(It was George Bernard Shaw who said England and the U.S. were "two nations divided by a common language.") The Kiwi accent is strange. Especially on the phone, we have to ask people to repeat. Part of it is a big vowel shift, with the "eh" of "wet/get/met" moving to the "ih" of "sit/fit/bit." But it isn't consistent; sometimes it moves to "ee" of "reel/feel."
Like, last week at the Rhododendron Garden, the lady at the desk warned us to "Take care on the steeps, it's been raining and they're a bit wit." John, our guide on the Farewell Spit, said "That's a Caspian tern on the lift", but we have also had someone tell us to "take the first leeft".
Then there's the "-ohy" and "ooy" thing. A lot of people, when they say a word ending in "oh" like no or hello, add a little "ee" to it: helloee, noee. Just a quick little ee, as if the words were spelled helloy and noy. Quite often you hear it on "you" as well, as in "How are youee?"
The other morning, we were listening to a cheerful radio morning show and the announcer started talking about young people and Koreas. Really, we thought he was somehow talking about teen attitudes to North and South Korea. But no, it was "Some teens of course want a Korea as a pop star, but many are open to a Korea as a plumber or nurse..."
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