an 'Irish' pub in the Hawke's Bay & were served pints & half pints!! I can't remember the last time I've been served a pint.

Funnily enough Julie, my hubby orders beer in the same way! :D

Its difficult not to look like a tourist when you've got your camera & are standing looking at a map trying to find your way around a new place... Moorf's advice about dressing down is a definite - also don't wear socks & sandals - definite tourist alert there!! ;)

[jess]

Things to experience like everyday life:

If you find an area where you think you might like to live, go to some open homes there on Sunday.
Try driving from where you might want to live to where you expect to work in rush hour.Have a great trip!! :D

[Ana&Steve]

Hi all

Our reccie is about to start (hurrah!! :raebanana ) this time next week and I wondered if I could ask everyone if there is anything we should avoid from a 'tourist' point of view. Basically we want to feel as much as we can like we are able to see NZ life as it is day to day and not be like tourists. Is there anything we should experience or totally avoid with this in mind? So far we have read that only tourists go to Starbucks so we can steer clear of those :exit

Thanks all!!Don't talk about Lord of the Rings, even if you love the movies!:D Found that most Kiwis we met had never seen any of them:confused: , but it could have been a fluke.
Ana

[Mal]

Drive around in a dirty flat backed 'ute', with a sheepdog standing on the back, dressed in cut off jeans, a check shirt and a wide brimmed hat, towing a trailer with a pig in it. Should do the trick.

[StevieD]

This guy won tourist of the month in New Zealand, so just try not to look like him I suppose :laugh:laugh

http://www.harrythehorse.com/2005/2005images/nov/tourist%20of%20the%20month_small.jpg

[barryp]

I am still a tourist myself, being here for just two months, but I can spot others pretty well already. Usually it's a matter of footwear or outerwear, secondarily it's conspicuous branding on clothing of obvious foreign popular fashion (Guess, Juicy, etc.)

My take on this is the same as it's been forever when visiting a new place:
- You can't fit in right away. Don't worry about it.
- Don't wear your home on your sleeve, literally. (No football gear, no giant USA flags, whatever applies to you.)
- Don't be a jerk, presuming that the locals are stupid and have been waiting all their lives for you to show them a better way of doing things.

Seems you have that stuff down - why not just bring your sense of adventure along with your good will and enjoy the trip?

[kimandgareth]

also don't wear socks & sandals - definite tourist alert there!! ;)

Thats it - I'm not coming now, not if I can't wear my knee socks and sandals!! :laugh :laugh

We're very laid back generally, including clothes, so no fancy labels for us. It sounds like we just need to chill out and try not to map read in the middle of the street and we'll fit right in ;)

[Avalon]

Just tell everyone you meet that you are looking at moving here! They will tell you a lot of stuff that may be helpful to you. Some of it (to be honest) you may not want to hear - but thats natural and it wont make the blindest bit of difference. So hear it all anyway.

But this way - you never know how many friends you might make for when you make the move!

Oh - and be touristy for a minute at least - and when you have finished going Ga Ga over welly harbour - get your butts down to teh Chocolate Fish cafe and sit on the beach.

[zardell]

Drive around in a dirty flat backed 'ute', with a sheepdog standing on the back, dressed in cut off jeans, a check shirt and a wide brimmed hat, towing a trailer with a pig in it. Should do the trick.



:laugh :laugh :laugh

Julie

xx

[marcia]

Jess's tip about open homes is a good one, will give you a good idea of NZ housing too!

Best advice I can give about not looking like a tourist is not to speak!!!!:D

As soon as you open your mouth people ask are you here on holiday??!!

If you have an idea of where you are are going to settle - why not visit some of the places you may want to join - eg Karate clubs, playcentres, schools etc - just to get an idea of what they are like over here! We would have visited the schools when we came if it hadn't been the summer holidays derrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

Also try and do a 'fictional weekly' shop at the supermarket and price it up to see how much you would be spending on groceries. We knew we wouldn't be bringing 'white' goods with us so we went to the electrical retailers and priced things up there as well - just gives you an idea of how much things cost, places like Briscoes, the warehouse, bond & bond, and Noel Leeming are all good places to try.

Enjoy your trip!

[wiki]

[QUOTE=kimandgareth;116879]Thats it - I'm not coming now, not if I can't wear my knee socks and sandals!! :laugh :laugh
[QUOTE]

Most of my male teachers at school wore sandals, knee socks and shorts to work so you won't be THAT out of place... it was also a bit of a uniform for coach drivers!

It's the socks, sandals and long trousers that doesn't tend to work :)

[StevieD]

It's a British tradition. Wore sandals and socks as as tropical uniform as an officer in HM's finest. good enough for them, good enough for me ;) :laugh

[katandbob]

Drive around in a dirty flat backed 'ute', with a sheepdog standing on the back, dressed in cut off jeans, a check shirt and a wide brimmed hat, towing a trailer with a pig in it. Should do the trick.
STUBBIES - you must be dressed in stubbies (small tight shorts) and work boots:laugh :laugh watch the L&P ad on TV

Good as gold......Kat

[Charlosparky]

STUBBIES - you must be dressed in stubbies (small tight shorts) and work boots:laugh :laugh

Oh definitely yes- and get a "mullett" haircut while you are at it, and if you rent a car make sure its an old japanese import with a Radio Hauraki sticker (they invented rock radio don't ya know):nice1

[Laurie]

Sometimes there is no escaping you are a tourist. When we were visiting a couple of years ago my husband and I were having a bite to eat in a pub. There was only another elderly couple in the place. The gentleman got up and came over to our table and said...'You're Canadians aren't you?".

My husband and I were stunned. We looked at each other and asked him how he knew. (There was no way he could have overheard us talking so he could not have recognized any accent).

He looked at us and said..."It is the way you cut your meat, then put down your knife and switch your fork into the other hand and pick up the meat."

So....sometimes you never know what will give you away!!!

Enjoy the trip....

[Diny]

A man over here once told me that it was easy to tell I was English without even hearing me speak. When I asked how he said:

"because you've got good skin and you smell nice" !!!!!!

Not alot I could say to that.

Diny

[StevieD]

Wasn't that smooth talkin guy in the stubbies and wellies in that bar was it Diny?? ;) :laugh :laugh

[Carol]

As soon as you open your mouth people ask are you here on holiday??!!

Enjoy your trip!

People still ask me that now.
Been here 11 years in June!
:laugh

[StevieD]

Better practice my kiwi speak then I think.

[Jezza]

A man over here once told me that it was easy to tell I was English without even hearing me speak. When I asked how he said:

"because you've got good skin and you smell nice" !!!!!!


I'm hoping you are a girl.;)

I had a chap in an All Blacks shirt come up to me on the Millennium Bridge in London and ask me where I was from in a broad Kiwi eccint. When I said Suffolk he looked a bit puzzled and wandered off. It was only later I twigged I was wearing a Swannie. So I suppose I might blend in.