Our postie looking at me suspiciously

[cambourne7]

baking powder or baking soda is really useful

http://www.bakingsodabook.co.uk/

ie - You can clean your shovels and garden tools with a thick paste of vinegar and baking soda before putting them away at the end of the summer it will help prelong their life while preventing rust at the same time.

[cambourne7]

[Kea]

NZ customs usually check stuff going out as well as coming in due to worries about smuggling rare species. The sniffer dogs at the airports in NZ are looking for plant material etc coming in. My son got stopped by a dog as he was using his school bag as hand luggage and the dog could smell the banana that he'd had in his lunchbox in the bag at school about 4 days earlier!
My husband (English) thought I was obsessive over the cleaning of our walking boots until we waited at agricultural control for 45 mins while our boots were steamed. If they'd been obvious soil etc on them it might have been 3 weeks wait, they even steamed my sons brand new unworn boots. ironically they didn't even look at our other footwear!
When we were leaving I saw someone trying to take a tree fern out of the country but it was confiscated..so they do check going out as well.