The culture here is in many ways just like home. Both countries are former English colonies, after all. But geography, and their more recent split with Britain means many things are just a little off.
There's no granola in the grocery. It's a muesli. I've gone so far as to add ilive oil and honey and bake the stuff - that's better.
Everyone says 'how ya going?' not 'how ya doing.'
Coffee is $4 a cup. Granted their workers start at $20 an hour, but it still seems 'too dear.' For that matter, surf t-shirts cost $40-50 each here. I thought $20 was a rip off back home.
Even after a whole month here I still sometimes walk to the wrong side pf an automobile. Whoops, can't drive ot from the passenger seat.
Every town has a butcher and a baker. No candlestick makers, of course. The bakers all offer delicious meat and vegetable pies alongside the sweets.
The smallest coins are worth the most, $2. Coins get progressively larger as they go down in value until you hit 50 cents. After that they revert to progressively smaller as they diminish in value. There is no silly 1 or 2 cent coin.
They too are car crazy, but there are differences. Holden makes some serious muscle cars, but there are many more hatchbacks and wagons. Subarus are everywhere.
They don't have many big campers and caravans (RVs), but they are downright competitive about their car camping gear. Nearly everyone who goes camping pulls a metal trailer full of gear. Many of these trailers ingeniously fold open to create massive, walkable tent spaces, covered patios, and complex kitchens. Most include BBQs, and surf racks and some include kegs. These things are usually towed by 4wd SUVs, of course, but many are towed by sedans, even compact cars. Most cara have tow hitches installed. I've even seen a Honda Fit and a Mazda 323 with hitches.
Everyone surfs, rides an inflatable surf mat, kayaks, or uses a boogie board. I've seen multiple examples of retired couples cruising the surf spots with his and hers longboards. I've seen and talked with women in their 50s in the line up in overhead surf. If you don't surf, you enjoy surf fishing.
Speaking of kayaks, Hobie, of Southern California, has had real success selling outrigger trimaran kayaks here. These beautiful little boats include a mast and sail, can be paddled too, and are easily broken down to be loaded on a roof rack. They must be a great way to explore all the bays, estuaries, marshes, and rivers in this area. Take a look on Google earth, for example, of the Clarence River and its tributaries. This river was largely free of watercraft until the area surroundind its outlet at Yamba. Sounds like adventure potential to me.
Eggs are not refrigerated here just like in Costa Rica. Interestingly James Beard advises to never cook an efg until it has warmed to room temperature.
Strangely, Internet connectivity is more limited and more restrictive here than in Costa Rica. Even the public library that we paid to join limits everyone, including residents, to one hour per dat amd no more than 50mb of data uploaded or downloaded per day. Just updating iPhone apps can use up an entire day's alottment. Even very fine holiday homes, places that rent for $4000/mo in the off-season and twice that in summer include no Internet.
On the other hand, their national digital TV broadcast include The PBS Newshour at 4:30pm and the best jaZ radio station I've ever heard. Meanwhile their top news station ABC (that's 'Australian Broadcast Corp.,' of course) openly reads and and displays the front page stories from all the national newspapers. There's no pretense of actual reporting. They just comment and invite talking heads on to comment. While this is true of much TV news at home too, especially with local newscasts, there is in the US a charade enacted each night wherin the 'reporters' stand in front of whichever place the print journalists have investigated. PBS, CBS, NBC, and ABC do actual investigations, but with the exception of PBS, they allocate very little in the way of resources to investigative reporting. Here in Australia in seems like they're at least honest about it. Newspapers do the real reporting.
Coffee costs a minimum of $4 a cup and the only donuts are cinnamon and sugar.
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