Kiwi Words

We speak basically the same English as the people in New Zealand but we have some differences.  We made a list and took photos for some words that confused us initially.  We thought we would share them with you.  First off, a Kiwi is a resident of New Zealand; there also are kiwi birds and kiwi fruit.

From the photos below pick out the trundler, trolley and wheelie bin.  No worries (no problem) if you get any wrong.   

A trundler and trolley are the same thing.  Everyone calls the shopping cart a trolley, but some grocery store signs call them trundler.  A bin is our wastebasket or garbage can, but with wheels it becomes wheelie bin.

Lots of things are wee.  From the photos below you get to pick out the bub, lollies, and littlies.  

Lollies are any candy, littlies are any group of younger children, and the wee baby is a bub.  We’ve seen classes for mums and bubs.

Now how about toastie, postie, moggy, buttie and sammie?

A toastie is a toasted sandwich - Paul makes cheese toasties at work.  A buttie, in this case a bacon buttie, is a sandwich made with buttered bread.  A sammie is a sandwich (this one is an egg sammie). A postie delivers your mail, usually on a bicycle but more recently may be on a motor scooter.  A moggy is your cat.

Then there are capsicums, yams, rocket, kumara and miner’s lettuce.

Capsicums are peppers, yams are a small root veggie we don’t have in Wisconsin, rocket is arugula, kumara is our sweet potato and miner’s lettuce is not really a lettuce but a green that miners brought with them to New Zealand.  It grows like a weed here through the winter, is quite tasty and contains vitamin C.  Apparently it originated in the west coast of the U.S.

And not to be left out are jandals and gum boots.

Jandals (flip flops) appeared even when the weather was still cold.  Most people have gum boots (wellingtons or wellies) for wet weather or mud.

Nibbles are snacks and a slice is a bar (think lemon bars, but the cafes serve ones with caramel or ginger too). 

 

If you are told to "bring a plate" you bring some snack food to contribute to a supper.  Supper is a later night snack not to be confused with an evening meal.  Food to take out is takeaways.  Tomato sauce is catsup.  You buy strawberries or yogurt in a pottle (small container).  A section is a plot of land and a paddock is a field where animals graze.  College is high school and after that you attend uni or university.  A judder bar is a speed bump and a panel beater is an auto body shop.  You sometimes need your torch (flashlight) at night.  It won’t be warm enough for either of us to use our togs (swimsuit) at the beach.

Two others we learned recently are long drop (latrine or outhouse) and cow pat (cow pie), both seen below.

And last but not least, the New Zealand national rugby team is the All Blacks, which are referred to as the boys.  This leads to lots of cheeky ads, like the one below, to back the boys who currently are in the Rugby World Cup in England.

If you’ve read all this, good on ya! (well done, congratulations). 

Cheers!  (thanks, good bye or good luck)

Cindy & Paul