Kayla, who moved from New York City to Auckland in August, has documented her move and life in New Zealand on TikTok. Photo / via TikTok
Kayla, who moved from New York City to Auckland in August, has documented her move and life in New Zealand on TikTok. Photo / via TikTok
An American living in New Zealand has listed the biggest differences she’s noticed since she moved to Aotearoa.
Kayla, who moved from New York City to Auckland in August, posted about her experiences on TikTok.
And it seems getting to grips with Kiwi words and phrases was harder than the American thought it would be, admitting that she had to Google popular expressions to understand them.
Kayla, who moved to NZ after she was offered a job in the North Island earlier in the year, said one of the phrases that baffled her was “Up the Wahs”.
“The first time I kind of just let it go but then I saw it on this billboard and this school and then I went somewhere and it was the name of the Wi-Fi,” she explained.
“The last straw was when I was moving into my new flat and two of my new flatmates put it in the group chat and I was like okay, we gotta learn what this means, so I Googled it.”
Kayla, who moved from New York City to Auckland in August, has documented her move and life in New Zealand on TikTok. Photo / via TikTok
Kayla explained: “It’s just the slogan for the [Warriors] rugby team. But I guess a lot of people are a fan.”
The word “arvo” was another tricky expression for the American.
“I was going to view a flat and the girl who was showing it to me said ‘can you come this arvo’,” she said in the social media post. “Like, I don’t know, maybe?”
“Like what the heck is arvo?” she asked.
Kayla said she was confused by the word kumara. Photo / via TikTok
Kayla explained that after a quick Google search, she found out “it means afternoon”.
The New Yorker also said she was confused by the name kumara, rather than sweet potato which she was familiar with.
“This is a little different because this is actually not English,” she explained.
“But I had a co-worker tell me about this food she got and she was saying ‘kumara’ and I was like ‘what’s kumara?’” Kayla said.
“She told me what it was but it took her a second [to remember what it was called],” she said laughing. “It means sweet potato.
“That one was a fun one, I liked learning that word,” she said.
The other word she’s had to Google is “tramping”.
“This one is important for me to know cos I’m planning on doing a lot of this over the next few weeks while I’m in New Zealand,” she said.
“I would be sitting at the bus stop, and the bus that I needed to get on would just, like, drive right past,” she recalled. “I was so confused - I thought that I was at the wrong bus stop or something.”
Kayla continued: “Then once I actually was able to get on a bus I realised that people were like, like, hitchhiking the buses when they wanted to get on.”
Her other key differences include people parking on the grass and the difference in flying domestically.
She also explained her confusion when paying a restaurant bill at the front counter rather than at the table.
“The server doesn’t bring the bill to you, you have to, go to the front to pay on your way out,” she explained. “I’m sure it connects to the fact that you don’t have to tip.”
Kayla also admitted she misses Trader Joe’s, stooping, and friends and family.
“I’d always wanted to travel and live abroad,” she explained. “I love the city and the energy but when it came to the things that really make me happy in life, New York made it really, really difficult to achieve those things.
“I wanted to move to a place which had a lot of access to nature.
“New Zealand has all of the travel and adventure opportunities I could ever want.”
