Sweet As.

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Today's lesson* is dedicated to Kiwispeak.

1. SWEET AS.

If a Kiwi says "Sweet as!", don't get overexcited! He's not complimenting your behind. It's an expression meaning "cool" or "Alright bro!".

Or "Kapai!" if you're Maori.

Consider yourself lucky, some of us learned that the hard way.

2. YEAH YEAH NAH NAH.
A very common beginning of a sentence.

First off, you need to understand the wonderful Kiwi pronunciation.
The way they pronounce "e" is quite different from the rest of the English speaking world. It is similar to Slovene "e" in words like pet, or mesto. As a result, when a Kiwi says "pen", it sounds closer to "pin". "Ten" becomes "tin" etc.

Now pronounce Yeah Yeah Nah Nah the way I just taught you. HEE-LARIOUS!

And it comes in many wonderful variations:
Yeah nah yeah nah
Yeah yeah nah
Yeah nah nah
Yeah nah
Yeah nah yeah
Yeah but nah but yeah but nah
Yeah nah yeah nah yeah nah

It generally means "I agree that it is not...", although I am sure the rule changes after a Tui or five. You also get diarrhea after a Tui or five, but that's a different blog altogether (making a mental note).

Confused much?

3. TWINK.
Means white-out. Or correction fluid, edigs for Slovenes. I know - WTF, right?

4. JANDALS
Japanese sandals, or "japonke" for Slovene speakers. Kiwis are big on jandals, it's the fourt most popular type of footwear, right after
-gumboots (national footwear) or rubber boots
-barefoot
-ugg boots . You'd think they're as rare as rocking horse shit since there's NO WINTER here, but no! I've seen plenty of people wear them during summer.



There are plenty of lost gumboots on the sides of Auckland motorway. Kiwis lose them from their utes - they usually stick them somewhere on the side of the car. ON THE OUTSIDE. On whatever protruding car part they can find. Just put them on, upside down.

A fascinating fact: Kiwis play a game called gumboot toss. I believe I need not explain.

5. CHILLY BIN.
Cooler box. It's where you put your Tui and toilet paper when you hit the beach.

6. L&P
Lemon & Paeroa. Soft drink, world famous in New Zealand. Really good!


Yeah nah.


*A little bit of professional deformation there...

Dawn Over Auckland

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Pic taken by moi, 2009

I bet you say that to all the girls...

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What a nice day in Auckland central.

Woss that then?


And WHAT is that writing on the ground?

You've got to be kidding me...



All pics taken by moi, 2009

XOXOX & about Christmas Kiwi Style

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I didn't realize I had regular readers until I started slacking off. And then people started asking questions about why I stopped blogging, heh...
So, today's blog is dedicated to all of you who decided it was time to give me a gentle nudge in the right direction (Hi Vilma, hi Priamus :D)

Here's what I wanna share today.

There's a nice little church in Auckland that draws my attention every time I pass by. Their bulletin board is always a treat and sometimes I am lucky enough to have my camera with me.







They actually made news this year with this controversial picture. It also ended up on failblog (although the board is a massive WIN in my book!):


see more Epic Fails

Gotta love the Kiwi sense of humour.

All pics except the failblog picture taken by moi, 2009