New Zealand Culture Blog

Being one of the younger countries, its understandable that New Zealand spoken English has taken on its its own unique dialect.  A conglomeration of accents including sprinklings of English, Irish, Scottish, Maori and dare I say it - Australian (probably because the first settlers to New Zealand other than the Maori were seal hunters "from across that ditch") and can make it hard for the untrained ear to decipher.

In days gone by it was easy to dismiss Darwin as a frontier town full of brawling fishermen, longhaired hippies and red neck truckers - crawling with monster crocodiles. The locals were considered genuine, open and friendly. They spoke their mind and knew how to drink a lot of beer... hey, give them a break - it does get hot in Darwin... (Can’t say it sounded all that bad)