I love New Zealanders. As an Australian I’m sure I’ll get booed and jeered, or king hit (it’s a thing we do), but it’s true – I love them. They’re so goddamn friendly! I’ve met many while travelling and amazingly haven’t disliked a single one of them. While travelling, these are some of the things I observed about them:
Remind people they’re not Australian
Just like Canadians hate to be called Americans, Kiwis hate to be called Australian. I don’t blame them – we’re not overly fussed being called Kiwis either. It’s not that we dislike our island neighbours, but we just like who we are too. New Zealanders tend to treat the mix up with a lot more good will than Australians. While Kiwis will smile and politely correct them, Australians will often make a face like they’ve just sucked a lemon and then start to threaten physical violence. For some reason we take it as an insult. The Rugby World Cup result will not help this…
Talk about Lord of the Rings
What a double edge Morgul sword this one is. On the one hand, New Zealanders are mightily proud that some of the best movies ever made happened to be made in their country. Everyone I’ve met from NZ knows someone who was either an extra in the movie or knows someone who worked on it. Even now people flock from around the world to walk the trails of Frodo. That’s the good side. The bad side is that Every. Single. Person. Wants to talk about Lord of the Rings with them. Often not anything that constructive either; people say it almost as if it’s proof that the country actually exists. Their typical conversation goes: “I’m from New Zealand.” “Oh, I’ve heard of that – Lord of the Rings was filmed there.” Thus, satisfied that the traveller hasn’t made up a country, they proceed to ask whether or not Hobbits are everywhere and whether they’ve still got that pesky Orc problem. Again, the politeness bred into the New Zealanders tend to have them reminding them it wasn’t a documentary.
Good morning from The Shire… ?? #newzealand #theshire #hobbiton #thehobbit #lacontea #thelordoftherings #bestmemories #nuovazelanda #matamata #northisland #green #grass #lake #thegreendragoninn #beer #amazingtrip #instatravel #instago #travelgram #traveladdict #youandme #gandalffireworks #happyasachild #middleearth ✈️ A photo posted by Erik@ (@erika_marche) on
Drink
We Australians love to drink, don’t we?! Hahaha! Look at us! VB! XXXX! Get it in ya!! Shut up, Australia! Just shut up – I’m sick of hearing it! Yes, we like to drink while overseas, but most people do on holidays. It doesn’t make us special. Just because you sport a blue singlet and wear some sort of meditation bracelet you got swindled for in Thailand doesn’t give you carte blanche to talk up your drunken antics and cloak it in national pride. Besides, the New Zealanders love to drink equally as much – they’re just not so preachy about it. They just go about their business, putting away pints and slamming shots in a non-offensive, friendly kind of way. Imagine that?!
Bonne grosse bière locale après le saut en parachute. Speight’s de Dunedin. #newzealand A photo posted by Maxime (@max_baril) on
Put up with stupidity
Yes, people get Aussies and Kiwis mixed up – it happens, our accents are a little similar, we’re in the same southern dead zone of the globe, fine, we move on. But just like we get asked if we have kangaroos in our backyard, New Zealanders cop a lot more flack about things that people just can’t seem to comprehend. I’ve been with New Zealanders who’ve been subjected to varying degrees of stupid questions. From, “Does New Zealand have Internet access yet?” To the more stereotypical, “Do you guys actually sleep with sheep?” I’m not sure what the person is hoping to get out by asking these types of questions. I’d have to assume they’re not eager to learn; otherwise these scholars would have investigated these types of powerful conundrums years ago. My only thinking is that they feel it’s better to have something to say other than just to look dumb while they rattle their brains for some previous mention of the island country.
There must be a reason to all the sheep jokes about New Zealand. They outnumber people by 6 to 1 A photo posted by Zineta Milak (@craving.adventure) on
They give the rest of us a bad name
It’s going to come as a shock – but New Zealanders are just people. At least I’ve always thought of them as such. But they also happen to be the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Disturbingly friendly. Disgustingly, damn-you-how-did-you-get-so-friendly! Maybe because they just love travelling, or maybe because their country has a greater social conscience than ours, I don’t know, I don’t have that answer. I’m not a scientist. But I’ve never met a Kiwi I’ve not liked. They’re kind, friendly and incredibly positive. And they also love their own country with a passion and encourage everyone to visit it as often as possible. Makes a change from the xenophobic Australian shores with our “If you weren’t born here, you don’t belong here!” bumper stickers attached to their cars that are manufactured, well, offshore. Kiwis are often travelling alone, but never for long, because everybody loves them. They’re softly spoken, humble and up for everything so if you find you’re less than likeable, hitch your wagon to one of these suckers – they’ll be too nice to tell you to go away.
