Before departing New Zealand…

We went to Costco, the only one in NZ. I like going to Costco in various countries, they often have large sizes of the good stuff to take home.

Who’s familiar with Freddos? Hah, I got a giant bag.

Once again, though, no damn Smarties, but they had tubs of M&Ms – I do NOT understand the world’s preoccupation with crappy chocolate tablets.

But Smarties… oooh, quality choccy in a thick sugar shell. Yum.

The Costco chickens here are $8.99 but that’s NZD – it’s US$5.38, so pretty comparable.

Gas is expensive. We paid $2.97/liter, which equates to US$6.73/gallon. Next fill up, Costco to the rescue… we saved US 53c/gallon.

The other thing we’ve noticed here… the Kiwis expect people to act like adults. They warn you about dangers then it’s on you. For example, the road signs… around some of the bends, it gives a speed limit.

In the US, that’s sort of a guideline but add at least 15mph to it and for the most part you’re good. Whee, round you go.

Here… f😳ck around and find out, baby, because they ain’t kidding. If it says 45 km/h, you slow your ass down. That is one EVIL bend in the road you’re approaching because 30mph is too fast.

They tell you what’s appropriate or not and people actually follow the instructions. When we climbed Mount Eden (the volcano) the signs said entering the caldera was “tapu” (taboo/forbidden as its sacred) but no fencing or other barriers.

And tempting as that was to roll down, NO ONE had gone in there. The grass was untouched.

Compare this to Yosemite, where people regularly perish after climbing past the warning signs AND the barriers designed to keep them from doing something stupid.

I really like it here.