New Zealand. Part IMap
March “Oh hey, is it true that New Zealand is this sunny place with rolling green hills and grazing sheep everywhere?” ![]() “Yes. Now let’s move on to the interesting part.” AucklandMapA single-serving traffic light—the most unusual one here. Every time the green lights goes on for a second, one car from each lane is allowed to pass through. This exists to control the number of cars merging onto the highway from side roads during heavy traffic. ![]() For some reason, the decimal point on highway destination signs is located in the middle of the line, like a dash. ![]() The streetlight sprouts up from the traffic light pole like a tree. ![]() Some of the little green men are animated (like in Saint Petersburg). ![]() Pedestrian crosswalks are marked with globe-shaped lamps on striped poles (like in Britain). Sometimes circles covered with fluorescent film are substituted for the globes. They’re cheap and highly visible. ![]() The inscription on the sidewalk states that a whopping 22 pedestrians have died as a result of car crashes in Auckland in the past five years—out of the city’s total population of 1.5 million. ![]() The buttons to place an order for a green light at a crosswalk are the same as in Australia. ![]() Lampposts have their lower part wrapped with a knurled material that feels like Teflon to the touch—this surface finish makes posting flyers impossible. All the goods are secured to the posts with band clamps. ![]() The traffic signs in New Zealand are identical to the ones in Europe. The warning signs are the only exception. Instead of triangles with a red border, they use orange diamonds (like in Australia, America, and Brazil). ![]() Signs marked “temporary” are put up during road work. Sandbags are used to weigh them down in place (this is never done in Russia, although you see it left and right in the rest of the world). ![]() A trendy store for urban aesthetes sells models of overturned burnt-out Jeeps. ![]() New Zealanders take every opportunity to emphasize their dedication to the environment and being green. Even the buses look like they run on milk. ![]() There’s a whole culture around waste disposal as well. Here we have prepaid bags waiting to be picked up by a garbage disposal company. In rural areas, everyone sets their glass recyclables out in separate containers outside their homes. ![]() People also avoid throwing things out unnecessarily. I’ve never seen so many shoe and clothing repair shops and second-hand stores in my life. Take this, for example—why would anyone want to repair these hideous shoes? ![]() A sign at a parking lot warns you not to leave any valuables in your car, lest someone should smash the window and run off with your suitcase full of dollars. ![]() Speaking of dollars—New Zealand is an incredibly cheap country. Both food and hotels cost next to nothing (compared to hotel living conditions and prices in the city of Kansk, of course). Post boxes belonging to the national postal service. ![]() A post box for an independent postal service provider. Something like a local version of FedEx. ![]() A phone booth decorated with fern motifs. The fern is the national symbol of New Zealand, like the cedar in Lebanon. ![]() Like almost every other city in New Zealand, downtown Auckland has a few colonial-era buildings. Compared to what was being built in Europe during the same time period, the local architecture appears diminutive. ![]() At first glance, Auckland’s eight-lane bridge over the harbor doesn’t particularly blow the mind. Every morning, two extra lanes are allocated to traffic headed downtown to accommodate its volume. In the afternoon, those same two lanes are given over to traffic headed out to the suburbs. The unusual part of this reversible lane system is that opposing traffic lanes are separated with concrete dividers. Special machines move a kilometer’s worth of concrete barriers left and right four times daily. During the day, the dividers are set up in the middle of the bridge. ![]() Fire hydrants are concealed underground, flush with the pavement, instead of sticking out aboveground (like in America). They’re marked with yellow rectangles. And a yellow triangle is painted on the road to indicate where there’s a hydrant at the curb. ![]() But the most astounding thing in New Zealand is that every large building has a mandatory diagram mapping out the locations of all the fire alarms inside. ![]() It’s located next to the standpipe. ![]() The diagram is furnished with LEDs which light up when a fire alarm goes off, to show the fire team where the source of the fire is. And it’s like this all over the country. ![]() Every New Zealander knows that his country is located in the Southern Hemisphere, slightly to the left of the central fold on the world map. ![]() |
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New Zealand. I. Auckland
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New Zealand. III. Wellington, Picton, Christchurch, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin |
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