- NZ music artist Gin Wigmore
- Sunsets into the ocean
- Driving to work with the kids every morning we have a contest as to who sees the ocean first. "Water!!" and who sees the wind wand first "Wind Wand!!" Ella wins every day. Owen repeats her after she sees it.
- The NZ made women's designer clothing store Kilt
Dislike:
- Diet Mountain Dew withdrawals - The first thing I'll do back in the US is drive to a convenience store and get hopped up on Diet Dew.
- Owen's teacher telling us about his day saying that he was a "ratbag" today. (i.e. monkey). Now that I know the word, I actually think are kids are ratbags most days....
- No Halloween!!!! Are you kidding me? Kiwis don't celebrate Halloween - they see it as "an American thing". No Thanksgiving in November. Labor Day in October. Christmas in the summer. It's really hard to remember what date it is.
Different:
- Reading lines in the paper such as, "Hooligans ran amok....."
- Rugby
- Ella denouncing the flag. When we tell her she's an American, she says "I'm not an American. I'm a Kiwi!" We've finally settled with her that she's an American Kiwi.
- You don't realize how much you refer to different months of the year by seasons until the seasons change on you. We catch ourselve saying "next spring" when something is going to occur next April, but that's really fall here. You have to reprogram your brain.
- The letter "Z" is pronounced "zed". NZ is pronounced "en-zed". It took me a while to figure this out.
- Josh got two Father's Days this year. One in June in the US and one in August in NZ.
