Since leaving the United States in July, I have been working on a unified Theory of Civilization – and I have come to this:

A civilization can be measured by the access it offers to public toilets —  the quantity, quality and cost.

By that measure, New Zealand is the most enlightened civilization we have encountered yet.  Every town and attraction has clearly marked, clean, free public toilets.

Whenever nature called, we would begin looking for the ubiquitous blue signs directing us to public facilities.

In most places the toilets were rather ordinary.  However several towns we visited had exceptional offerings.

In Auckland and Queenstown, we found space-pod toilets with computerized doors.

In the town of Franz Josef, I snapped this picture of the EXCELoo.

But nothing compared to Lake Taupo’s SUPERLOO, with its showers, lockers and 24-hour loo attendant.

New Zealand set a very high, very civilized standard (far better than the U.S.!).  I can’t imagine Australia will put as much emphasis on public comfort.

In fact, there’s only one potential competitor I see on the horizon:  Japan.