Jekyll & Hyde

Many people have a tendency to generalize a people or society, especially when it comes to driving.

For example:

New Yorkers are bad drivers.

Mass Holes are bad drivers.

Californians are bad drivers.

Philadelphians are bad drivers.

The list could go on and on about who has the worst drivers. Of course, the drivers in New York are bad for very different reasons than, say, the Californians. New Yorkers are aggressive in their driving style, whereas, Californians are a little more spacey (i.e., you're never quite sure when a Californian might decide to change into another lane).

Again, these are very broad generalizations, which are not truly reflective of the drivers of a particular city, state, or country.

OK. Now that we have settled on that, let's move onto the meat of this post.

Kiwis are lovely people. Very friendly. Very accommodating. Very 'Bob the Builder' yes we can!

However, there is another side of Kiwis that we have witnessed over the past couple of weeks that only occurs the second they sit in their cars and start up the engine.

This is the Dr. Jekyll transforming into Mr. Hyde phenomena that we have witnessed (and been scared Squiddless about) time and time again. Even the popular guide books explicitly warn their readers about Kiwi drivers.

New Yorkers, Californians, Philadelphians, Mass Holes...you are not even in the same league as our Kiwi hosts. For scale, you are in the T-ball league with your Big League Chew and knee pads...that one of you parents made you wear so you wouldn't scrape your knees as you pranced into home plate...but I digress.

Besides all the accidents, cutting people off, screaming inside of cars, etc., that we have witnessed on a daily basis, the one that shocks us most is that pedestrians are targets. Even if you have a pedestrian green light, you are taking your life into your own hands crossing the street.

At one of my safety meetings composed of hearty geologists who work in Antarctica, Pakistan, the Saharas, active volcanoes, etc. (really dangerous places doing dangerous things!), the most dangerous activity they said they had done in the last 2 years was commuting into work that morning. Every single one...and they were NOT joking.

So be warned, a Kiwi might be a friendly little bird most of the time, but given the right conditions it will kick you in the knee cap...as we learned at the Kiwi bird exhibit and aquarium.