NZ Cultural Insight: Drinking and Driving

After my shifts at the Top Pub I have to bike home in the dark. Although this town is quite safe, I am still nervous about biking home because here in NZ drinking and driving is not socially unacceptable like it is in the states. People drink and drive here more than they do in the states and it's not that big of a deal. It's scary to think that I'm biking home along the main road in town that most people would be taking home from the bar at the end of the night. I try to go fast and be careful when I can see card approaching but in reality there isn't anything that me, on my bike, could do if a drunk driver was coming towards me. I guess it's just fate that'll keep me safe. Either way, it's interesting to see how people are more relaxed about something so unsafe and stupid. 

On the drink and driving note, something interesting about NZ is that they don't have an open bottle law here like we do in the states. It is not illegal to drink in your car, as the driver or as a passenger. Weird, isn't it?! Here's a link to an article I found about this topic. 

Unrelated to drinking and driving, I may have made a few more connects at work tonight for some fun activities - oyster farms (a different connection than before) and pig hunting. The pig hunting one sounds really interesting as they go out into the woods with their dogs and chase down the pigs and then kill them with a knife, not a gun. One of the older men at the bar had told me he'd taken another girl out hunting before from Minnesota (Minnesota Margaret). I asked if he'd be up for taking another girl from MN and he seemed receptive. Next weekend maybe? My job at the cafe is really starting to cramp my style here as it takes up my daytime hours Thursday - Monday. I might have to stay in Coromandel another week somewhere not at the cafe just so I have free days to pack in all the fun activities I can't do while I'm working days.

More of the same on the schedule for tomorrow but who knows when something exciting will happen. I'll keep y'all posted. 

Best!