Sweet As Bro, She'll Be 'Right Mate, Good As Gold

A couple of quick observations on the kiwi nation before I move on to Oz...

• Kiwis are kiwi and proud. It was a sorry day when the All Blacks went out
• Kiwis very much have their own lingo - some favourite phrases: "if your brains were barbed wire you couldn't fence a dunny" (you are stupid), "two-thirds of five-eighths of fuck all" (very little), "up shit creak in leaky gumboots"  (variant of up shit creek without a paddle, meaning in trouble), "couldn't see the road to the dunny if it had red flags on it" (said of someone slow witted...or totally drunk)...I could go on.
• It's customary to refer to everyone as mate, bro or cuz - even if they aren't.
• It's compulsory to add 'eh?' to the end of as many statements as possible: they don't have to be questions. Examples: "it's real cool eh?", "facking hot mate eh?", "gotta get my a into g eh?", "always good to have a tinnie in ya hand mate eh?"
• They are positive about everything, and understate any problems. You say, "My dog got run over"...it's "she'll be right mate!"... "No, my dog is dead"..."Aw...she'll be right mate! This is a common attitude to indicate everything will be ok - refreshing coming from the UK.
• Everything is nice, delicious, fantastic, awesome, amaaazing - never described as mediocre. Even if it is.
• Kiwis frequently state the obvious. Their signposts make me chuckle, with helpful things such as "wrong way" on the road and "do not do this because...listing a million reasons".

I spent my last night in NZ in Christchurch with James, who I lived with in Bristol about 7 years ago and hadn't seen for about 5. He had arrived two days earlier, for a two year stint and is yet to learn the above... give it about a week I say! Catch ya later bro...