I'm glad you've been talking about it :) Kiwis were very much against the war on Iraq and many have a strong dislike/hate of Bush and foreign policy.

For the most part, people separate American people out from that and see them separately (there was a big debate recently on this topic and people had many good things to say about Americans but not many positives about American politics).

Kiwis are really proud of our anti-nuclear policy (which includes no nuclear powered ships able to enter our waters), formed in the 80's, which didn't impress American politicians - and hold onto this as an example of a little country saying "no" to a bigger country.

Anyways, aside from politics (people will often test you out to see if you're a Bush supporter by the way), Americans are often characterised as the following by Kiwis:

- Extremely generous

- Really hospitable

- Friendly

- Loud (we're quite quiet people in public and don't like to make a scene)... when I lived in the States for six months and then came back home, people were always saying "don't be so loud Rachel" (I'd obviously picked up on the talking loud thing to make myself heard in the US). We can usually hear Americans coming before we see them, or hear their conversations on the street because they're so loud.

- Often wearing white sneakers and socks, jeans, bum bugs (oh yeah, DON'T call them fanny packs here, fanny is highly offensive and I would never say that word unless explaining it in this context, it's one of the most explicit words here) baseball caps, leather belts and sweatshirts. Yes, I'm generalising, but we can usually spot Americans by what they're wearing (we don't have any chain clothing stores in common with the US!)

- Ignorant about the rest of the world (and not just politics). Kiwis are probably the most-travelled people in the world and our news media here is full of world politics, issues and we like to think we're pretty aware of other worldviews and cultures. Many Americans come here and complain that it's not like at home or something's not available here or constantly talk about the US.

 Hope this helps :)

PS I love Americans, some of closest friends are from there :)