Kiwi Gadgets
Trip Start
Feb 20, 2010
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20
23
Trip End
Mar 11, 2010
Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Our first day here we noticed something funny about the hotel room. All the plugs had switches next to them so you could turn your appliances on and off at the flick of the switch and eliminate all the background power that you draw. We thought that maybe this was unique to this hotel (being a modern hotel in downtown Auckland) but we have found it everywhere (in the restaurants, bars, stores, etc.). We also thought that maybe this was new in an effort to be a more green country but we’ve seen old plugs (circa 1970) with similar switches. So Kiwi’s have always been energy conscious. That’s cool.
What really impressed us was when we arrived in Napier on the East coast of the North Island and found that in order to have power to our room we had to insert the room card into a slot at the door that then turned on the breaker. Now that is some smart thinking! When guests leave the room they turn off all power and therefore aren’t leaving any lights on. Of course the downside to this is that your fridge also turns off so this is not such a good thing if you’re going to be gone for a long time. We saw the same thing again in Wellington and Nelson.
We had hoped to satisfy our (and maybe your) curiosity about whether or not the water flushes in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere. Unfortunately all the toilets (and I mean all the toilets – even those that look like they’ve been around for a few decades) in this country are low flush and therefore water does not swirl around the bowl like it does in the average North American toilet. So that answer remains a mystery.
Speaking of toilets there is one type here that is up there in the realm of the bizarre yet funny: the ExeLoo. We came across our first ExeLoo in a park in a small town on our way to Hokitika. This building looks like a regular public toilet but it has a sliding door- not up and down type like in Star Wars but a sideways door and it doesn’t make a swoosh noise when it operates. Either way with the press of a button you close the door behind you and everything inside is automated (the toilet, the toilet paper dispenser, the soap and water taps and the hand dryer). We saw more and more of them as we travelled to Queenstown but the one in Franz Josef was even more impressive since it spoke to you. Wanting to grab some photos of the inside of one of these ExeLoo’s I entered the loo and closed the door behind me. Thankfully I didn’t actually have to use the toilet because I likely would have peed my pants if I did for as soon as the door was closed a booming baritone voice bellowed, "Welcome to ExeLoo!! Your time limit is 10 minutes!" Yup, there’s a time limit of 10 minutes so no loitering! At the end of the 10 minutes the door will open and the loo with start a self cleaning cycle. Pity anyone who’s a bit backed up and needs more than 10 minutes! As I left the loo the voice boomed again “Thank you for using Exeloo!” Priceless.
New Zealand is very conscious about their environment and how humans have impacted the native flora and fauna since arriving here 800 years ago. Everywhere there are signs telling people to be a “green kiwi” or a “tidy kiwi” with a kiwi picking up rubbish. I must say that the cities and countryside are most definitely clean. There are recycling and compost bins everywhere in public places. Tourism is a huge industry here and adventure sports/activities options abound everywhere. There are heaps of places that you can go and pay to jump, swing, climb, fly, slide, race through and otherwise get your heart racing. If you are an adrenaline junkie then this is the place for you. NZ is the birthplace of the first ever bungee jump after all.
