Keeping Up With the Kiwis 1

New Zealanders may have long been the butt of “fush and chups,” but according to Paola Totaro there are more than a few reasons New Zealand has got one over on Australia. Totaro gives several including the fact that our police officers are unarmed and our national crime rate is at its lowest since 1982, the politics of race and separatism are debated in an upfront manner and there are real women on New Zealand TV. “The drive from Auckland airport to the CBD is a long one – about $62 worth – but the Indian taxi driver’s guileless observations about the trans-Tasman differences sew a seed: In Australia, passengers see you are foreign and demand to know if you know your way. In New Zealand, they ask you if you’re OK, how you are settling. They wait to hear the answer. Do you know what I mean?”