As a southern hemisphere dweller previously unfamiliar with Halloween (except for those specials on Roseanne), I have to admit that Halloween seems a particularly bizarro kind of festival.

On October 31st, a zillion kids get dressed up in ghoul costumes and go knocking door to door for treats. Or tricks. (But nobody tricks anymore, they just treat. So I'm told).

The industry is absolutely huge here. During the whole month of October every single Dollar Store in the city ditches its normal (gloriously junky) items and brings out the Halloween wares: candies, costumes, decorations, lights, you name it.

Shops, businesses and schools all get into the swing of it. Fake spiderwebs are draped over counters and in window displays. Big, black freakish spiders hang precariously above your head. Skeletons dangle from doorways.

Some retailers even go in for sound effects. I was walking down the street the other day and was stopped in my tracks by a scream, followed by a low, susurrus wailing. I turned in alarm and confusion, only to realise it was emanating from a speaker suspended above a shop entrance.

And nobody actually eats pumpkin here. Pumpkins are strictly Halloween fodder. They get carved up, lit up and then turfed November 1st.

Even the local city council participates, hanging orange lights around the trees in the city.

It's all a bit much for a girl from Nu Zild. (Nu Zild is the correct, native pronunciation for New Zealand)

But being as this is my second Halloween running, I am far less wide-eyed and far more blasé about the whole thing.

Just like North Americans.

Or at least that's my excuse. And I'm sticking to it.

You can read more from Kirsten at Notes From an Exile - her fruity blog about all manner of things profound and profane.