Now that we are home, just wanted to “wrap up” with a few odds and ends that we thought rather amusing or interesting.  I do want to add that some of our friends have been to New Zealand/Australia and everyone’s impressions are, of course, different.  However, Jeff had not been there for 38 years and this was my first time, so please keep in mind that we are not experts but just travelers and if we leave out something you think should be there or if we mention something you disagree with just take it with a grain of salt.

We liked New Zealand best, the people were so friendly (but so are Australians), they have a great sense of humor, and the country is spectacular.  Too bad it is so far away or we would go back.  These long plane rides are hard on old bones!

In New Zealand, you get an egg on just about any sandwich you order; BLT, cheeseburger, hamburger.  If you do not specify, you get the egg.  You will have a choice of fried or poached.

Australians eat kangaroos!!!  OMG!  Enough said about that.  They call “Sprite” soda “lemonade.”  I should have asked them what they call lemon juice/sugar/water drink.

Couldn’t get over how friendly everyone was.

Never saw baggy pants on young men, not once.  No boom boxes.  Lots of grafitti everywhere.  In 3 weeks only saw one homeless person, an elderly woman in Sydney.  In New Zealand they don’t have unemployment benefits because, as our guide told us “there are plenty of jobs and no reason for anyone to be unemployed.”  Makes sense to me.  In Australia, our friends (who live in Melbourne) estimated Australia’s unemployment to be about 8%.

Christmas decorations everywhere, including Nativity scenes, which were lovely.  It will be summer at Christmastime there.

Public school children wear uniforms.  The boys wear ties, knee length shorts and knee socks, the girls also had the shorts and socks, but sometimes we saw them in skirts.

Not so many people walking down the street with cell phones to their ear as here!  We did see them playing/texting while they were seated on public transportation however.

Their “paper” money is plastic, which makes a lot more sense since it won’t tear.  Seems like it would be harder to counterfeit too, and it’s colorful.

We met a man in Richmond walking a border collie down the street.  Since we had seen millions of sheep – more sheep than we had ever seen in our entire lives – I asked him if it was a sheep herding dog.  He said “Naw, he’s never seen a sheep in his life!”  We all had a good laugh and moved on.

We wondered if the lady’s voice on the GPS in the rental car would have an accent.  She did!  ha ha

In Auckland, downtown intersection lights all 4 turn red for cars at the same time and peds can cross diagonally in addition to the regular way.  No, they don’t all turn green at the same time!  Street lights have sounds so you know how much time you have.  Sorta hard to describe..  Didn’t see anyone trying to squeeze the yellow out of the light like we do here.

Kangaroos like to be scratched between their front legs.  If you try to touch the tops of their heads or backs it means “go away.”

We saw Kangaroos, koalas, kookaburras in the wild, and saw them at wildlife preserves and the zoo too.  New animal to us called “Bilby” and I will try to post a picture later.  Looks like a cross between a rat and a jack rabbit.  Wombats are adorable and BIG, so are the koalas.  Someone had told me the koalas stink.  This is not true.  They eat eucalyptus leaves and smell sort of like that and they are slow moving and sweet natured.  They have 2 “toes” together like a thumb, and 3 “toes” together like fingers.

Wombats and koalas are related.  Wombats have square poops.

So many nocturnal animals, couldn’t photograph like the kiwi, bilby, platypus, wombat, Tasmanian devils, possums.