Say what?!

Now that we are starting to venture out into actual conversations with people other than ourselves we are beginning to learn a bit more about pronunciations and idioms of the kiwi language. Its been awkward. We live off Quay Street. Even though our address is Dockside Lane, our actual building faces Quay Street. We went to a church yesterday. It took us an hour and twenty minutes to walk there but we made it in time for the service. After the service was meet and greet/tea and biscuit time. The parishioners were really friendly and not the least bit hesitant at correcting our pronunciations of things. They asked where we lived. We told them Quay Street. They looked at us blankly. We said down by the docks. They corrected us by saying, "Oh, the ports, (uh, yeah, the ports...what's the difference??) Quay Street." We pronounced it Quay, rhymes with Ray. They pronounced it Key, rhymes with Knee. The worst part about this was that i didn't pick up on it, because of their accents until we had actually left the church to hike home. As we were scaling down a hill-side field desperate to find a short-cut Paul said, "Did you realize they pronounce Quay Street, Key Street?" No, i hadn't. As Paul was talking to an older gentlemen, i overheard the conversation. They were talking about hiking down on the south island. The older gentleman used the word tramping instead of hiking. I knew what he meant and desperate to fit in, being a former REI employee and avid hiker, i burst in "Tramping is my life!" The older gentleman was delighted. Paul had to choke back the snickers and keep from spewing tea all over the place. And so continued my awkward moment pregnant with awkward moments. Good grief.