Stuff Kiwis like

Here I am in the remote wilderness of Fiordland accessing internet via satellite. Connection is slow/limited here, and this stunning location deserves lots and LOTS of pictures, so those will be coming later. For now, I just figured I'd break up the radio silence with a pictureless post about the food and phrases I've been getting acquainted with here in New Zealand.

"Sweet as": Sweet as what? No idea. But whatever it is must be pretty darn good because that's basically what this expression means. Substitute for "awesome" or "sounds great" and you're doing it right. Other acceptable forms: "cool as"

"Good on ya": Also seen as "Good on him" or "good on them". Basically the same as "good for you/him/them", but only really sounds cool with a Kiwi accent.

"Mate": I love this one. It just makes everyone seem like your friend. Again sounds not so cool in an American accent, but I may start using it nonetheless.

And for the food:

Kiwi pie: Not made of Kiwis, kiwi birds or kiwi fruit. Most common form is mincemeat in a gravy-like sauce all wrapped up in a snack-size, pie-shaped pastry dough and served steaming hot. Basically the New Zealand equivalent of a French crepe in terms of cost and accessibility. Even McDonalds and KFC serve them. (On another note, it's bizarre to me that those plus Subway are the American chains that I've seen most often over here.) Depending on where you get one, you could have options of steak filling, chicken, vegetables... the possibilities are endless and delicious.

Milo: At first I thought this was the equivalent of Nesquick. There is Milo flavored cereal and dried Milo powder to mix into milk, and "Milo" is supposedly enough to tell you what the flavor is. Upon further investigation, it's chocolate-ish, but made from malted barley, so it has a definite malted flavor. Also apparently made by Nestle.

Hokey Pokey: Another example of a term that you're just supposed to know the flavor it's indicating. In this case it was a very pleasant surprise. It's somewhere on the spectrum of caramel, honey, butterscotch and toffee, and so far has showed up in ice cream and candy bars. I hope I find this one often!

L&P: Stands for Lemon and Paeroa. "Good Lemonish Stuff" and "World Famous in New Zealand" according to the bottle. Wikipedia tells me that Paeroa is in the name because the drink is made with carbonated mineral water from the town of Paeroa... Fair enough. Kiwis may disagree, but it seems pretty similar to bottled Minute Maid lemonade, except when you get the Sour L&P ("Sour Lemonish Stuff"), which is, appropriately, much more sour.

Vegemite & Marmite: These legendary spreads are still uncharted territory for me. I just don't see the appeal. Both are made primarily of yeast and salt, but Marmite has more sugar. The advice I've gotten is that if you didn't grow up with it, you probably won't like it, and most people only like the one or the other that they did grow up with. If I do try it, spreading just a tiny bit of it over toast is supposed to be the way to go. I'll keep you updated.

Then there are a bunch of equivalent items with different names. Kumara = sweet potato. Sultana = grape. Tasty cheese = basic cheddar. Aubergine = eggplant. A bit confusing but easy enough to figure out.

Stay tuned for a pictureful post when I get out of the bush in about a week!