Cool and funky things about New Zealand

$1.20 cakes at the local hot bread shop.

Calling bakeries 'hot bread shops'.

Thigh-high leather boots for $39 (Not in my size. Sigh.)

Blanket man.

Bilingual signs and labels.

There's a comet!


Not so cool and funky

Not seeing the comet yet because thick cloud has followed us everywhere we've been for the past 10 nights.

Feeling like I need to throw out my entire wardrobe and start again, because everyone here dresses way more interestingly than me.

Bloody great hills. The distance between my brother's place and the centre city is very short, as the crow flies. Unfortunately the crow flies over Mt Victoria, which goes Up a lot, mostly by way of confusing, unpaved tracks and the worst signposting I have ever seen. (Do I need to know that a scene from Lord of the Rings was filmed here? No. I need to know whether the path that branches to the left or the path to the right is the one that will come out by the Basin Reserve.)