License Plates

Probably not the most exciting topic, but I have to say that New Zealand probably has the most boring license plates on the planet - black lettering on a white background. With no images, words, or anything. Judging from this picture, it looks like the Kiwis have never been inspired to decorate their plates.



Granted, New Zealand has a unitary licensing authority for both islands, and it's pretty difficult to bring a foreign registered car to these remote islands, but you'd think they could have decorated the plates a bit. There's a few good choices, like a cool Maori design:



A kiwi bird:



Or the classic silver fern logo:



For comparison purposes, Massachusetts alone has more than FIFTEEN different plate designs to choose from.

Usually I'm against most vanity plates, but with these boring NZ plates, you have to spice them up a bit. We recently visited Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in Australasia. The owner of one of the restaurants there managed to snag three different vanity plates: MT C00K, MT CO0K, and MT C0OK. We didn't see the MT COOK one, though. He must really love the place, though.