Technology differences

Here are some modern-technology things that are different in New Zealand:

Electrical outlets:  Here's what they look like.  Two angled prongs, and a third prong in the middle for the ground.  Importantly, they run at 230V instead of 120V.  So this means that if you buy a cheapie travel adapter that just makes it so that your American hair dryer will fit into the NZ plug, you might still fry the thing when you turn it on.

The switches are to turn on/off each outlet.  I guess they're there for safety, or convenience, or something.  Because pulling out a plug is hard?

Phone numbers:  In the States, they are ten digits, in a consistent 3-3-4 combination.  123-456-7890.  Here, they are 8 to 11 digits depending on who your phone network is, and they're arranged in any wacky combination that people choose to present them.  Imagine the looks you'd get if you rattled off your phone number as 12-3456-789-0.

Internet:  We have cable internet here, same as in the States.  Back in California, the only decision to be made was which company to go with.  When we signed up here, though, we were given a curious menu of options.  'Most people like the 100GB package,' they told us.  Internet usage is metered here, much like how you buy a plan with so many minutes per month for your cell phone.  It is weird to have to weigh whether or not you want to click on a link... not because you're worried about how long it will take to load (like in the days of dial-up yore), but because you don't want to inadvertently open some pdf that will needlessly eat 1.2% of your month's bandwidth.