Things I've learned so far: the Kiwi edition

So it's the evening before I leave New Zealand and I just realized I haven't told you what I've learned here yet! So that's gotta be remedied before I start worrying about the Philippines.

• If Earth ever gets invaded by aliens, New Zealand won't even notice. They have the absolute weirdest and coolest clouds here that look like an ongoing alien invasion. I mean, just google "New Zealand Clouds". Today was a prime example. I haven't taken as many pictures of clouds since the first time I flew in a plane and spent a whole roll of film on it.
  
• They have the coolest birds. Take the California Quail for instance. Not only do they look totally stylish, they either can't fly or just don't wanna. In any case, when you get too close to them, they run away from you. As in, for minutes they just run in front of you with their tiny little legs before they finally throw themselves very dramatically into the bushes (just look at them go, starting at 0:35). Let's just say I've had a lot of fun with that fact and leave it at that.
  
• They constantly tell you there's gonna be penguins and then, nothing. It's a bit like the koala scam of 2006 (Although there were koalas in the end then. Pretty much no chance of penguins here anymore.).
  
• They're very pragmatic people. When the fire alarm in my hotel room went off 7 times in the span of an hour the other night, the owner's solution when I woke him at 3am was simply "just take it off and throw it in the rubbish". Well, it solved the problem.
  
• They're the masters of road signs. Stumbled upon this one today and that one the other day:

 

• They very obviously mark rental cars as rental cars. At first I thought that's to make it easier for thieves to see who might have a lot of valuables in the car, but after three weeks behind the wheel here, I'm pretty sure it's to let the locals know they have another idiot tourist in front of them who doesn't understand that speed limits aren't suggestions that mean you can simply drive half that speed if you prefer looking around instead of concentrating on traffic. (It's probably a good thing that I'm done with rental cars tomorrow. My road rage is reaching its peak.) 
  
• They have the funniest town names. It's like the Sydney rail map all over again. Either you can't pronounce them or you can, which usually isn't any better. I went hiking in Hooker Valley the other day, saw Lake Tikitapu and spent the night in Kaka Point. Just as a few examples.
  
• Instead of traffic lights, they have people holding "Stop" and "Go" signs when there are road works and one lane is closed. And those guys wave to every single car that goes by. They also sometimes sleep on the job and that's how the other day I was in the middle of a one lane construction area when suddenly I had a line of oncoming traffic right in front of me who all expected ME to move for some reason.   

• Heating blankets are a really big thing there. I think I've had them in every bed. And they are AMAZING. I might consider an investment when I get back home.

Alright. There's probably more, but that's all my brain can come up with right now. I should probably finish packing (...again) and get to bed. I just realized I have another four weeks to go and I don't know why. There should only be three. I have no idea where the fourth week is coming from. I'm kinda starting to lose the plot here.