10 Biggest Differences Between the USA & New Zealand

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What's going on ladies and gentlemen my name is Alexander Ayling and in today's video I'm gonna be sitting down with you and comparing the biggest differences between the United States of America and New Zealand. Now I'm a dual citizen of both countries I'm currently living in New Zealand I've lived most of my life in the United States and these are going to be some of the biggest differences between the two countries. I also want to say a huge thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring this video let's get into it. Also just a reminder make sure you stick around until the end because I'm going to be starting this video off with bigger general differences and then i'm going to be bringing it towards the more specific niche differences so stay tuned. If you're new to my channel welcome if you're returning welcome back so check it out in January of 2021 I moved with my wife here to New Zealand we brought our dog it's been an incredible move it's been a crazy one and along the way, we've noticed a lot of differences between these two countries but before we get into these differences that I've noticed I think it's really important to share some general information first off the United States of America is much much bigger than New Zealand the United States currently has a population of around 333 million people while New Zealand has just 5 million people so while there are a lot of cultural differences that I've observed many of the differences really boil down to those two factors, size of geography and size of population New Zealand is around the size of the state of Oregon which is about 2.5 percent of the whole landmass of the United States of America so New Zealand is about 2.5 percent the size of the United States of America that being said New Zealand is an incredibly diverse country it's made up of two main islands the north and the south island with stuart island down way south and a couple of other outlying islands that makeup New Zealand's territorial boundaries. While this video is about the differences between the countries it's also worth mentioning some of the similarities. Both countries were founded by the British back in the day as colonies of the British Empire, both countries speak English as the main language although there are differences in accents as well as word choices and we'll get into some of those later so while I could make an entire video about the similarities between the two countries this video is about the differences so let's get started. Number one, New Zealand and the The United States of America are on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean in different hemispheres the United States of America is located in the northern hemisphere while New Zealand is located in the southern hemisphere. New Zealand straddles the 38th parallel of latitude and generally has a nice climate. The North Island on average has a somewhat drier sunnier climate while the South Island has a somewhat cooler wetter climate. In California which straddles the 38th parallel of latitude in the northern hemisphere, it's opposite southern California has the drier warmer climate while Northern California has the wetter cooler climate because the two countries are located in different hemispheres they have different seasons at different times of year for example, in Christmas in New Zealand, it's the middle of summer they don't have snow on the ground and a white Christmas instead they celebrate Christmas on the beach and right now it's the middle of august but yesterday it snowed so we're in the heart of winter. Helicopters they still fly on both sides of the hemisphere . Number two, New Zealand is simultaneously in the future and in the past. Let me explain. New Zealand's time zone straddles the international date line so if you're living in New Zealand you're technically living in the future in fact it's one of the first places for the sunrise each new day anywhere in the world so if you're living in New Zealand you're technically living in the future compared to the United States New Zealand is almost a day ahead of the United States but it works out like it's almost a couple of hours behind so while we're technically living in the future down here depending on where you live it might feel like you're living in the past many of new zealand's small rural towns do kind of feel like time-traveling 20 30 40 years into the past the next major difference is a big one here in new zealand people don't order online and ship things to their house as often as they do in the united states living in los angeles especially during the pandemic it became totally normalized to just shop everything you need online and for In many cases those products would arrive on the same day but they would be boxed up in cardboard with plastic and it just created a lot of waste sure you can order online and you can get things shipped to your house it's probably not going to be on the same day especially if you're not living in the major cities like Auckland Wellington or Christchurch but you can do that but people just don't do it as often and obviously if you're living in a city a lot of these services are available but for most of the country living rurally it's not as common and to be honest, I kind of enjoy the fact that it's not like that here I think that the culture of convenience in the United States has gotten completely out of hand we just expect things to arrive at your front door and you don't even have to change out of your pajamas if you don't want to now while that's great from time to time it becomes normalized and the new normal does not really help with the problem of waste creation trash etc one of the main differences that i've noticed living here is that my household creates much less trash which brings me to my next point new zealand is cleaner than the united states and i think that can be boiled down to a couple of different reasons first and foremost like we said new zealand is 2.5 the size of the united states so there are much less people here creating much less trash but i also think that there is a culturally ingrained sense of duty and obligation to clean up after yourself there are little signs across the country that say like be a tidy kiwi and that means clean up after yourself don't litter i think that litter bugs here are really looked down upon and there's a lot of social pressure to not litter and to clean up after yourself but also i think it goes further than that as a family of two with a dog in the united states when when everything was just arriving via you know ordering online shipped to your house big box full of plastic full of styrofoam so much more waste was created living like that but living here we create literally two small trash bags full of trash which go into a larger bag which you have to pay costs about five bucks for a roll of like 10 bags and those are the only bags that the trash collector will accept so there's a kind of pay to play element to it which encourages you to create less waste and the recycling bin here is so small it's smaller than a cooler and it's more than enough space for a week's worth of recycling which leads me to my next point new zealand is conservation minded new zealand is an island chain that exists in the south pacific ocean and it's the remainder of an ancient continent called Zealandia most of which is now underwater and that's because the type of flora and fauna that existed in Zealandia was very unique and New Zealand has an extremely a unique ecosystem with animal species and plant species that don't exist anywhere else on earth that's because new zealand was geographically isolated for millions of years one of the biggest differences between the united states and new zealand is that here in new zealand there are almost no indigenous mammal species which allowed for new zealand to develop a huge array of very unique bird species that just don't exist anywhere else like the national bird the kiwi many of these birds evolved to be flightless because they didn't have the need to fly away from land-based predators but with the first humans arriving there came pests like rats stoats and possums not the crazy looking possums from the united states but these cute furry looking possums from australia which are actually wreaking havoc on the native bird species so because many of these flightless birds are now threatened with extinction due to the importation of these predatory mammals the whole country is quite conservation-minded and they're taking huge efforts to eliminate predators and re-introduce these flightless birds to try to revitalize and regrow these populations of unique bird species and while many people in america share this sentiment of wanting to conserve and protect our national parks and national forests as well as endangered species i think that here in new zealand it's just much more mainstream and accepted whereas sometimes in the united states that sentiment has become controversial unfortunately i've recently begun to redesign my website and i've been blown away by how intuitive and simple it is to use squarespace's platform and by how professional the final product looks plus as a photographer i really love the portfolios and galleries you can present your work using squarespace's professional portfolio designs display projects in customizable galleries and add password protected pages to share private work with clients you can have a members only area where you can connect with your audience send email communications leverage audience insights all on one easy to use platform as a digital entrepreneur i've been really impressed with squarespace's extensions for e-commerce these new third-party tools can help you manage inventory promote products streamline bookkeeping file sales tax and ship items across the globe so what are you waiting for get 10 off today using my code at www.squarespace.com alex the vagabond you'll get 10 off the registration of your first website domain go get it now moving on to some of the more interesting situations that we've encountered with differences restaurant culture it's totally different first off it's not customary to tip your waiter in new zealand whereas in the united states waiters and waitresses work for tips and i think that that kind of encourages them to be more proactive but it also encourages restaurant tours to kind of rush you through a meal to get you out to get another person in so that they can um feed another person maybe get another tip but i'll share with you a funny story that happened when my wife and i first moved here and met up with my cousin and her husband who live in auckland we took them out for dinner i wanted to make sure that there was no awkward moment at the end of the meal where waiter or waitress came and hit us with the bill and then people were looking at each other like who's gonna pay i just wanted to handle the bill and make sure that i was the person paying for it so when we arrived and the waiter and waitress seated us i explained that we were here we had a reservation she sat us down and i told her hey before we get started can you just take my credit card and hold on to this so when it comes time to pay for the meal i can pay and you know my cousin and her husband can be our guests she was dumbfounded she looked at me so confused so confused there was this look just like i don't think she had ever encountered that situation ever before and she actually had to go over to her manager and speak with her manager who then came over and told me that they were actually not able to take my credit card before it was time to pay so i was really confused this was like a nice popular restaurant in auckland and i don't know if that's the case in every other place but it really kind of set a new understanding about restaurant culture here in new zealand for me i did end up covering the bill but i had to get up and pretend i was going to the bathroom right as we finished and then walk over to the checkout and pay for the bill there and that's another difference between restaurants in the u.s and in new zealand here in new zealand you don't have to do the whole awkward getting the attention of the waiter or waitress like you can get up from the table walk over to essentially where the hostess is and just pay for your bill on the computer right there and then it's time for you to say goodbye next up a major difference driving here in new zealand we drive on the left-hand side of the road and the drivers seat is on the right hand side of the car which is the opposite of in the united states in the usa you drive on the right-hand side of the road and the driver's seat is on the left-hand side of the car and when you signal with your turn signal those are switched too so when you first come here and you're driving on the left-hand side of the road chances are you're going to hit your windshield wipers instead of the turn signal so it's worth trying to figure that out another thing that's super popular here on the roads but not as prevalent in the united states are roundabouts i mean they do have stop lights here especially in the cities but once you get out of the cities the whole country is pretty much a series of roundabouts and i think that american drivers can kind of get a little bit like scared of roundabouts for some reason it's pretty straightforward you know you just make sure that nobody's coming into it and if they are you slow down you let them go and then then it's your turn it's kind of nice too if you accidentally make the wrong turn on the roundabout you just keep driving around you can just keep going around in circles and circles oh yeah and eight lane freeways like in the united states um they don't really exist in most of new zealand i mean obviously in auckland where one quarter of the entire country's population lives they have bigger freeways there and there's still traffic there the main highway in the country state highway one is for the most part a winding one lane road so google maps might tell you it's going to take you two and a half hours to get somewhere it usually takes a little bit longer because the roads are quite windy and there are actually quite a lot of crashes especially on weekends people drive crazy because there are you know less police there are less people on the roads so sometimes people tend to speed okay friends last major difference to call the police in the united states you dial 9-1-1 to call the police in new zealand you dial 1-1-1 but you can also dial 9-1-1 and it'll forward you to 1-1-1 okay friends well that's it for this episode of cultural differences between the united states and new zealand i think it would be fun to keep these videos coming as i notice more differences between the two countries so think of this as the first episode in a new series all about the differences between the united states and new zealand i'd like to say a huge thank you to all of you for spending some time with me here today if you enjoyed this video please do me a favor hit that thumbs up make sure you're subscribed with notifications enabled if you are not already subscribed to my channel see you all in the next one until then carpe diem seize the day peace you

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Channel: Alexander Ayling

Views: 297,137

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Keywords: Travel, Tips, Travel Tips, Travel Hacks, Travel Vlog, Travel Videos, Alex The Vagabond, Vagabrothers, New Zealand, united states, differences between new zealand and america, What it's like to live in New Zealand, moving to new zealand, leaving america, leaving the usa, leaving america for good, how to move abroad, how to move abroad from the us, nz facts, usa and new zealand, top 10, top 10 biggest differences, travel vlog, travel vlogger, how to travel, new zealand travel

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Length: 17min 15sec (1035 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 13 2021