April, 2010So, one of my biggest laments about living in New Zealand is their lack of holiday verve. In America, we eat up the community spirit, the decorating, the commercialism. (Some people complain about America's holiday commercialism, but I LOVE IT!)
Here in New Zealand, Christmas happens in the summer, so it's not dark enough to hang out lights, trees go brittle after 2 days, and they have BBQs on the beach instead of hot winter roasts. St. Patrick's Day goes by without so much as a pinch. Thanksgiving and 4th of July, of course, don't exist at all, and their replacements - Waitangi Day or Queen's Birthday, have no exciting traditions or spirit attached to them. And Easter is no exception. Easter Monday is the holiday here - which means a day off work (that's enough excitement for the Kiwi's), but there is no revelling with the Easter bunny or hunts for hidden eggs.
Egg dying is a totally foreign concept. So foreign, in fact, that I 
had to go to four different supermarkets before I found white eggs - ones that would accept the Paas dye that I'd had sent from America. (In New Zealand, eggs are brown, and often have shit and feathers too - you know, like the real thing.) And after my victory at achieving this mission, my husband had the gall to suggest that no one coming to our Easter party would be interested in dying eggs.
had to go to four different supermarkets before I found white eggs - ones that would accept the Paas dye that I'd had sent from America. (In New Zealand, eggs are brown, and often have shit and feathers too - you know, like the real thing.) And after my victory at achieving this mission, my husband had the gall to suggest that no one coming to our Easter party would be interested in dying eggs.Boy, was he wrong! (It helped at at least 3 of the guests were Americans.) Everyone loved it. Jeff even 
begrudgingly dyed an egg, between playing his $15 secondhand record player and box of records (Ninety percent of which were 1960's western B-tracks.)
begrudgingly dyed an egg, between playing his $15 secondhand record player and box of records (Ninety percent of which were 1960's western B-tracks.)Overall, happiness and fun for all, even without the bunny.
