things that are weird about new zealand:

• No one in NZ has a dryer, except for people in the center of a big city. Everyone hangs their washing out to dry, year round, even when it's cold and raining. This is strange to me because it takes days to get your clothes dry, and since I'm traveling, I generally don't have extra clothes to wear while waiting for my clean ones to dry.
  
• Driving on the left-hand side of the road isn't that weird, but they have this really strange right-of-way law that means that if you're making a left into on-coming traffic and someone across the intersection is making a right, they have the right-of-way. Basically, it's opposite to everywhere else in the world.
  
• People are obsessed with "hot drinks" here! Whenever I'm at someone's house I'm getting asked every 10 seconds if I want coffee, tea, or Milo (kind of like hot chocolate), and they always look at me really weird if I turn them down, OR when I have tea without milk or sugar, people act like I'm committing a crime against the Queen.
  
• No hipsters! Weird, but glorious.
  
• Phone numbers can be anywhere from 6 to 9 digits, for no discernible reason.
  
• The language, of course. The accents aren't that hard to get used to, but they say some interesting things. Eg, "eh" at the end of every sentence (used to agree, disagree, or inquire); "d'you reckon" (also at the end of every sentence, also used to agree, disagree, or inquire), "heaps" instead of "lots", "she'll be right" for "it's okay", "toilet" instead of "bathroom" (a bathroom signifies a room with a bath in it), "I'll ring you" instead of "I'll call you", "brekkie" for breakfast, "tramping" instead of "hiking", etc etc. So here's an average Kiwi sentence: "D'you reckon we'll get in heaps of tramps before brekkie, eh?" Sorta Canadian, sorta Australian, pretty much weird. But endearing. Oh and lots of different names for vegetables! Aubergine, courgette, capsicum, for eggplant, cucumber, and bell pepper.
  
• They put beets on a lot of things, although not as much as my mom said they did. But beets are generally on burgers, sandwiches, and salads, so basically everything tastes like dirt a little bit. Mmm!
  
• Bacon is in everything too. New Zealanders really like to eat lots of meat, all the time.
  
• No Mexican restaurants!!!!!!!!! Utter tragedy.