Kia ora (hello)
Name: New Zealand or Aotearoa.
Population: 4 million
Capital: Wellington
Currency: NZD or New Zealand Dollar
Official Languages: English and Maori
Ethnic Makeup: European-77%, Maori-12%, Pacific Islanders-5%, Other-6%
The Maori imigrated from Polynesia about 1200 years ago.
The most beautiful, safe country in the world who have a neat national anthem and an excellent rugby team commonly known as the ALL BLACKS. It is a misconception that we 'hate' Aussies. We do not hate Aussies nor do they hate Kiwis. We are neighbours. Aussies are the familliar to us in our little country separated from the rest of the world. ;)
New Zealand happy things include, stubbies (short shorts), jandals, bbq's, rugby, beaches, buzzy bee toys!, pavalova, icecreams, L&P (yum), No.8 Wire, and pineapple lumps.
Most New Zealanders are friendly laid back folk who live for summer. And hey..we don't have accents, you do. ;)
peace.
Name: New Zealand or Aotearoa.
Population: 4 million
Capital: Wellington
Currency: NZD or New Zealand Dollar
Official Languages: English and Maori
Ethnic Makeup: European-77%, Maori-12%, Pacific Islanders-5%, Other-6%
The Maori imigrated from Polynesia about 1200 years ago.
The most beautiful, safe country in the world who have a neat national anthem and an excellent rugby team commonly known as the ALL BLACKS. It is a misconception that we 'hate' Aussies. We do not hate Aussies nor do they hate Kiwis. We are neighbours. Aussies are the familliar to us in our little country separated from the rest of the world. ;)
New Zealand happy things include, stubbies (short shorts), jandals, bbq's, rugby, beaches, buzzy bee toys!, pavalova, icecreams, L&P (yum), No.8 Wire, and pineapple lumps.
Most New Zealanders are friendly laid back folk who live for summer. And hey..we don't have accents, you do. ;)
peace.
"love thy neighbour"
"Kia ora, tamariki ma"-phrase most of us learn in primary school meaning "goodmorning children"
I liked this quote that I found on someone elses definition "With all the shit going on in the world today, sometimes I just wanna go live in New Zealand"
You got it!
"Kia ora, tamariki ma"-phrase most of us learn in primary school meaning "goodmorning children"
I liked this quote that I found on someone elses definition "With all the shit going on in the world today, sometimes I just wanna go live in New Zealand"
You got it!
by LydiaKat October 1, 2007
New Zealand is a country of four million people that was regarded as the world's social laboratory for the first half of the 20th century. It pioneered many social and political innovations, including universal suffrage, state pensions and social welfare. But visitors would visit and discover the NZers didn't really have much of a theory about what we were doing, and tended to be kind of smug an insular. Living standards were very, very high, but variety was elusive and, despite having the world's finest natural ingredients, tended to boil all food to death.
By the early 170s, it was unravelling. We couldn't sell all our meat and wool to Briatin any more, oil shocks were crippling, national debt was astronomical and the economy was the most regulated in the western world. A disastrous cente-right government didn't act (but entrenched the problems) and it wasn't until a Labour government came in in 1984 and radically reformed the place along neo-liberal lines that things changed, as they had to. Unfortunately, unemployment soared, cowboys got hold of the markets and various other bad things happened.
Two other things happened in the early 80s. One was the tour by the South African rugby team, the Springboks, which split the country down the middle, challenging the sanctity of the national game. Tens of thousands protested in the streets, got beat up by cops, etc. It was an ugly time and most NZers now regard the tour as having been A Bad Thing. We got over it.
Another controversial but necessary event was the 1984 Labour government giving teeth to the tribunal that oversees the Treaty of Waitangi, the 1840 agreement between the British Crown and the native people, the Maori, which granted British subjects the right to live in NZ and saw the tribes swear allegiance to the Queen. Unfortunately, many of the rights and most of the property guaranteed in the Treaty were removed over the next 60 years, and the Maori predicament became worse with the drift to the citys. It was a simple matter of legal redress, which has been conducted without blood spilling in the streets, but it does remain a hot-button issue in politics.
These days, NZ has a remarkably unregulated economy (Top 5, Heritage Foundation Freedom Index; no.1 country in the world to do business in according to the World Bank; reliable Top 3 placing in Transparency International's annual non-corruption index) but has never recovered the prosperity of the mid-20th century). This is a constant source of fretting and anxious comparisons with Australia.
At one point recently, women held the posts of Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Solictor General and CEO of Telecom New Zealand. NZ women are staunch. Civil unions were passed into law last year and prostitution is legal and regulated; both on conscience votes in Parliament. The respective sides of the prostitution debate insist that things have either gotten better or worse since the law change.
Social indicators vary. Child abuse rates, especially among Maori, are terrible, but there may also be more reporting going on here. Youth suicide rates are globally bad, but have been steadily falling. High incidence of petty property crimes, low incidence of sexual offending (compared to Australia, Us, UK, etc). For many years we were the world champion per-capita consumers of LSD, and we still like a toke. Methamphetamine (smoked as "P") has been a serious problem in recent years.
New Zealanders, much as they ever have, function best at the apex of practicality and creativity. We're the roadies rather than the rock stars; and late, the directors rather than the movie stars. We still like rugby. But we eat and drink to a standard our parents never knew. Fresh food is remarkably good, the wine is sometimes sensational (and generally cheap) and you can get a decent coffee almost everywhere. New Zealanders are big on coffee (it's one of the things we hang out for away from home) and can't understand why no one else in the world makes our special coffee called a flat white.
Schools have a great degree of self-governance than those in similar countries, and the best of them are excellent. NZ kids repeatedly feature at the top of world rankings for maths and literacy - unfortunately, there's also a largely non-white cohort that regularly features near the bottom of those rankings. We're not such an egalitarian place as we used to be.
The land, sea and sky are wonderful. NZers have never been great church-goers, but most of us feel something mystical about the land, especially if we've been away from it. We get out and about a lot.
Worst thing about New Zealand? Annoying whiners who blather on about "political correctness" but can never really say what they mean, and insist on making cringeing, unfavourable comparisons with Australia. But I guess we have to own them too. They have doubt. Doubt is what distinguishes New Zealanders from Australians. They're all brash and confident - they're also *way* more racist than New Zealanders, but we do like them anyway.
Some of our best art, most notably that of Colin McCahon, is riven by doubt. And thus the greatest line ever uttered in a NZ movie (Goodbye Pork Pie - 1980?) is reproduced here (the characters were smoking pot on a road trip at the time):
"There's only one thing certain in life, Blondini, and that's doubt .. I think."
By the early 170s, it was unravelling. We couldn't sell all our meat and wool to Briatin any more, oil shocks were crippling, national debt was astronomical and the economy was the most regulated in the western world. A disastrous cente-right government didn't act (but entrenched the problems) and it wasn't until a Labour government came in in 1984 and radically reformed the place along neo-liberal lines that things changed, as they had to. Unfortunately, unemployment soared, cowboys got hold of the markets and various other bad things happened.
Two other things happened in the early 80s. One was the tour by the South African rugby team, the Springboks, which split the country down the middle, challenging the sanctity of the national game. Tens of thousands protested in the streets, got beat up by cops, etc. It was an ugly time and most NZers now regard the tour as having been A Bad Thing. We got over it.
Another controversial but necessary event was the 1984 Labour government giving teeth to the tribunal that oversees the Treaty of Waitangi, the 1840 agreement between the British Crown and the native people, the Maori, which granted British subjects the right to live in NZ and saw the tribes swear allegiance to the Queen. Unfortunately, many of the rights and most of the property guaranteed in the Treaty were removed over the next 60 years, and the Maori predicament became worse with the drift to the citys. It was a simple matter of legal redress, which has been conducted without blood spilling in the streets, but it does remain a hot-button issue in politics.
These days, NZ has a remarkably unregulated economy (Top 5, Heritage Foundation Freedom Index; no.1 country in the world to do business in according to the World Bank; reliable Top 3 placing in Transparency International's annual non-corruption index) but has never recovered the prosperity of the mid-20th century). This is a constant source of fretting and anxious comparisons with Australia.
At one point recently, women held the posts of Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Solictor General and CEO of Telecom New Zealand. NZ women are staunch. Civil unions were passed into law last year and prostitution is legal and regulated; both on conscience votes in Parliament. The respective sides of the prostitution debate insist that things have either gotten better or worse since the law change.
Social indicators vary. Child abuse rates, especially among Maori, are terrible, but there may also be more reporting going on here. Youth suicide rates are globally bad, but have been steadily falling. High incidence of petty property crimes, low incidence of sexual offending (compared to Australia, Us, UK, etc). For many years we were the world champion per-capita consumers of LSD, and we still like a toke. Methamphetamine (smoked as "P") has been a serious problem in recent years.
New Zealanders, much as they ever have, function best at the apex of practicality and creativity. We're the roadies rather than the rock stars; and late, the directors rather than the movie stars. We still like rugby. But we eat and drink to a standard our parents never knew. Fresh food is remarkably good, the wine is sometimes sensational (and generally cheap) and you can get a decent coffee almost everywhere. New Zealanders are big on coffee (it's one of the things we hang out for away from home) and can't understand why no one else in the world makes our special coffee called a flat white.
Schools have a great degree of self-governance than those in similar countries, and the best of them are excellent. NZ kids repeatedly feature at the top of world rankings for maths and literacy - unfortunately, there's also a largely non-white cohort that regularly features near the bottom of those rankings. We're not such an egalitarian place as we used to be.
The land, sea and sky are wonderful. NZers have never been great church-goers, but most of us feel something mystical about the land, especially if we've been away from it. We get out and about a lot.
Worst thing about New Zealand? Annoying whiners who blather on about "political correctness" but can never really say what they mean, and insist on making cringeing, unfavourable comparisons with Australia. But I guess we have to own them too. They have doubt. Doubt is what distinguishes New Zealanders from Australians. They're all brash and confident - they're also *way* more racist than New Zealanders, but we do like them anyway.
Some of our best art, most notably that of Colin McCahon, is riven by doubt. And thus the greatest line ever uttered in a NZ movie (Goodbye Pork Pie - 1980?) is reproduced here (the characters were smoking pot on a road trip at the time):
"There's only one thing certain in life, Blondini, and that's doubt .. I think."
by Russell Brown October 17, 2006
A beautiful country in the South Pacific a respected country that should not hate Australians and in turn Australians should not hate New Zealand our two nations are supposed to be allies, Ansett and underarm bowling be damned. They have fought on Australia's side. I for one am glad that some of the more childish definitions have been removed and we can start reading some proper stuff.
In conclusion many Aussies out there think NZ rocks. Trust me.
In conclusion many Aussies out there think NZ rocks. Trust me.
by Paul Ward October 23, 2006
A tiny country, smaller than Australia. Was once made as a Sims 2 terrain by someone unknown.
Not many celebritys know this place, unfortunately...
Not many celebritys know this place, unfortunately...
Mikey Way of My Chemical Romance was once asked by New Zealanders if he knew anything about the country.
interviewer "Do you know anything about New Zealand?"
mikey way "Well, I heard that Lord of the Rings was partially filmed there."
interviewer "It was all filmed there!"
interviewer "Do you know anything about New Zealand?"
mikey way "Well, I heard that Lord of the Rings was partially filmed there."
interviewer "It was all filmed there!"
by Some Guy Jones February 21, 2006
Defending my country.....
Whingeing bitches?...everyone whinges.
Hate Australia?..nah we dont hate you dont worry..just a bit of friendly rivalry like Canada and the U.S.A.
Why do SOME of us move to aussie?..to get away from helen fuckin clark!!!!!!..better oppitunities..beleive me you dont know what he/she is like. Shes fucking up our country.
Bash Australia?..you said that before/after you took the piss out of New Zealand!!
Sheep shaggers?..just coz we have 40 million sheep doesnt mean we shag them thats just wrong. Whats with aussies and sheep jokes anyway?
Watch all your TV shows? You mean that dramatic aussie bullshit? Theres only about 2 shows like home and away and neighbours! no one even watches that shit.
Wear your clothes? nah sorry to burst your bubble but most of our clothes are from china! lol..cheap crap.
Listen to your music? what music?
Poor? Fuck no..NZ and aussie are among the richest nations.
Australia is 10 times more beautiful? have you even been to NZ? Ask any tourist..theyll say NZ!
Richer and more powerful than NZ? Take a look at how big you are! your like more than 3 times bigger and 5 times our population!
Hell of alot nicer?..wow looking at your text above i would not say your nicer and more laid back!
Spiteful, envious, backward? haha what a joke.
NZ is gorgeous and is far more more attractive compared to Australia having desert with a big rock in the middle of it. We dont even think your better than us and we dont think we are better than you! grow up its so bloody childish. I dont know anyone who wishes they were an aussie so dont flatter yourself.
I really like my accent too.
You rip us in sports? Oh you mean the cricket?? i enjoyed watching the poms kick your ass!!! hahahahahahaha. And how about rugby... we are the best in the world, how do you explain the wallabies ay? theyre pathetic.
We are the worlds most generous country, when a countrys in need we help them, because we can and i think thats something to be proud of. I dont mind australians, i just really hate it when you sling shit at us. We are all people, except from different pieces of land. Why cant we just get along with each other, is that so hard to do?
NZ is proud, with our own voice, our own identity.
Clean green New Zealand.
I suggest everyone visits! Have a nice day
****Peace****
Whingeing bitches?...everyone whinges.
Hate Australia?..nah we dont hate you dont worry..just a bit of friendly rivalry like Canada and the U.S.A.
Why do SOME of us move to aussie?..to get away from helen fuckin clark!!!!!!..better oppitunities..beleive me you dont know what he/she is like. Shes fucking up our country.
Bash Australia?..you said that before/after you took the piss out of New Zealand!!
Sheep shaggers?..just coz we have 40 million sheep doesnt mean we shag them thats just wrong. Whats with aussies and sheep jokes anyway?
Watch all your TV shows? You mean that dramatic aussie bullshit? Theres only about 2 shows like home and away and neighbours! no one even watches that shit.
Wear your clothes? nah sorry to burst your bubble but most of our clothes are from china! lol..cheap crap.
Listen to your music? what music?
Poor? Fuck no..NZ and aussie are among the richest nations.
Australia is 10 times more beautiful? have you even been to NZ? Ask any tourist..theyll say NZ!
Richer and more powerful than NZ? Take a look at how big you are! your like more than 3 times bigger and 5 times our population!
Hell of alot nicer?..wow looking at your text above i would not say your nicer and more laid back!
Spiteful, envious, backward? haha what a joke.
NZ is gorgeous and is far more more attractive compared to Australia having desert with a big rock in the middle of it. We dont even think your better than us and we dont think we are better than you! grow up its so bloody childish. I dont know anyone who wishes they were an aussie so dont flatter yourself.
I really like my accent too.
You rip us in sports? Oh you mean the cricket?? i enjoyed watching the poms kick your ass!!! hahahahahahaha. And how about rugby... we are the best in the world, how do you explain the wallabies ay? theyre pathetic.
We are the worlds most generous country, when a countrys in need we help them, because we can and i think thats something to be proud of. I dont mind australians, i just really hate it when you sling shit at us. We are all people, except from different pieces of land. Why cant we just get along with each other, is that so hard to do?
NZ is proud, with our own voice, our own identity.
Clean green New Zealand.
I suggest everyone visits! Have a nice day
****Peace****
I love New Zealand!
by Loud and Proud 13 year old October 6, 2005
by ferox >_> May 10, 2007
A beautiful country in the South Pacific next to Australia. There are some Kiwis, who think New Zealand is a crock of shit, and lay lots of it on New Zealand because they don't know what the real world's really like. I hope all Kiwis aren't like that as in all honesty New Zealand is a fantastic country in most ways.
Q: Ever heard of what Mugabe does in Zimbabwe dumbarses?
A: He flattens people's houses down, houses of people who try to stand up to him.
Zimbabwe is now officially a third world country. New Zealand is regenerating.
A: He flattens people's houses down, houses of people who try to stand up to him.
Zimbabwe is now officially a third world country. New Zealand is regenerating.
by GodIlovethisplanet January 22, 2006