We’ve read that association and environment are vital factors in determining one’s behavior and vision. A startling example of this is when ordinarily polite and helpful New Zealanders get behind the wheel of a car. They change. Their total absence of decorum and poor road etiquette can become annoying or downright terrifying to Americans over forty (like me) when driving on the rural roads near Auckland. The following happens to me a lot: You’re driving down the road, in New Zealand that is. It’s a warm sunny afternoon, not a soul in sight, not a care in the world. Srila Prabhupada is singing on the car radio. There’s no cars on the highway, and you’re cruising. Doing about 50. Than you happen to look into the rear view mirror. There’s a red SUV (that stands for sport-utility vehicle in case you didn’t know) right on your tail. He’s five inches from your rear bumper, has wrap around sun glasses, a crew cut, and is looking agro. You want to slow down, but you’re worried he’ll bump into you… I speed up a little and he’s still on my tail – just as close. The New Zealand Road Code booklet (the one you read if you’re taking the written test) says to pull over when this happens. But there’s not enough room on the shoulder – it’s a winding road, and what if someone’s coming the other way? So I drive with heart in mouth for what seems like forever – each straightaway seems to have a car coming in the opposite direction – until I finally find a straight enough length of road and a shoulder wide enough to pull over. I flash my left blinker even before starting to reduce speed and then I slow down, but not too fast. He passes in a deafening roar of the engine (probably in a lower gear) and of course he doesn’t beep or flash his lights to acknowledge my courtesy. Yep, those super-polite en zedders (New Zealanders) can really turn into monsters on the road. Whew!