Life Is A Highway

We’re doing a lot of driving these days. Sometimes the roads are long and flat and straight, which can very easily put you to sleep. Other times, the roads are gravel and steep and winding. The highest speed allowed in NZ is 100 km/hr (62 miles/hr), but you often have to go much slower. Many of the well-traveled roads aren’t paved and you can’t go faster than 30 km/hr. You can go a looong way without seeing another car or human being. We’ve come up with the following diversions to keep us entertained in the car:

• Our “Hot Nights in the City” compilation cassette tape got old after a few months, so I invested in a cassette adaptor for our ipods. The sing-a-long possibilities are now endless. My current favorites include Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and Willy Nelson’s “On the Road Again.” My musical taste spans genres!
• Speaking Kiwi English in Kiwi accents – this never gets old.
• Playing a guessing game about where the “town” or “city” we’re driving through fits in the NZ food hierarchy. Does it have a dairy, a Four-Corner Superette, or a full-fledged supermarket?
• Various sheep jokes, such as asking in a serious voice “do you have any idea where can I see some sheep?” I conservatively estimate that I see 1000 sheep per day. Unbelievable. Some woolly, some shorn, mostly white, some black, mostly quiet, sometimes a cacophony of baas that haunt my dreams.