the New Zealand accent

I find myself having difficulty understanding some New Zealanders because of the accent. Not all of them mind you, just some. It's like they swallow part of their words. For example, some New Zealanders will say 'fush and chups' rather than 'fish and chips' and the name of the town is sometimes pronounced 'Curry-curry' rather than "Carry-carry'. Sometimes Richard has a hard time understanding my accent as well.

Last night we were short staffed in the kitchen so I had to do a few things the commis chef normally does, like make sundaes, get bread or various sauces. At one point the chef had to repeat himself 5 or 6 times until I understood he was asking me to get some tomato sauce. In Australia and New Zealand it is pronounced to-mah-to (but not pot-tah-to in case you are curious), but I'm used to that and know what they are talking about. Even after I know he's saying to-mah-to, it's still hard to understand. Eventually he took a short cut and asked me to get some ketchup, which solved that problem.

(Although, technically, tomato sauce, while it looks like ketchup is not quite the same thing. More tomato tasting, less sugar I think. But, for french fries, it works.)