British tourist Kat Penkin visiting Australia jokes about friendly locals saying hello on walks

A British tourist visiting Australia has joked about being “emotionally drained” after forgetting how friendly Australians are compared to our UK cousins.

Singer Kat Penkin, who traveled from London to Perth for the holidays with her family, was out for a walk on Christmas Day morning when she came across the Australian habit.

Penkin admitted that he had forgotten the way Australians interact with one another, even if they are complete strangers.

“Every person that walks by says ‘good morning, how are you?'” Penkin said in a video posted to TikTok.

British traveller, Kat Penkin, was surprised by a ‘healthy’ Australian tradition while out for a morning walk in Perth, Western Australia.

Penkin, who was born in Devon in the south-west of the UK, was raised in Perth by her parents until she returned to England to pursue a musical career.

“I had forgotten how nice Aussies are,” he said at the beginning of the video.

“I live in London, so if you say ‘good morning’ you get punched in the face.”

The video then showed Penkin recording herself being greeted by numerous Australians, from a simple “good morning” to an exuberant “good morning” from a cheerful passerby.

Hundreds of Australians flocked to the comments, unaware that the tradition was just an ‘Aussie thing’.

‘I learned today that this is an Australian thing. I lived my whole life thinking everyone was doing this,” wrote one commenter.

Penkin responded by saying, “Honestly, it’s so special.”

The Londoner was inundated with random Aussie greetings as she walked by, many Australians unaware it was just an “Aussie thing” until Penkin pointed it out.

‘Australian here. if not salute the randos [random people] I pass, I feel bad the rest of the day,’ wrote another.

An Australian shared his experience of not receiving the same warm greeting while abroad.

‘fr [For Real] I was saying “tomorrow” in America and the amount of confused looks I got,” wrote one.

Another Aussie chalked it up to being “a morning only thing, I think people who go for a walk in the morning are generally happier and it’s usually older people who start it.”