'They put it on toast': American reveals 'truth', quirks about living in New Zealand

An American who spent time living in New Zealand has opened up about life was really like for him downunder.

In a video posted online, the man from California detailed the variations in cuisine between the US and New Zealand, as well as how Māori and Pacific Island foods featured in the nation's culture.

The tourist's vlog also touched on the differences in culture and how friendly Kiwis,
Māori and Polynesians are compared to people back home.

"There were so much nicer than the people in California. I was so surprised. I was like this can't be real," he said.

"They're so humble. They don't yell at us. It's kind of like a paradise."

He said the pace of life while living in New Zealand was slower and was impressed with how much we value the family unit.

He also said the Māori and Polynesian communities were always singing and cheerful compared to Americans.

"They love to sing. They don't always sing in tune but they sing a lot. They sing loudly.

"The culture over there in New Zealand is slower than the US. They're a lot more family orientated.

"The Samoans and Tongans are very delightful people. They're very friendly. They like to laugh, and they like to eat. If they like you, they really like you.

"Then the Kiwis, the European Kiwis they're nice. There's a lot of older people. There are some retirement communities.

"You want to get some shoes that are easy to slip on and off before going inside. The head of the table eats first."

When it comes to food, the tourist was blown away with some items but was rather sceptical on a couple of Kiwi delicacies.

He revealed he was surprised at how good kina tasted, but blasted Marmite as "nasty".

"They put a lot of fat in everything. In America, we love our sugar. In New Zealand, the food will be fatty but not sugary.

"There's one crazy food I like, the Maori eat them. It's called kina. It's like sea urchins and they put it on toast. It's really good!

"Marmite is so nasty don't try it. One time I had a raw squid or mussel. It was so bad. It was weird.

"Fish and Chips, mostly it's good ... and they put eggs on their hamburgers."

One notable difference between American and Kiwi food was how fresh the dairy products were.

'They're so humble. They don't yell at us. It's kind of like a paradise.'

The tourist was blown away our dairy farmed animals were free-range. He said ice cream in New Zealand is the best there is.

"The ice cream and the dairy is really fresh ... when you eat the ice cream you'll say 'this is the best ice cream I've ever had!'

"The milk is better than in America."

He went on to detail how he enjoyed Weetbix, which he had with honey or brown sugar, while explaining what shepherds pie tasted like.

He described taro as "really good" while calling kumara a dessert item you'd eat during dinner.

One of the quirky foods he was surprised with was petrol station meat pies, and said calling soda 'fizzy drink' was "interesting".

One discovery he made during his time in New Zealand was Milo.

"You put it in boiling water and teaspoons of sugar. And it's good. Once you come back to the US you'll never want to have hot chocolate again!"

A big adjustment the tourist had to make was picking up our Kiwi slang.

He highlighted the use of the terms "sweet as bro", "heaps", "hard as" and "straight away".

But one stumbling block was when he was asked to "bring a plate".

"When they say bring a plate they mean bring something to eat, not bring your plate. I got confused about that one. It's pretty funny."