New Zealand Dictionary

Hello, now that I have been here for several weeks I think it is about time to explain some of the popular kiwi words and phrases. The kiwi accent sounds very similar to the Australian accent with a few small differences, it sounds a bit more British. Although I can generally understand what they are trying to say there are a some interesting words and phrases that you don't hear in Canada.

1. sorted - this is kind of the same as organized
I have got your travel plans all sorted.

2. sweet as - this one is kind of the same as cool or great or just some emphasis on sweet, it sounds like they are saying sweet ass though, which when my boss says it just doesn't seem right. It is usually used at the end of a sentence.
Boss: Can you write this giant document without knowing anything about it
Meg: Sure
Boss: Sweet as

The story behind this is that in my first week of work my boss was complaining about having to write this Environment Plan for our offshore facility. So, I offered to help, when will I learn. I figured it couldn't be that hard, it was only supposed to be an addition to an existing document and I just needed to gather some information from other people and put it together, no big deal right. Wrong, it turned out to be bigger than either of us realized and I really had no idea what I was writing about. It turned out ok in the end but made for a stressful first two weeks.

3. capsicum - believe it or not it is a pepper, so a green pepper is a green capsicum

4. pumpkin - any form of squash, butternut squash = pumpkin, acorn squash = pumpkin, spaghetti squash = pumpkin, you get the idea

5. heaps - can be substituted for lots
There were heaps of cars on the highway today, or, this house will get heaps of sun in the summer.

I have to say so far heaps is definitely my favorite.