Everyone here talks funny

Well, almost everyone. I have met a few Americans and obviously we speak normally. But as I stated in my previous post, I love accents. And there are plenty of different accents here. I've roomed with Scottish, Danish, Dutch, and 3 different kinds of British people. It seems like the only people I haven't really met are Kiwis. There's the Maori guy who works for the hostel and coordinates the speedpool tournament in the bar next to the hostel every night and who knows my name. And any shop I go into will almost certainly have a sometimes difficult to understand Kiwi accented individual behind the counter. But I haven't really met any Kiwis. But that's to be expected. At my orientation last Friday we were told that roughly 2000 people are landing in Auckland every day. Most of them are probably tourists, and most of them probably won't get far beyond Auckland.

However I expect that to change tomorrow. Tomorrow morning cloudy and early I leave on my Stray bus tour. It will wind its way around both islands before finishing in Christchurch, where I will most likely stop to work for awhile. That is unless I fall in love with Wellington and just never get back on the bus, which is not only possible but expected given the nature of this "hop-on, hop-off" bus tour. But before that, we tour the North Island. Some of the expected highlights include being the first in the world to see the sun rise on the East Cape, spending the night in a national park, probably some cave-exploring and sand sliding. Listen to me. I'm getting all giddy.

The past few days have been nothing really to speak of. A lot of walking and strolling through a few beautiful parks, but mostly planning, organizing, pretending to fit in while trying to cook in the kitchen. I can't wait to travel and see some scenery. I also can't wait to meet more people. I probably can wait to get up at 7:30 am tomorrow.

Some of my favorite words when said by foreigners (primarily British):

• shite
• brilliant
• bollocks
• bloody hell
• sweet as

In New Zealand 'sweet as' is a common phrase basically meaning 'sounds good' or 'cool' or just plain 'sweet'. The word 'as' is added to a lot of things basically like an adverb. For example, an hour after I eat I may be hungry, but 10 hours after I eat I'll probably be hungry as. It also contributed nicely to this very Kiwi conversation I had in a store:

Clerk: How ya goin', mate?

Me: I'm just browsing.

Clerk: Just browsin'? Sweet as, bro.

For more on New Zealand-speak, consult this video which I'm told Kiwis find humorous, and quite frankly I do too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA