I've picked this up already some time ago from a library exchange shelf, but began reading it yesterday, as I've tagged Poodlesister with this book.
Polly's neurologist asked about the shape of her helmet - would she rather die right away or become tetraplegic. No need to be shocked, motorcyclists are also known as organ donors.
Sally thinks Kiwi bloke is an almost-human species. Welcome to watch the Neanderthal Men live and kicking here in Finland.
We have something in common with Polly. I had a six-week-old driver's licence (test passed on third try) when I left for Europe and the UK for a month with a friend - driving her car! Actually I drove better than she in the UK, having been a pedestrian until very recently. My friend forgot twice to keep left. I didn't drive in France, where they drive like maniacs.
My knowledge of international driving was nil - for example I thought Germany had unlimited speed everywhere, not just on their U-bahns. Luckily a Finnish friend living in Hannover enlightened me before the Gestapo did.

I like Polly's way of telling the stories and her self-irony. I realized how little I know about New Zealand, mainly that it's next to Australia and everybody who has been there has been mesmerized by it. I didn't know it has a museum filled with pickled thumbs. And what New Zealanders don't know is that cows need to be brushed and kept clean, they think a dairy cow is a shitty cow. I hope they have a way of keeping the shit out of the milk...

Hmm, reading about volcanos, earthquakes, geysers and the smell of rotten eggs brings to mind Iceland, where I've been twice, last time in October. The similarities do not end in the nature's phenomens - Icelandic people take goblins very seriously and they make a curve in the road if a goblin's nest happens to be there. This is not an April Fool's Day's JE, this is not a laughing matter!
I have been wondering why Napier sounds familiar, but it's where bookcrosser tigergirlnz lives.

Pic: Geyser-watching. Didn't get a picture of the eruption, it was very quick, misty and wet.

Time Warp rides sound something like the three-dimensional movie Fly Over Iceland which makes you feel like you were in an aeroplane with a dare-devil pilot.
Polly admired the constans change of nature in NZ. Iceland is even smaller and they've got glacier, waterfalls, hot springs, active volcanos, tectonic plates, lava fields and bubbling sulphur all closeby. And you never know what will happen, like the family, which one morning found a geyser in their living-room.

Pic: Here is where the tectonic plates meet in Iceland. Glacier in the backgroung.

I always thought that ruminants get into serious trouble if you fast them, because the bacteria of their gut and stomach(s) die unless the animal is fed and without the bacteria they can't digest. But according to Polly, sheep are being fasted for 36h before shearing to avoid shitty wool.
Not told in the book, but sheep know their mates by sight and after shearing they will give headbutts to eachother, having suddenly been put in a strange flock. Might take up to a couple of days to realize these naked sheep are actually their old mates.

From the Kiwi dictionary: "Darth Vader's pencil box = The Bank of NZ's head office.

I've passed Kendal railway station on IR-trip in 1984. How do I remember it? Because an elderly (anybody over 40 at that time) gentleman happened to start talking to us and forbade us to look out of the window when we'll arrive at the station. Of course we had to look. A tree was growing out of the roof of a derelict station building in that godforsaken place.
"BUT", he said, "Kendal is famous for one thing, it's the birthplace of William Wordsworth" and he rose up. He sat down and continued: "You of course know who (and he rose again) William Wordsworth (sat down) was?" (headshaking on our behalf). "He was a great poet, so great that we always stand up when we say (stood up) William Wordsworth" (sat down). Funnily enough, he was the only person in the train doing the stand-up show. But without him, Kendal would have been soon forgotten.

Polly tells about a talkative shampooer. I've never had a different person to shampoo my hair at a hairdresser, but apparently that happens in the Big World, where the hairdresser is an Artist and won't waste his/her time for shampooing anybody. Years ago there was a discussion in the chit-chat forum about tipping or not tipping the shampooer and I could not understand what the fuss was about, of course you paid the asked price having had your hair done. I was then told that there were two people involved in your hair and apparently in the US the shampooers live on the tips alone. In my opinion the price of the haircut or whatever is done to your hair should be included in the price, otherwise you should also throw some money on the floor for the cleaning-lady. Tipping should be saved for those occasions when you've had super-good service, better than anticipated, not something that is automatically added on top of the bill, no matter how rude the waitress has been. Why are some professions automatically tipped and some never?
But back to talkative hairdressers... At the end of a workweek I'm rather tired. Some 25 years ago I found a walk-in Salon from a shopping-mall. For some reason, realizing when my hair needs a cut always come to me as a surprise, so I was very happy for the opportunity to just walk in and get it over and done with. A couple of times I got this hopelessly slow and almost mute Russian hairdresser-boy. He would snap off some hair and take two steps back to admire his work, come close again and pull away... This Russian ballet took ages and I fell asleep during it. When I woke up two hours later the hair was cut and I was much more alert. Great! So after the third time I actually asked if the Rusky was available and almost everybody dropped their scissors - he was apparently not much sought-after.
He, too, was surprised, but began his work. Just as I was comfortably falling into sleep he cleared his throught. I opened one eye suspiciously and he proceeded: "What do you know about mitochonrios?"
I never went there again.

There was a rude remark about Prince Charles's ears...

I seem to find other things to do except reading, so it seems that I'm getting tired of this trip. The search of the kiwi bloke seemed somewhat forced to begin with, Polly should have just started off to explore NZ. I think even she is less enthusiastic towards the end of the book.
The former zoo vet of Helsinki said that keas are her favourite animals, highly intelligent and thus very frustrated in captivity. They destroy just about everything they can get their beaks on and they have a voice which will wake the dead. I don't think the Helsinki Zoo has them, which is good for the birds.

Tam Tams mentioned. I had no idea what they were, but I've followed the discussion about them in the Falkirk Convention thread. Apparently you can't get Tam Tams from the UK, so the organizers welcome Aussie bookcrossers to the Convention on the condition that they will pay their ticket fees with Tam Tams. Or put heaps of them in raffle prizes.

How could that vicar's wife have missed Marmite in the UK, in both senses? 1) It tastes horrid. 2) There isn't a grocery store which does not stock it, as they call it the backbone of Britain. It would be like a shop without tea or milk

Sexing tuataras: Instead of waiting for twelve years, they should take a DNA-sample and know the answer in a few days.

Finished. I have to other books by Polly, but I need to get a break from her for a while.

I think poodlesister has done a bit flying lately, organizing the Falkirk BC-Convention. Enjoy!

Thanks for yet another wishlist book!

Going to Yogiberri to read and return.

Really looking forward to reading this one. Great choice which arrived in a fabulous goodie package. Thank you 😘😘😘

Really looking forward to reading this one. Great choice which arrived in a fabulous goodie package. Thank you 😘😘😘

Really looking forward to reading this one. Great choice which arrived in a fabulous goodie package. Thank you 😘😘😘

Really looking forward to reading this one. Great choice which arrived in a fabulous goodie package. Thank you 😘😘😘

I went on a trip to stay with Yogiberri and ran out of books to read. So I took this to read on the train home. Very entertaining. Completely mad to do what she did but I admire her chutzpah.

Gone back to Yogiberri

Always love reading about travels in NZ. Brings back lots of happy memories of adventures - some good, some decidedly dodgy!

Going to the Little Free Library in Daggenham as I have some bits for the lovely librarian. Why send a half full box that's nowhere near 2kg's!