Comparison

Samantha Russell
International Studies
April, 2009
NZ-US Comparison



The United States through a Funhouse Mirror
(subtitled Samantha rambles semi coherently for far too long)



Life in New Zealand, at first glance, isn’t all too different from life in the United States—everyone speaks English, the building structures are familiar, and heck, even some of the fauna is familiar—house sparrows, starlings, black birds, rabbits, etc. However, upon further examination, one finds that New Zealand is more like a parallel universe version of the United States. Yes, everyone speaks English, but one still has trouble understanding what is being said. Yes the buildings look the same, but the floors are numbered differently, and often the doorknob isn’t where it should be, and don’t even get me started on driving habits! In the following paper, I will address and compare two important aspects of life between New Zealand and the United States; transportation and food.
I know I alluded to the fact that I may rant on and on about what scary drivers New Zealanders are, however, I do not intend this to be the focal point of my comparison—there exist some pretty reckless drivers in the United States as well. I will address public transport, self-propelled transport, and, as automobiles.
Christchurch, much unlike Stevens Point, or really, the majority of the United States has a fantastic intra-city network of transportation. It is easy to travel from the outskirts of town to the city centre, and relatively easy to find one’s way back home. Perhaps this has something to do with the size of Christchurch, however, even with the limited bus service of Stevens Point, such ease of transport is unheard of. The service along with the people one typically travels with, I’ve been told by Philip Catton, has become a bit, as the kiwis say, dodgey, however, whenever I’ve been “commuting” I have found that my fellow bus goers, regardless of their state of sobriety, have been polite and respectful on the bus. Everyone, from the school children in the mornings to the sketchy drunk men on the last bus towards my home, never fails to thank the bus driver with a, “Ta,” “Cheers, mate,” or even a plain old “Thank you, driver,” before stepping off of the bus. I have my doubts that this would happen anywhere in the United States, not even in the Ashland/Washburn county B.A.R.T (Bay Area Rural Transport) system.
Even more impressive, is that it is incredibly easy for one to travel between cities via bus. On the news, I’ve heard tell of many busses regularly making rounds from Picton all the way down to Invercargill. I’ve even personally used transport between Christchurch and Akoroa. While these services are offered by private corporations and are a bit more expensive than the city bus, the pricing is still reasonable and highly encourages many to refrain from renting individual vehicles and instead use mass transit. Though the services, I am sure, are geared more towards the touristy set, the “locals” use the service as well. While en route to Akoroa, I met a young girl—roughly aged nine—who was explaining to me that she uses this shuttle every other weekend to visit her father, who lives quite a ways away. Reliable, easily accessible, inter-city transport would be an asset to Wisconsin as well as to the United States.
As a result of green-washing, I was under the impression that Christchurch would be far more bicycle friendly than it is. It is easy to bike in Christchurch, don’t get me wrong, it is a flat city with plenty of sidewalks and not-so-busy roads that will get me where I need to go. However, there are bike lanes. Initially, this seems like a fantastic idea! Save the pedestrians by getting the cyclists off the sidewalk and giving them their own lane. Initially, I loved this idea. However, not long after I began biking around Christchurch were my dreams dashed to pieces. It is alarming, and frankly dangerous, to be biking along and to be passed by a semi-truck full of cows or other similar livestock. My balance was disrupted and I was a bit disoriented by the noise and suddenness of it all. Bad things could have happened. The bike lanes in Christchurch are often flanked on either side by traffic lanes. This makes biking neither an appealing option nor a safe one. In the United States, and in Stevens Point especially, concessions are slowly being made to the cyclists, though other places are less fortunate. It would be prudent to learn from the alarming nature of Christchurch’s biking lanes, and design other places to be more cyclist friendly.
Cars, I’m sure grudgingly, are a popular mode of transportation in New Zealand. However, the busy streets, aside from behemoth semi-trucks, are packed mostly with small, fuel-efficient cars—not the gigantic, monstrous, ill-used trucks and sport-utility-vehicles that are so common on American roadways. Even more surprising about these vehicles is the awareness they have of those travelling outside of metal boxes around them. Motorists in New Zealand actually observe cross walks here, and will go to great lengths to actually stop and wait for pedestrians to cross through them. In the United States it would seem that cross walks are more zones where pedestrians can cross, and in the case of an accident, can legitimately sue the motorist.
Food is a highly important thing for people in both New Zealand and the United States. I was and am still happy to sample the differences between what passes as what between the two cultures. The largest differences I have found can be categorized into beverages, availability of unique products, and restaurants.
Tea is the hot drink of choice it would seem, from herbal tea (pronounce the h) to stand old gumboot tea. The affection of New Zealanders to this beverage accounts for a great deal of money spent on tooth whitening products, I am sure. Unfortunately, the love of such leaf based brews leaves New Zealanders a bit blind to the American hot drink of choice—coffee. Coffee in this country is simply awful. It amounts to something similar to what one would find running in sewers with some frothed milk on top. There is however one endemic beverage that, if it isn’t horrible, at least I’ve grown accustomed to. That is, the flat white. The flat white initially looks and sounds like an average latte. However, it would seem that in order to make it what it is, the milk must be burnt or scalded until it is very nearly crispy and the espresso shot(s) must be made from old grounds in a poorly packed filter. Hot Dog!
Milk, an important addition to both coffee and tea, is something of question here. While New Zealand is quickly becoming the dairy source of Oceania, the concept of freshness seems to be beyond New Zealanders. Milk here, instead of being pasteurized and served practically out of the teat like in Wisconsin, is rendered to milk powder and then reconstituted for sale domestically and abroad. This leads to such shocking sights as milk being stored in grocery stores as a dry good, or finding milk in the pantry in one’s home. This also leads to an indescribable, awful taste to the milk. It is like one is drinking abominations of the industrial revolution. Other differences of note in the beverage sector include that sprite here is called lemonade and sodas don’t taste only like high-fructose corn syrup—something manufacturers in the United States ought to take note of.
Lamb, kumara, and feijoas are common ingredients in everyday dinners in New Zealand. The availability and expenses involved with these products make the consumption of such goods in many parts of the United States at best impractical and at worst impossible. Prices of lamb at the right time of year, in New Zealand, can be cheaper than any turkey or chicken products—meats that are typically fairly cheap in the United States. Given the volume of sheep in this country, this is not surprising. Kumara, a sweet potato introduced by Maori settlers, is also a very popular addition to a hearty autumn’s meal, either as a mash, a soup, or just roasted. It most certainly would fill the niche of the American yam. Feijoa is just coming into season now, so it is a recent addition to my dietary repertoire. Feijoa is a semi-tropical fruit that one eats plain by cutting it in half and scooping out the innards, by eating it minced on ice cream, or by brewing it into a tea. It has quite a musky taste, and I can think of nothing to compare it to. Also of note is the ease of which one can access good, bad, or mediocre Indian food in this country. This is probably a result of a higher Indian population than occurs in much of the United States. Frankly, after trying butter chicken, and other fantastic curries, this is tragic.
-Restauraunts and tips


Works Referenced


Butler, Sue. New Zealand - Culture Smart! a quick guide to customs and etiquette (Culture Smart!). London: Kuperard, 2006.

Gone to Gondwanaland. 25 Apr. 2009 .

Heavenly Creatures. Dir. Peter Jackson. Perf. Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey. DVD. 1994.

Sione's Wedding. Dir. Christ Grahm. Perf. Oscar Kightley and Iaheto Ah Hi. DVD. 2006.

Thompson, Christina. Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All A New Zealand Story. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2008.

Wolfe, Richard. “The People’s Bird.” New Zealand Geographic. Jan/March 2000. Vol. 45. p. 12-21.