This is our second day in New Zealand and I’m enjoying noticing the similarities and differences between here and the US. The one difference that is often in the front of my mind is that they drive on the other side of the road here. So far, we’ve been either driven or walked everywhere we’ve gone because neither of us is ready to get behind a wheel yet. Nevertheless, as we walk, we walk on the left side of the sidewalk and try to envision driving on the left as we go along. Even though it is so present in our minds, it is so engrained to look left when stepping off a curb instead of right for oncoming traffic. It really takes a lot of focus just crossing the street. As well, when we see cars coming around a corner, it still makes us jump, thinking that they are on the wrong side of the street. But alas, they are on the correct side!

We rented bikes today and plan to take a ride tomorrow. This should help us to reorient to left-side mentality. We are about 3 blocks from the edge of the University of Canterbury campus and we see a lot of people riding bikes and walking. There aren’t any bike paths near here but the campus has paths and small streets that might provide a good practice area for us.

I’m enjoying the modified English accents here. It’s funny, my thinking voice is starting to have a NZ accent – but it hasn’t started expressing itself out my mouth yet, at least I don’t think so! There are a few words that catch my imagination every now and then – like common sayings and such. The word “fortnight” is one that I have to google when I’m done writing. Also “whilst” is used instead of while. At the grocery store last night, the cashier referred to the shopping cart as a “trolly.” I like that there are a lot of Maori (pronounced mowry with the o like in “power”) words that are part of the common language here.

As Ithacans we feel comfortable here with the way that garbage and recycling are handled. In the house and everywhere we’ve gone on campus, there are three differently colored bins. Yellow bins are for recyclable material such as paper, cans and bottles; Green bins are for compostable material; and red bins are for the “rubbish” which is anything you couldn’t get in either of the other bins. They have weekly curbside pick up of these bins, which is very cool if you ask me. Unfortunately, NZ has not woken up to the scourge of plastic shopping bags. Last year, Hawaii banned plastic shopping bags and a year later they have pretty much disappeared. People are encouraged with discounts to bring their own bags, use the store’s boxes, or use the paper bags that the store provides. This is working well for Hawaii but here in NZ, the grocery stores are pumping out loads of the plastic bags. Granted, they are nice to reuse around the house for various things, but they are pretty nasty for the environment and its critters.

I’m really enjoying seeing different birds here and trying to identify them when I get back to my Birds of New Zealand book at the house. A brand new bird for me that we saw yesterday was the Magpie. This is a rather large, crow-looking bird that is mostly black with large areas of white markings. They were hanging out in one of the fields on the UC campus. We’ve also seen the Blackbird here, which has a yellow beak, is much larger and moves very differently than our Red-winged Blackbirds back home. The male is all black and the female is a brownish color.

Solway House, where we are staying had some damage from the earthquakes that shook Christchurch back in 2010 and 2011 but almost all of it has been fixed and repaired. The house looks great and is very comfortable. The Ilam (pronounced with a long I sound) area where we are located was spared the worst of the quakes. We were in the city center today and saw serious evidence of the damage to buildings that are still being repaired and rebuilt. Approximately 185 people in the Christchurch area lost their lives on February 22, 2011. I can sense a bit of sadness and longing from locals when they talk about the event. The city’s namesake church and several of its oldest and historic buildings were destroyed or severely damaged. It’s commercial center just stopped happening that day and has still not really recovered.

I’ve had the pleasure of noticing that New Zealanders, aside from being very friendly and willing to help strangers, also have more eye contact than I’m used to receiving from New Yorkers. They seem to take that extra few seconds to really look you in the eye as they talk and when you speak in return. I find it refreshing and I really like this aspect of the culture here. I often feel like people around me are moving so fast through life and conversation with others that they seldom actually look others in the eye and make sure that they are connecting.

The weather has been really nice. Temperatures have been into the high 40s at night and in the low 70s during the day. Yesterday, the breeze was quite cool but the sun was intensely warm, so if you stood in the shade, it felt pretty chilly. Today it should get into the high 70s. I’m looking forward to exploring more of Christchurch and taking some pictures to share.