Generally, New Zealand English expressions follows British English. However, New Zealand English has also borrowed much from Maori and there are a number of other phrases that are not commonly encountered elsewhere or may confuse the visitor.
Bach (pron. "batch") - Holiday home; often by the beach and comprised of fairly basic accommodation. In the South Island often called a crib.
Bring a plate - (see also; "Ladies a plate") means each attendant of the event should bring a plate of food to share with the other guests.
BYO - Bring Your Own. An addition to the name of a restaurant that may not have a liquor licence means that it is okay to bring your own wine to enjoy with your food, but they often charge a small corkage fee.
Clayton's - Describing something as a Clayton's means that the item lacks full functionality or is a poor imitation of the real thing. From the name of the unsuccessful non-alcoholic whisky that was briefly marketed during the late 1970s/early 1980s under the catch phrase The drink you're having when you are not having a drink.
Dairy - Convenience store; corner shop, one few outsiders understand though heavily used by locals and find problems when travelling overseas and are surprised when asking where the dairy is.
Entry by gold (or silver) coin (donation) - The admission charge to an event, exhibit, gallery or museum is by making a payment of a coin in the appropriate metal, often in the donation box at the door. The gold coins in NZ are the $1 and $2 coins, while silver are the 20c and 50c coins, and the 10c coin is copper. (See also "Koha" below).
Half Pie - Usually a job or task not performed to satisfaction (cf Maori Pai = good)
Jandals - Flip-flops to most of the world; Thongs to you Australians.
Kiwi - Slang for a New Zealander, named after an endangered flightless bird that lays the largest egg relative to body size and is the national emblem. This is not a derogatory term and some New Zealanders will happily refer to themselves as a 'Kiwi'.
Glidetime - Flexible working hours, often worked by public servants. Under this system, workers can start and finish work at hours of their choosing between 7AM and 6PM, although they must work the core hours of 9.30AM-noon and 2PM-3.30PM and average 40 hours per week. Also the name of a comedy play about such workers.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about New Zealand
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in New Zealand - updated Apr 2024
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New Zealand Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
