What I would call cladding, you would call veneer but we are talking about the same thing here. I believe most houses even brick-n-tile in NZ are just merely veneers/cladding with timber framing and not the solid brick (block) built houses as one would expect (coming from a different country).
It takes getting used to and a big leap to appreciate it. I know of Singaporeans and other Asians who believe wood is so far inferior as a building material, they would only pay for brick, block housing not knowing about the timber framing.