 Guess what we're talking about today? Yes, Easter. It is an Easter basket and candy and lollies and chocolate and whatever you want to call it. Today we're going to talk about the differences between US and New Zealand when it comes to Easter. And you're going to want to stick around to the end where we're going to go through the candy, the lollies, the chocolate. So we'll go through that at the end, but let me go through six differences between New Zealand and the US when it comes to Easter. Here we go. Hey, I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on me because some of you have joined me on my live videos. And so you may know this or have rewatched those. But I just wanted to give you an update on my life a little bit so you know what's going on. No, I'm not moving back to the US, but I am visiting in June and July. So amazing content about to come your way. But I just want to let you know that I have recently left my position to go full time really into my businesses with the YouTube channel with I started a digital marketing company last year. I have this communication consulting thing. So if you are a small business and need any digital marketing, reach out to me because we have amazing stuff that we offer. And we actually have a course coming up in May that has a feature that nobody else offers. And it's great. So anyway, I'm real excited about it, but I'm kind of jumping in and diving in. So I just thought I'd let you know what I'm doing. And so it's going really well. And sometimes at some point in your life, you just need to be like, Hey, you know, like, I'm not to the point you never feel like I'm ready to dive in. I haven't met the same income level with my current job. But at some point, you just, it gets too much to split your focus six different ways plus your whole family. And so I'm just diving in. I'm going for it. And I just thought you guys should know that because you might just see me talking about a lot of different things. And you might just see me just wondering what's going on or like, Oh, she's having so much more content or she's doing this. And I'm not totally sure what I'm doing. Like you guys know about my membership or my training hub that's coming out. I've been working on that. And that's going to be amazing. And it's going to provide all of the in depth knowledge that you need about moving, living, traveling in New Zealand. So I'm excited about that. And you can go to my website if you want to sign up to where I'll let you know when that's ready. And that's going to be great. And that will definitely support me a lot in this process. And it's really helpful because I have been consulting with a lot of people and I know what your questions are. I know what you guys need to know. And I'm just about to make a whole training hub on all of that. So never hesitate to reach out to me if you want to chat with me or have a question or just want to know more about that. I'm happy to help. But there's the update on me. Number one. Number one difference that I want to talk about is public holidays. In New Zealand, it is a public holiday Good Friday and Easter Monday. So everybody in the country gets Friday and Monday off in schools and whatever. I mean most I mean I'm sure there's situations. But anyway, in the U.S. Friday is a public holiday in some states, but not overall. And Monday is not a public holiday in the U.S. And so a lot of times companies decide that those are company holidays and you get them off anyway. But it's not guaranteed. And I always got frustrated because Friday was you know you kind of want to go to a service and it's just you know so actually churches adapted in the U.S. And so a lot of times they'll have their services at lunch so that you can kind of go at your lunch break because you know a lot of people have to work. It's not a public holiday. So that's the number one big difference between U.S. and New Zealand when it comes to Easter. Number two. I have to mention Hot Cross Buns. And if you're American I'm not referring to the recorder song that you play in third grade. Hot Cross Buns. Now Hot Cross Buns is an actual bun with like a cross on the top. It represents lent and preparing for Easter. And it's everywhere in New Zealand. So it'll have some of them have raisins. Most of them have raisins in them or sultanas is that what they call it? And then or they have like the chocolate ones with the you know chocolate chips. So it's definitely my preference. And they're okay. They're not like the most amazing tasting things. If you like toast them or heat them up a little butter definitely way better. But like Hot Cross Buns are a huge thing and definitely represent Easter in New Zealand. But it's not the case in the U.S. It's not that you can't get them. I'm sure that you can. But like I just every all of a sudden leading up to Easter it's like all of a sudden I'm seeing these weird buns sitting out the Hot Cross Buns and I was like oh that must be the Easter thing here. So that's one of the big differences. And number three one of the big big activities and maybe this is because I have four children is coloring Easter eggs. And it is just not a thing in New Zealand mainly because the eggs are brown. So like how do you color them? And eggs are brown because of the type of head that you have. Okay so it's I think that you can probably get white eggs. I haven't been able to. So if you have been able to find white eggs can you comment below. But then it's also like where do you get the dye and da-da-da. So like in the U.S. though you get like this $1.99 dye kit. And it's really cool. It comes with everything that you need to color the eggs. And it's always an activity that you do with children. And um yeah. So it was it's definitely missed. Like when I talked to other Americans we're like yeah we're back. Coloring Easter eggs. That's the tradition. So some of the traditions are different. We got Hot Cross Buns for the New Zealanders. And we got coloring eggs for the Americans. And number four. The other thing that you need to adapt to I think for Americans is that it's not spring. Yes so we're like on the other side of the world. And so we're going into fall autumn. They call it here moving into winter. You guys moving into summer depending on where you are. Sometimes it's always summer depending on where you are in the U.S. But spring is generally the reminder of Easter. Of bringing life again to you know the certain types of flowers the daffodils and the tulips and the colors and the light pastel pink colors. And they do have that here. But it just it's interesting and it's it's different for somebody that's coming here. Like you're used to thinking of Easter and relating it to spring. And it's just it's that spring here. It's getting colder. And so it's just a whole different feel. So then I was thinking about this. And I was asking my TikTok community but I didn't get much response on this. But so in the U.S. like you dress up you know on Easter Sunday the pastels sometimes hats sometimes you know cute little dresses for your kids. And I've seen that a little bit here but not at the same scale. And so I just was wondering I haven't been everywhere. I haven't done everything. I don't know how times have changed over over time in New Zealand if they dress up. So that's my question. Comment below if you know. Do people like dress up and like it's a whole thing when they go to church on Sunday or maybe they don't even go to church. Like I don't know. It seems like you would when you're taking Friday and Monday off and you're actually like this is a public holiday in this country. But yeah so I was curious about that because that was always a big thing. Not that I was huge into dressing up and getting my kids dressed up but it's definitely a tradition in the U.S. Okay number five. Both countries have Easter egg hunts. So no worries if you're coming to New Zealand you can still do Easter egg hunts. They are very popular but a little bit different. And let me tell you how it's different. Where are all the plastic eggs? Okay there's no plastic eggs. So you can get them. So I think I have found them but like for years when you first move here they're not everywhere. They're not easy to find. Sometimes you can get them at certain two dollar stores. They're not dollar stores here. They're two dollar stores. Anyway that's another another one. But um Easter egg plastic. So in the U.S. what they do is they put little candy within or like M&M's or whatever inside the plastic eggs and that's what you're hunting for. But in New Zealand it's not like it's yeah it's just the actual candy. So you kind of can only hide it like immediately before everybody goes on an Easter egg hunt because the animals will get it. It will melt whatever it is. So um so that's a little bit different. But they all do Easter egg hunts and that's and that's a normal very traditional thing. A thing that you you read about and see about see them doing. But it's just where are the plastic eggs? That's my question. Okay in number six let's talk about candy, lallies, chocolate, everything Easter basket. My favorite part. So the first thing I'm going to say is a the selection of Easter candy in the U.S. is so much greater. Obviously they have a lot more people on the scalable and can offer a lot of choices. My favorite and I think I think probably the most common is the Easter the peanut butter Easter egg. Um the Reese's peanut butter Easter egg. So good. Anyway um so and I just need to make a side note. My number one favorite Easter candy are jelly beans. The Brock's jelly beans. The jelly beans here in New Zealand not good. They're not good. So if you're in the U.S. and you want to send me some jelly beans. Anyway let's go through what they have in New Zealand. This is just what I had in my house. This isn't like this is it. You know these are just some things but I just want to let you know they do have a Cadbury cream egg. So if you like these and you're in New Zealand they have them here too. Um I have this weird tradition with myself where I think oh I'm gonna every year I'm gonna have a Cadbury cream egg. I've had it and I go it's not very good but yeah I still have it every year. Tradition I don't know. I need to just stop doing that. They have Easter buddies. All different sizes. I'll go and then look at this chocolate that I got. I thought it was really cool. So it has like little mini eggs inside the chocolate and so that's cool but also there is so New Zealand is like they make things small but not when it comes to Easter eggs. It's a huge chocolate Easter egg. Now this is all Cadbury because my son works for Cadbury and so they send us stuff but it's huge. And then like at the warehouse they have really big Easter eggs. Like they'll have like big huge things. So they don't mess around. They go big when it comes to Easter eggs. So those are some ideas on the chocolates and the lollies that they have in New Zealand. They definitely have a lot more in the U.S. and please send me some jelly beans. Anyway um and then they don't have peeps. So if you don't know what I'm saying peeps. I'm gonna lick a picture. Peeps in the U.S. are the iconic Easter basket candy. I don't like them. I used to be as a child like when I see the peeps in the chat and you're like oh you're very disappointed. You're getting the peeps in the Easter basket. But then as I grew up I was with other dolls and they were like oh I love the peeps. I'm like oh people actually eat them. I just thought they were really for decoration and you throw them out because they're so cheap and they're just like this marshmallow but they're not like individually wrapped. So they just sit in your Easter basket. It's really cute and they're all different cute little pastel colors but they like get hard and stale and you don't need it. I mean some kids probably eat it but like yeah. So they don't have peeps in New Zealand and I'm thankful for that because I don't really like them. But just so you know it's a very iconic American Easter basket item so I needed to mention it.