1) People here say different words. They say "rubbish" instead of "garbage" and "shop" instead of "store" and they call McDonalds "Mackers". They say "carpark" instead of "parking lot," "boot" instead of "trunk," "mate" instead of "friend."
2) The steering wheels are on the right side of the car and everyone drives on the left side of the road.
3) there are 4 million people and 44 million sheep
4) They eat a lot of pumpkin here. They make pumpkin soup, pumpkin ravioli, and even pumpkin lasagna. (But no pumpkin pie).
5) The main sports are rugby, cricket, and netball. The most popular sports team is the rugby team called the All Blacks. They do a native ritual dance called a "hangi" before every game to make the other team scared of them.
6) There are Chinook salmon here (I think it was a gift from the Native Americans?) and there are orca whales here too.
7) there are NO squirrels, raccoons, bears, cougars, or skunks in NZ. Hedgehogs are never pets here, they are pests that carry diseases and that cars run over ;-)
8) The native people here are called the Maori. They arrived on the islands around 800 years ago. They hunted a giant bird (bigger than an ostrich) called the Moa to extinction. (That's Bryce holding a Moa bone in a cave on the South Island).
9) The national bird is called the "kiwi." Kiwis have no wings and are really fat. They have giant eggs. Kiwis are nocturnal so Julie has never seen one :-( Julie thinks that kiwis, like penguins, are part of a giant NZ conspiracy and don't really exist. Possums and dogs that were brought to the islands by immigrants are killing the kiwis because the kiwis can't run away fast enough.
10) New Zealanders like to call themselves "Kiwis."
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