Mingle enough with New Zealand locals and you’ll start picking up some of their local quirks. Whether you’re a working holiday tourist, a newly settled resident or simply backpacking around the country, it’s likely that you’ve seen these 12 habits in action and even embraced them as your own.
Calling sweet potatoes ‘kumara’
No one in New Zealand uses the term sweet potato. You won’t see it in supermarket shelves and you definitely won’t find it in local recipes – the starchy vegetable is always referred to by its Maori name, ‘kumara’. After hearing it enough times, it’ll be hard to ever call them ‘sweet potatoes’ again, even if you’re communicating in a language other than English.
