… you don’t expect, because you they have always been like that.

So people love Things. They love them even more, if it is a List of Things. So I guess I’ll have to start a category of posts called “5 Things…”, where I list random things, that struck me in one way or another.

People driving on the wrong left. Well, you probably did expect that, because it is one obvious thing that’s different about NZ. Yet when you actually are in NZ and “experience” it yourself, it is a completely different thing. You will be surprised about how often you are surprised, that cars are coming from the other side, than you thought. Even though you just tried to reason in your head, which way a particular lane goes.

Prices in the supermarket are rounded up. I’m not 100% sure about the exact way of rounding, but when you are buying stuff for, let’s say 18.96 NZ$, you’ll actually have to pay 19.00 NZ$. At least if you are paying cash. I have not gotten around to pay an odd amount with my debit card.

You have to know where you are, when you take the bus. Well, I don’t know if this is just a Christchurch thing, but when you take the bus, they don’t tell you the name of the next stop coming ahead. You just have to magically know where you want get of the bus. And due to the fact, that busses don’t seem to be as widely used as in Munich, it happens more often than not, that the bus goes past a stop, because nobody stops the bus. Not that it would that much of a difference, because the stops aren’t really labeled with any kind of name. They just have a five digit number. But nobody ever references that one either.

The Internet is metered. Especially on mobile data, there seem to be no flatrates. Neither real ones, nor the false ones we have, were you are just a lot slower. When your data plan is used up, you’ll have to pay for every additional MB used. Which’ll cost you about 0.30 NZ$ each. I don’t know how uncommon flatrates at home are, but my first hosts only had a 40GB per month plan.

People still driving on the wrong side! I know I already said that, but that it something that seriously gets me all the time! And I won’t dare driving a car in the near future. Because not having an accident, would be pure luck on my side.