Hundreds of tourists have what surprised them about New Zealand. Photo / 123rf
Hundreds of tourists have what surprised them about New Zealand. Photo / 123rf
A social media post has quickly gained traction after asking foreigners to share one thing about New Zealand that surprised them.
The post shared to New Zealand Travel Tips (NZTT), a private Facebook group, asked fellow members to share what they had found unusual or unexpected during their visits.
“What’s one thing about New Zealand that took you by surprise?” it asked the 97,598 members. Hours later, more than 650 people had commented, revealing things about the country that Kiwis may find normal, but are noteworthy or bizarre to visitors.
Fortunately, most responses were about pleasant surprises or, at worst, mildly irritating ones. Common topics also emerged among the comments, such as how beautiful New Zealand’s landscape was, and how kind the locals were.
“That the stories I had heard of New Zealand having such breathtaking views were actually all true!” one person wrote, while another described it as “the friendliest place” they had never visited.
Recalling a journey around Morrinsville, one commenter recalled being lost in the rain when a woman, who had a baby and a bunch of groceries, stopped to ask if they needed help.
The friendliness extended beyond everyday people according to one tourist, who said they were surprised by “friendly cops with no guns”.
However, beyond the beautiful landscapes and good folk, other “surprising” features make for entertaining reading by Kiwis.
One of the more popular phenomena tourists were surprised by was “the abundance of traffic cones,” as one person put it.
Many were surprised by the abundance of road cones.
Another agreed they were surprised by “the amount of orange cones everywhere for roadworks,” and another added that the many traffic supervisors alongside the “zillion cones” were unexpected.
“So much road works! So many delays, there’s no way to predict travel times,” another visitor lamented.
Another thing Kiwis may never think twice about, but threw visitors for a loop was the power outlets.
Whereas many countries have an on/off switch by each plug outlet, other countries, such as America, do not. This caused quite some confusion, according to the comments.
“Having to switch the plug-in sockets to on,” one person wrote in a response that got 60 reactions and 36 replies.
“Got me every time,” one person agreed. “I spent 30 minutes researching how to work an oven in our Airbnb before realizing all I needed to do was turn the switch on! For the OVEN!,” they added.
Other surprising things included how casually Kiwis dressed, a lack of fly screens on windows and the high-quality pies and coffee.
Aotearoa’s public toilets were also surprising to visitors but not in a bad way.
“The clean public toilets! Everywhere we went they were clean. If you find a clean public loo in Australia you wonder what’s happened.” one person wrote.
It isn’t just foreigners in New Zealand either. Kiwis have also shared their shock upon realising other countries (even ones as close as Australia) do things differently.
