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Wednesday 9 March 2016

Country Q&A Collab With Abi Kelly

Hey guys! I'm super excited to share with you, a collab with Abi Kelly from A Cuppa & A Half! This is part of Abi's collab series that she is doing this month. She has an absolutely wonderful blog and you can really see her personality shine through her posts, Abi is clearly a talented writer. I have gotten to know her better through arranging this collab and it's safe to say that she is a lovely person. Abi will be answering the questions I asked her on her blog, I look forward to reading that post as I haven't seen the answers yet. Until then, here is my part of the collab, great questions Abi!

If you could have one thing from the UK, what would it be?
Probably the ability to get in the car and drive down the road for a 10-20 minutes and find a Lush shop. I might be wrong by assuming that a Lush shop is never far away but from what I have heard from my English friends, it's true. In New Zealand we only have a few Lush shops (we are pretty much the same size as the UK) and I happen to be a 2 hour drive away from the closest Lush shop but I am lucky! I have never been even though I really want to! It's not just Lush, there are so many shops that the UK has that we all long for, there is one book shop chain in New Zealand, I love you Whitcoulls.

What is your favourite tradition in your country?
I'm assuming that Abi is talking about a tradition that comes from New Zealand or a tradition that only Kiwi's (people that come from New Zealand) celebrate. We don't really have anything amazing like tomato throwing parades but we do have something really cool that happens every year - Christmas In The Park! This happens (obviously) around Christmas, it's run by Coca Cola and it's basically a series of musical performances. It's completely free to go to which makes me get into the Christmas spirit of giving and not wanting money. I have never been to Christmas In The Park but I have watched it on TV almost every Christmas and I would love to go one year and tell you all about it. Fun Fact: There are no ads on TV in New Zealand on Christmas Day in New Zealand, that is the actual law here. Okay, I need to stop talking about Christmas now, it's March...

What is your favourite sweet?
In New Zealand we call "sweets" lollies, and we don't have a name like candy for lollies and chocolate, it's really funny seeing the little differences in language even though we both speak English. I honestly have so many favourite sweets (hehe, the novelty of saying that hasn't worn off yet) so here are just a few. I love milk bottles, they are about half the size of your finger and they are shaped like a milk bottle, surprise surprise, and they taste like creamy milk, All New Zealanders will feel my pain when I say the old milk bottles are so much better than the new ones. They turned a creamy, chewy lolly into a kind of very firm marshmallow and it DOESN'T WORK, if Pascall (the company that make milk bottles) is reading this, I'm disappointed in you and you work make a lot more money if you went back to the old milk bottles. (Rant complete.) I also love pineapple lumps (a chewy pineapple, well, lump covered in chocolate, it might sound unappealing but it totally works). Another one of my favourites is the giant strawberries you can get from the supermarket, they are so good! I am going to stop now because otherwise we will be here until Christmas!

If you could live anywhere in your country, where would it be?
I would probably live in Christchurch. I don't know if other countries were told about this but you might be familiar with the name Christchurch because of the murderous earthquakes that happened there about 4 or 5 years ago. 185 people were killed, several thousand people were injured and so many buildings collapsed. Even though so many people were injured or killed and so many building were destroyed and there are still aftershocks that can reach 5.0 magnitude, I still want to move there. The earthquakes have really brought the community together. They are honestly the most amazingly strong people. The people of Christchurch are rebuilding their town in the most beautiful way. They is a project going on where they paint things on the sides of buildings, it might sound like graffiti but the people have permission and these painting are things that deserve to be in museums! Here is my all time favourite piece.
All credit to imgur.com
Christchurch is right by the beach and one of our very few Lush shops is there haha.

What's the worst thing about your country?
This is actually quite a hard question to answer because I love my country so much, it's beautiful, people are friendly, it attracts tourists so I get to learn about different cultures and we were the first women to fight for and gain the right to vote (this makes me so proud to be a Kiwi) but they is one thing that gets on my nerves. We import nearly everything which means it's hella pricey! You go to buy something on Amazon, oh look, the shipping is four times the cost of the thing I want to buy. If I'm lucky enough to find what I want in a shop, it's just as expensive because of the shipping cost! This is really annoying but I'm actually happy that New Zealand is quite far away from big countries because it means we aren't often a target for attack or war even though, as part of the Commonwealth, we do have to fight in some wars.

I really enjoyed answering these questions, I hope you have enjoyed learning a little more about New Zealand that a guide book wouldn't tell you. Abi's part of the collab will will probably be up on her blog as you're reading this.

xxx

Catherine

8 comments:

  1. This post was so interesting, I love learning about other countries- love it! :D
    Elise xxx

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    1. I'm really glad you enjoyed the post! I also love learning about different countries so I'm really happy that New Zealand attracts tourists, I get to learn about their culture and country!
      <3 Catherine

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  2. Really lovely ques, and answers. And that is such a good image. Hope all goes well, from rant to Christmas :). Take care.

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    1. I agree Abi's questions were amazing. Thanks so much, I was lucky enough to see that painting in real life. Haha, have a great year!
      <3 Catherine

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    2. Wow, and no worries. May you have a great year also :)

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  3. Hey, I loved this post, and thanks for the extremely kind words! My friend lives in New Zealand and sent some sweets, and the pinapple lumps were part of the package, and I have to say they weren't my fave, although she also sent some mixed 'lollies' it feels weird saying that! And in them were milkshake sweets that were like hard cubes, but tasted like milk bottles, and they were my fave! (sorry for writing such a long comment.) Thanks again for being involved, you are so lovely too! Much Love xx

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    1. Thanks so much Abi! I meant everything I said! Oh, that's cool! It did actually take me a while to get used to Pineapple Lumps but I have grown to love them, they are probably the most kiwiana "sweet" (hehe) of all time. I love milkshakes so much! They do taste a lot like milk bottles, apparently I'm better at explaining tastes than I think I am. I think milk bottles taste exactly like milkshakes but without the vanilla flavouring. Haha, it's okay, I love getting any kind of comment (okay maybe not hate but that hasn't happened yet luckily). I'm just about to sit down and read your post. I had a lot of fun working with you, thanks Abi!
      <3 Catherine

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  4. Get your act together Lush! I think we are also kinda behind in technology too!
    Have a magical day Rainbow,
    <3 Catherine

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Thanks for your comment, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
<3 Catherine