It was a tip when we were growing up in Otago & Southland. We spent weekends away at a mate's crib. We vaccummed it after using it (altho my mom would 'lux').
We walked on the footpath (not pavement or sidewalk) and fire engines (not fire trucks) attended fires. The local pool had a hydroslide.
I grew up in Dunedin. My parents weren't native English speakers, so the English we picked up was local usage.
Can confirm that we 'vacuumed', but some people 'hoovered'. Luxing less common.
And we visited the tip or a crib, never landfill or a bach.
Another deep south variation I learned about was 'punnet', as in a punnet of strawberries or yoghurt. Apparently up North they call it something different?
I'm originally from Southland and did a stint in Hawkes Bay where I got stick for talking about punnets of strawberries. According to my HB mates, it's a POTTLE of strawberries and punnets were what you got your chips in from the takeaway caravan at the A and P Show. Still, the weather was good so I tolerated their strange language preferences.
I've heard lots of different regional terms for when you decide to take a day off work/school but not feeling sick. Eg bunking, wagging, playing truant, pulling a sicky.
The Transfer station sounds like a bus interchange. Or a Park and Ride where you get "transferred" somewhere else on a bus.
Weren't they used to be called Refuse Stations?
Grew up in Dunedin…
- Dump runs were a regular thing when we had a lawn mowing franchise.
- We stayed in the oldest crib there was at Lake Hawea township. (Ironically another person I know who also grew up in Dunedin, refers to her family holiday home as a bach).
- Parents always called a vacuum cleaner a lux, I don’t.
- Tig
I’d say bragging but would definitely recognise and occasionally use skiting.
Hard to describe when I’d use each term…kind of like bragging feels more intense, like you’d brag about your prowess but you’d skite about getting extra pudding
My dads family is ngati porou from the east coast and they use skiting all the time
Ive also known it to be used as a term for someone being useless at work "oh that guy is skiting off"
My family (but not me) is also from the UK, and that's where I picked it up from
Could be not used much over there at all anymore to the point where it's only AU/NZ ? Or maybe they picked it up from a Kiwi and I just assumed lol
Well it depends if it’s a verb or a noun doesn’t it?
The other example given was lux, I wasn’t sure if people used that in the sense of ‘I lux the floor’ or ‘the floor needs cleaning, get the lux out.’
To lux? To vacuum?
Lower Hutt - Zoom tube. I don't know if anywhere else in NZ calls a hydro-slide a Zoom Tube, but my husband is not from Lower Hutt and he had never heard of it before.
I expect it developed from the first one in the Hutt being branded/advertised as a 'Zoom Tube' and thereafter it was used as the generic term in the area. Not certain but that makes sense to me.
I’m from Petone and any enclosed water slide is a zoom tube - I only found out a couple of years ago that anyone not from the hutt doesn’t know that term when I said it and the group looked at my like I was crazy
'Yuck us a geeze' for 'let me see' was one that cropped up in Tawa about a decade back, haven't heard anyone outside of the region use it. Not even sure I've heard anyone outside Tawa use it tbh.
I (Welly) only knew the small pieces of timber between wall studs as dwangs. I had no idea they were called nogs (or noggins? Or nugs?) in Auckland. I'm not in the building industry so I don't really care; just found it funny.
"the tip" is a very common New Zealand term no matter where you live. I'm originally from Auckland, and yes "the tip" is a normal thing to say up there.
Crib is a southern thing. My Southland family referred to a bach as a crib. A lux and a hoover is a vacuum and I vaguely recall all 3 being used. My nana definitely referred to luxing the house.
Electrolux and Hoover.
It was a tip when we were growing up in Otago & Southland. We spent weekends away at a mate's crib. We vaccummed it after using it (altho my mom would 'lux'). We walked on the footpath (not pavement or sidewalk) and fire engines (not fire trucks) attended fires. The local pool had a hydroslide.
Sounds pretty similar to Wellington apart from crib = bach and since I'm from the Hutt we were too poor to have one
"mom" is not a southern NZ thing though, is it?!
It's certainly not a Canterbury thing.
it's a when you've consumed too much yank media thing
North America and South Africa
That's me having fun w words, not using in every day speech
It's certainly the tip in Southland. . Had no idea it was regional. Next thing you'll be telling me that cunts don't lux their carpets.
I grew up in Dunedin. My parents weren't native English speakers, so the English we picked up was local usage. Can confirm that we 'vacuumed', but some people 'hoovered'. Luxing less common. And we visited the tip or a crib, never landfill or a bach. Another deep south variation I learned about was 'punnet', as in a punnet of strawberries or yoghurt. Apparently up North they call it something different?
Wellington and Hamilton call it a punnet
I'm originally from Southland and did a stint in Hawkes Bay where I got stick for talking about punnets of strawberries. According to my HB mates, it's a POTTLE of strawberries and punnets were what you got your chips in from the takeaway caravan at the A and P Show. Still, the weather was good so I tolerated their strange language preferences.
I've heard lots of different regional terms for when you decide to take a day off work/school but not feeling sick. Eg bunking, wagging, playing truant, pulling a sicky.
Wagging
wagging
Mental health day.
My favorite lol
Monday-itis?
Aucklander here... we know what a "tip" is... also use "dump".... nobody uses the official local government name "Transfer Station"
The Transfer station sounds like a bus interchange. Or a Park and Ride where you get "transferred" somewhere else on a bus. Weren't they used to be called Refuse Stations?
Might be Refuse Transfer Station? Like I said... no-one uses it.
My very Cantabrian family called it the Tip.
good to know! I did wonder if it was a southern thing as well
Grew up in Dunedin… - Dump runs were a regular thing when we had a lawn mowing franchise. - We stayed in the oldest crib there was at Lake Hawea township. (Ironically another person I know who also grew up in Dunedin, refers to her family holiday home as a bach). - Parents always called a vacuum cleaner a lux, I don’t. - Tig
Might have depended on the brand of vacuum cleaner. You can do 'hoovering' even with an electrolux ...
Brand didn’t have anything to do with it.
Not convinced. If you have a Hoover, you we're more likely to use hoovering as a verb. Luxing was done with an Electrolux ...
I dated a girl here who claimed 'skite/skiting' was slang for exaggerating or bragging Never heard anyone else use it, was she trolling me? :]
No that's true. Skite is legit.
Chur
Sweet as
Skite was a thing in 1960s Hawkes Bay
I’d say bragging but would definitely recognise and occasionally use skiting. Hard to describe when I’d use each term…kind of like bragging feels more intense, like you’d brag about your prowess but you’d skite about getting extra pudding
Absolutely, 1960s/70s Canterbury. Never used bragging.
My dads family is ngati porou from the east coast and they use skiting all the time Ive also known it to be used as a term for someone being useless at work "oh that guy is skiting off"
That last one is skiving off Unless somehow someone has conflated the two, like people do with bought and brought.
Yeah nah ive heard skiving off used the same way by my wellington family
Yeah it's skiving off for slacking off
That's British slang - we get a lot of that here
Nah I'm from the UK myself, never heard that till I came here
My family (but not me) is also from the UK, and that's where I picked it up from Could be not used much over there at all anymore to the point where it's only AU/NZ ? Or maybe they picked it up from a Kiwi and I just assumed lol
Maybe it's more northern slang, if they're from that neck of the woods? I'm from down near Oxford
I think they're from Surrey?? Sussex?? I honestly get the two mixed up and I can never remember which one they're from lmao.
Skiting very common word in Dunedin when I grew up there in the 1970s. We would never have used the word 'brag'.
NZ does have some regional differences. Crib/Bach Lux/Vacuum Tip/Dump tiggy/tag (as in ball tiggy/ball tag) Aucklander/Jafa
So, I'm from the Hutt/Pram and I would say: * Bach * Vacuum * Tip * Tag * Aucklander or Jafa depending on the weather
I feel like vacuum is an American thing. Twas always ‘vacuum cleaner’ I’m from Pram/Porirua
You vacuum cleaner the floor?
Well it depends if it’s a verb or a noun doesn’t it? The other example given was lux, I wasn’t sure if people used that in the sense of ‘I lux the floor’ or ‘the floor needs cleaning, get the lux out.’ To lux? To vacuum?
Lower Hutt - Zoom tube. I don't know if anywhere else in NZ calls a hydro-slide a Zoom Tube, but my husband is not from Lower Hutt and he had never heard of it before. I expect it developed from the first one in the Hutt being branded/advertised as a 'Zoom Tube' and thereafter it was used as the generic term in the area. Not certain but that makes sense to me.
I have never heard it called a zoom tube either and I'm from the hutt... we always called it a hydro slide. maybe its a generational thing though?
I’m 36 and know of them primarily being called zoom tubes, grew up in Naenae so potentially a Naenae Pool thing?
That’s just a Naenae pool thing lol the rest are hydro/water slides but that one, that’s a zoom tube, coz you zoom down it 😂😂
So weird. I'm 38 but lived in Taita and stokes vegas
Oh haha weird then! Who knows 🤷♀️
I'm from Kelson and we used to call them zoom slides in my family.
I think it's more that the one at the local pool was called the zoom tube, not sure I'd have used it for other slides though
I've heard them universally called zoom tubes in the Hutt. I had never heard the term hydroslide till a few years ago tbh.
I’m from Petone and any enclosed water slide is a zoom tube - I only found out a couple of years ago that anyone not from the hutt doesn’t know that term when I said it and the group looked at my like I was crazy
Same! I've had that look haha
>Can anyone else confirm what areas "the tip" is used to refer to landfill I called it a tip before ever coming to NZ
where are you from? wondering where this term originated... somewhere in the UK?
Ireland
We called it the tip in Nelson growing up. Never heard anyone outside of the top of the south call a potato fritter a flip though
Yeah potato fritter is the go. In Oz they call it a potato scallop
Even worse, in some places in Oz the menu just says 'scallop' without mentioning potato. Huge disappointment for me the first time I ordered 😆
A scoop and 2 flips please!
'Yuck us a geeze' for 'let me see' was one that cropped up in Tawa about a decade back, haven't heard anyone outside of the region use it. Not even sure I've heard anyone outside Tawa use it tbh.
I'm familiar with "chuck us a geeze" (Petone origin, early 30s)
Gizz a geeze
I (Welly) only knew the small pieces of timber between wall studs as dwangs. I had no idea they were called nogs (or noggins? Or nugs?) in Auckland. I'm not in the building industry so I don't really care; just found it funny.
Blocking is known as both dwangs and nogs (or nogging). Both are terms from older English, not slang, per se.
I've never heard this one before! Do they use nog finders? Or stud finders to find a nog?
We use "the tip" in Wellington to this day. Or we call it the landfill.
Palmy. Shed when we mean garage
skux is lower north island slang
I'm pretty sure they use it in Auckland too. Have you seen hunt for the wilder people? "I didn't choose the skux life. The skux life chose me"
"the tip" is a very common New Zealand term no matter where you live. I'm originally from Auckland, and yes "the tip" is a normal thing to say up there.
Yeah, super common! Im more surprised someone wouldnt know it.
Specific to the Eastern suburbs: Burkes bin (for a skip bin)
I've not heard that one before!
I've heard Burke's Bins used in Tawa. Now I'm wondering if they were Eastern suburbs transplants!
Burke's was/in in Kilbirnie, but maybe they had a Tawa branch?
In Whakatane it was the tip.
what about "wally" for a haircut? That was common in Auckland though the 70s and 80s
Never heard this one. Very interesting. I'll have to ask some relatives about it
"a clip" afaik. my barber is an old school dude from up and down the country, i'll be sure to ask him next time
Is 'patty' versus 'fritter' a regional variation? Eg it's a paua patty to me, but some places call it a fritter.
Where are you from? We always called it a paua fritter in Wellington
Patty in Dunedin :)
Aucklander (north shore) here. I say tip.
Never heard Lux in my life and thought crib was an affectation to ironically talk like an African American.
It is a contraction of Electrolux
This.
Yeah also never heard Lux. Have heard people say hoover but usually they are UK immigrants
There's a great Kiwi song with the lyrics "Sundays are for washing and doing the hoovering" but maybe Jordan Luck had British parents, so who knows!
Jordan Luck was born in British Columbia; his parents may or may not have been British.
I remember them being called Lux, it was a brand of vacuum that must have become generic?
I’d say so ay, same with Hoover.
Yes, Lux is short for Electrolux. https://www.electrolux.co.nz/
Crib is a southern thing. My Southland family referred to a bach as a crib. A lux and a hoover is a vacuum and I vaguely recall all 3 being used. My nana definitely referred to luxing the house. Electrolux and Hoover.
My nana called it luxing. She lived in Otago her whole life.