Things I'll miss about New Zealand, Volume One

1- The birds.  They're so plentiful and musical here.
2- The pies: Savoury pies are a staple of kiwi takeaways.  Every diner, dairy (convenience store), and petrol station (gas station) sells pies as a quick and easy meal or snack. 
3- The coffee: It's super expensive here, but it's worth it. No watered-down drip stuff here.  It's all flat whites, long blacks, mochas and machiatos. Delish.
4- The expressions and the different ways they say things: "fair enough," "Sweet as" "petrol" "wind screen", "rubbish", "mince" (ground beef).
5- The rugby: The World Cup kicks off this Friday and the country is stoked. The Canadian Team has landed and got a cool kiwi reception at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds (where the country as we know it was officially founded) complete with a trip in a waka (big Maori "canoe") and a warriors' greeting.  Damn, I wish I could stick around for the whole tournament.  Go All Blacks!

6- The jingles: It's incredible how catchy ditties can permeate your conciousness without your realizing it.

• "The Warehouse, The Warehouse, where everyone gets a bargain."
• "Briscoes: you'll never buy better"
• "Smith City makes it easy!"
• "Go Harvey Normans, GO!"
• And so on...

7- The "can do" attitude: Kiwis are such practical folk.  They know how to make things, fix things and do it happily.
8- The weather: Even in the middle of winter in the deep South (where it's colder, remember), it's not uncommon for people to walk around in shorts (to be fair, they might just be made from tougher stuff than me, cause I was still wearing my ski jacket around town yesterday.)