Dunedin is ''a bit different'' to the Gold Coast.
It may also be different from the northern England cities of Warrington, Widnes, Wigan and even Weatherfield (which is fictional).
But we are Dunedin, and one question has to be asked of anyone who visits.
In this case it was English rugby league players who fielded the variation of the age-old Dunedin query: ''Do you like us?''
''It's a bit different to the Gold Coast, but it's where we're playing, so we'll just have to get used to it,'' hooker Daryl Clark (he won the Steve Prescott Man of Steel award in the Super League) told the media.
''It was quite cold when we got here,'' another burly young league player responded.
It wasn't just the media, of course, keen for some sort of positive feedback for our shaky sense of civic self.
''Not too cold for you?'' a fan asked a passing forward, desperate for the answer to be ''no''.
Well travelled and media savvy footballers, of course, know how to respond in these situations.
''It was quite cold when we got here - nice people, though,'' one said.
Oh, the relief.
The high in Huddersfield (league is the northern game in England) on Thursday was 8degC.
It was sunny and possibly almost 9degC at Tahuna Park when the boys turned out for a bit of a run before today's big test against the Kiwis in the Four Nations tournament.
It wasn't even too windy.
The ground was very well marked with nice white paint that would have looked a treat anywhere in the world.
Yes, the historic Tahuna Park grandstand was looking tatty as you like - there were holes in the walls and the paint was peeling off.
But the Tahuna wastewater treatment plant glistened green, solid, pragmatic - a testament to our practical nature and civic abilities in the Wednesday afternoon sun.
Its yurt-like structures behind the goal posts were particularly attractive, and the biological trickle filters, wooden biofilters and ultraviolet treatment equipment hummed quietly.
And we welcomed the lads to this setting to train for the first league test in Dunedin in 86 years, and the English boys forgot the cold as they warmed to the task.
Our own fragile self-esteem was also forgotten; the Poms were here, and it was, well, exciting.
The suburb of Andersons Bay looked on with a bemused eye as Tainui (maybe St Kilda) hosted a good 30 or more of the northern game's finest.
There was that nice Sam Tomkins (who is planning a tour of the South Island this summer [he clearly likes us]) who plays for the Warriors, and one of the Burgess brothers (gee, they're big), who plays for South Sydney, was being photographed with some kids from Tahuna Intermediate.
As a team, the English had a slightly higher ginger count, and slightly lower tattoo count than local teams.
A parade of calf muscles (longer shorts were the order of the day) tore hither and yon across the park.
High kicks, grubber kicks and banana kicks were all trotted out, as the red bibs took on the black T-shirts.
Well-muscled men played the ball, and threw dummies and cut-out passes.
Staunch, bald, older men sat on benches on the sideline with their arms staunchly folded by a pile of Steeden footballs and a Powerade container that was so large it needed wheels.
If you closed your eyes - such were the accents - it was quite a lot like being transported to training at a park near Coronation Street, perhaps at the Weatherfield Rugby League Club, which has fictionally turned up on the show in the past.
And the league boys made jokes.
''We should get a hobo from the streets of Dunedin to play wing,'' someone shouted, possibly after a winger dropped the ball.
We were too polite to say we don't really use the word ''hobo''.
About 60 fans for the open training session lined the fence, craning their necks to see past the line of television cameras, as the flesh on flesh of bodies tackling bodies clapped across Tahuna Park.
Then the players were served up for a good grilling by the local media.
There was an uncomfortable moment when a camera didn't work, and nobody was sure what was going on.
That moment lasted so long, another camera guy broke it with a question, something camera guys don't do.
''So how's the tour going so far?'' he quipped.
That broke the moment, and everyone thrust their microphones forward.
We needed to know if Sam Tomkins liked our stadium.
''It's a brilliant stadium to play at,'' he said.
