Chefprefers BLOG

7/18/2026

Newfie Land

In 2024, my wife travelled to Newfoundland with her sister and came home convinced that Newfoundlanders were the friendliest drivers on Earth. She told me that whenever they stepped onto a road, cars would stop, wave them across, and the drivers would roll down their windows to ask, “You’re not from Newfoundland, are ya?”

That story lodged itself firmly in my brain before I picked up our rental car.

I expected roads filled with saints.

Instead, within minutes I witnessed someone blast through a red light, another cross a double line, a tailgater practically inspecting my rear bumper, a driver leaning on the horn because someone dared to stop for a pedestrian, and another treating a construction zone speed limit as little more than a polite suggestion.

I thought, “Hang on. New Foundlanders are just like everyone else!”

So we were back to square one. What exactly makes Newfoundland so different?

Perhaps it is the unmistakable accent. Part Irish, part Canadian, with a hint of toughness earned from endless winters, brief summers, pothole dodging, roadworks that never seem to end, and prices that constantly remind you that you are living on an island.

Or maybe it is the landscape itself. Fishing villages cling to rugged coastlines while harbours, coves and inlets seem to appear around every corner.

I chatted with a lady born and raised near Middle Cove Beach who told me her mother, despite being born in Ireland, was still considered a newcomer. Apparently, living there for a few decades is merely a good start. To become a true local, it helps if your great grandparents also lived down the road.

Newfies have a distinct sense of honour like naming their towns such as Hearts Content, Hearts Desire, Hearts Delight and to really cement the humour is the town of Dildo.

The scenery is equally distinctive. Low spruce forests blanket the hills, fog rolls in without warning, and relentless winds form trees into shapes that look as though they have permanently given up standing straight.

Farming does exist in sheltered valleys where potatoes, vegetables, sheep and goats thrive, but much of the island is covered by the hardy forests which have adapted to thin soils, storms and a cool maritime climate.

So why do people travel all this way?

Perhaps for the humpback whales that poke from the ocean like submarines on drugs. For the puffins that look as though they were designed by Aunty Mary. For spectacular hiking trails, unique fishing villages, fresh cod and chips, and centuries of maritime history and the picturesque houses coloured by a committee of rainbow merchants.