Kiwi Trivia

Hey my dear friends,

First of all thanks you guys for checking my website so regularly. Great to see you are enjoying my stories!

So far I've been enjoying the Kiwi atmosphere a lot. Been chillin' out @ Flat 6b with Pars(ley) and Bas(il) - my new friends - while the internationals down here finished their last bits of studying. And now they've finished it's finally time for me to hit the road and go on some adventures. This week I'll be going to Tongariro National Park!

Fortunately for you I have not been sitting around doing nothing. Like I said last time I've been doing some field research. This meant getting to know everything there is to know about Kiwi culture, i.e. Kiwi Triva/Kiwiana!

But what is Kiwiana? Well, Kiwiana are all kinds of random facts about the country I live in at the moment. And trust me, there are lots of things you and I probably didn’t know before but no worries: I’m going to get you all up to date!

What is a Kiwi?
The Kiwi is, next to being the national fruit, New Zealand’s national bird, quite small, nocturnal and shy. I’m hoping to see one in the wild soon! Btw, New Zealand inhabitants are named after their national fruit and bird.

Edmonds Cookbook
THE cookbook used by all Kiwi’s in and outside New Zealand. Paulien & Kristin have been using it a lot to make delicious muffins!


Midori
Some strong, green, gewy liquor. Great for making ‘Midori Splice’: a nice cocktail with Midori, Malibu, Pineapple juice and a bit of cream.

All Blacks
The National Rugby team. Don’t mess with them ‘cause they’re huge and particularly scary when they perform the HAKA. They're really cool so I've become a big supporter of them as well.

Kiwi Slang
If you are planning to come to New Zealand, here are some words, which might help you to understand the locals better.
Batch – a holiday house
Arvo – afternoon
Heaps – a lot, a bunch
Sust – sorted
Jandals – known by Europeans as flip-flops and the Aussies call them thongs (?!)
Commered – completely hammered after consuming a lot of…. yeah…. alcohol

The Southern Hemisphere!
New Zealand has the biggest, greatest, longest, fastest, smallest, rarest, greenest, hottest everything in the Southern Hemisphere! And they do, but just picture the world map for a sec. There isn’t a whole lot in the Southern Hemisphere anyhow…
Well, now they've got the coolest plant in the Southern Hemisphere ;).

Wikipedia!
Wikipedia helped me out a bit more:
Chocolate fish — pretty self evident, really.
L&P — Lemon & Paeroa, a popular soft drink.
Pavlova – a light and fluffy meringue dessert named after the ballet dancer, Anna Pavlova
Silver fern — native plant; its stylised image or shape is displayed by many of the national sports teams.
Hei-tiki — Maori neck pendant. Tourist variety in green plastic are the definitively tasteless depths of kiwiana.
Vegemite - a dark and salty spread made from yeast extract. Developed by the Australian Fred Walker Company (but now produced by Kraft Foods). Similar to Marmite.

That's all for now folks. I'm off celebrating the end of the semester with my new friends and if all goes well I'll show you the top of the first mountain I'm going to climb in New Zealand next time!

Cheers,
Sofie

p.s. This is me with my new friend Bas. He's really nice and don't tell anyone, but I kinda have a crush on him!