"...You’re in a small town in a rural area. You’re new to the area. There’s a local pub, or hotel as they’re called here. It looks quite old fashioned and as well worn as the rest of the village. The cars parked outside and the music drifting towards you tell you that you’re not going to be the only customers there tonight. In fact, it looks quite popular. You and your friends walk in to the bar, and what happens? Of course, the hubbub of conversation stops, the locals swivel in your direction, and someone accidentally drops a very noisy pin. At least it sounds noisy. You pause, wonder if you should have just gone to the off-licence and then, back-footed, brave the scowling barman who reminds you, as if you needed it, that you are not a local.
This is exactly what didn’t happen to us when we first visited the local hotel. Back in Scotland, and perhaps unusually, we were not big fans of pubs and bars. We were more likely to visit them as a local place to eat rather than for a drinking session, so we felt it unlikely that we’d miss the traditional rural pub coming to New Zealand, even though there are some as it turns out. But we still wanted to visit our local hotel. We’d driven past it many times when we first arrived, and seen it boarded up with red and white emergency services tape across the doors and “unsafe-keep out!” signs about the place. A disgruntled tenant had damaged the place in a fit of arson apparently, and a bit of a rebuild was needed. Not many months later it was back open with a shiny new lick of paint, of a hue so intense, that it can now be seen from outer space (but now, thanks to Google Earth, so can everything else). We walked in, hoping to remain reasonably discreet, knowing few neighbours at this point, and were rewarded with several very cheery “hellos!” and offers of drinks. We could not have been made more welcome, and I’m sure that this was nothing to do with us being new residents to the area. Few people there knew we were living locally. It’s just plain friendly here! Within minutes we were embroiled in a game of pool with two extremely large Maori guys who were very well travelled, wanted to know where we had come from, where we were going to, and (for a change) what we thought of New Zealand..."