New Zealand…..?

Erin – I’m can’t promise anything but your idea’s good – what’s your timeline?

Thank you, everyone-

For all your fantastic responses. Especially Dave and Don.

I am busy preparing a presentation using a lot of the information. My “history of the ANZAC biscuits” is complete, and Im now working on “History of ANZAC Day”, just to give you an update.

I was just thinking though, wondering, if any of you guys from New Zealand would like to write out a short letter, maybe “to” my coworkers here, Just talking about New Zealand, telling a little about yourselves and the country through your eyes? Maybe even include a picture of you, where you live, that sort of thing. How better to help people learn about a new country, especially one that is so far away and just not a big part of the American Psyche.

Well, I’d love to have your perspectives if you’d like to contribute. Please let me know. The idea occured to me when I was reading Gnomes description of ANZAC day and the Gallipoli landing on the ANZAC day thread. And I thought “Wouldnt it be great to include his post with the history?” It was just so well written and meaningful, might help bring it home to some people.

Apart from the work presentation thing, I’ve learned such a lot about NZ in the last few days, and I’m thrilled. AiB has offered to tell me everything he knows about the battle at Gallipoli and I’m looking forward to hearing it.

Thanks again,for everything guys.

I have a few friends that have been to the UK and they tell me that you have baked beans as a side order with your KFC. We don’t have that.. we have potato and gravy or coleslaw.

DOWN WITH KFC!!!!!

And, here in the states; they do potatoes and gravy, coleslaw or corn on the cob with their genetically modified, tortured chicken, no baked beans. (yuk!)

Yes, the Southerner accent is really our only true dialect, those people from down near Gorrrrrrrre.

What about that specifically NZ female accent though, the Lynn of Tawa accent that you sometimes strike – ooh that grates on me. Luckily it’s not too common, but it is JUST a female accent. Have you noticed? My mate is English but he does that accent really well and takes them off to me whenever we strike it. Pretty funny.

Of course there is a whole new female accent that has developed in NZ in the past decade among young girls which never existed in NZ, and I’d like to dub it the Clueless accent. It has caught on dircetly from films like Clueless and all the chick flicks that have followed. It’s that California ‘I’m so much better than you, I’m rich, you’re nothing’ attitude accent of Hollywood films. The stuff like girls saying “Whateverrrr” and ‘Gurlfrennd!!” It bugs me so much. Globalisation at work again.

A few years ago in Melbourne, Air New Zealand got on board with the accent thing in their advertising. Trams started appearing with “sucks trups daily” and the like on them. Got a very positive response.

It’s (eet’s / ut’s) interesting how obvious the accents are when you live with both for longish periods of time – rather like spotting the Californian and the Canadian – hard for an outsider initially – then you get it.

But there’s also a point of cross-over. The urban, and especially northern urban (ie. Auckland and Wellington) accent is more-or-less identical to the urban Victorian (ie. Melburnian) accent. The “i” is a little softer in Melbourne, but only a touch. Many TV adverts are made here (NZ) or in Victoria and show up on both country’s TV screens – crossover products like cars etc.

Where the accents diverge markedly is Southern NZ country accent (very broad showing the Scottish background I guess) vs Sydney (Seed-knee) which is very ‘eee’.

Some (presumably Aussie) idiot spray painted “New Zealand Sux” on a prominant bridge in Australia. Some enterprising person later added “Australia Nil”.

Haha, that’s brillliant. Billy Connolly would like that one. In the recent series “Billy Connolly’s World Tour of New Zealand” he lamented one of his favourite pieces of grafitti, which used to be in a NZ city – Wellington I think – had now been demolished. But he said it used to read in big letters – “You can always tell an Aussie… but you can’t tell him much!”

Funny you mention perceived accents Art…

Some (presumably Aussie) idiot spray painted “New Zealand Sux” on a prominant bridge in Australia. Some enterprising person later added “Australia Nil”.

There is an intense rivalry between NZ and the land of Oz (the latter country made famous in the Lord of the rings movies depicting without any special effects at all Mordor… 🙂 )

The relationship is pretty much the same as big brother little brother. Intense competition in some areas and no hesitation in ribbing the other but if and external threat appears to one the other will come in swinging without needing to be asked.

We tend to depict Oz as a bit of a desert and they tend to consider us a wind blown ice strewn rock. But when you come down to it they are both what could be described as lucky countries. Looking at war on TV and in the papers reminds us how lucky we really are.

If i’m wrong about the following, feel free to correct me but one drinking session with a number of antipodes taught me the following:

Australians eat “feesh and cheeps”
Nieuw Zeelanders eat “fush and chups”

There is a shortage of staff in the military (ie whole defence force). A couple of years back we had about 20,000 and currently we have about 13,000 in our defence forces (army navy airforce).

Great work Dave.

very mild winters in the North and cold in the South

Cold needs a bit of clarification. Because we are surrounded by sea it doesn’t actually get very cold or very hot here. Up central Otago, where it is up higher than most of the rest of the mainly port based centres (exception being Hamilton really) it can get very hot in Summer and cold in winter. Temperatures of about 30-35 for days or weeks at a time in summer is normal in places like Alexandra and Cromwell. In winter there is often snow on the ground up there but down near sea level in Dunedin it is actually quite rare for snow to stay on the ground for more than one day. The lowest temperatures we get in the South Island would probably be minus 10 degrees Celcius and that would be a frost in the early morning… it would be very rare for that to be a day time temperature. In winter temperatures would be 5-10, while summer temps would be 18-25.

I have a few friends that have been to the UK and they tell me that you have baked beans as a side order with your KFC. We don’t have that.. we have potato and gravy or coleslaw.

I was taking a look at that CIA site. It is a bit misleading in the military area. It reports that NZ spends $1.147 billion on the defence budget per year. This being a US site, refers to US dollars. In reality, this should be NZ dollars. For the past fifteen years at least the NZ defence budget has only ever been jusy over NZ$1 billion, if that much

Also the numbers of men available on that site (and this is the same on all the country’s pages I looked at) make it look like we have a huge strength of reserve military, quoting 984,700 males aged 17-49 available for military service. You’d be lucky if the whole military were 8,000 people I’d guess (not counting Terries), and most of the 984,700 would say sod off if called to go to war.

Dave’s just teasing you CB – the top one’s called “New” and the bottom one’s “Zealand” :rolleyes:

Just like how they make a kiwifruit by cutting the arms, legs and head off a kiwibird, Gnome? :rolleyes:

Hooray! With the help of the bigger map; I have located both in my atlas! Fantastic…:D

Feel like a kid in a candy shop…:P

Dave’s just teasing you CB – the top one’s called “New” and the bottom one’s “Zealand” :rolleyes:

Well, I knew a good amount about New Zealand before (basic stuff) but am surprised at this, surprised I never knew that! I would have instantly said it was just one island. Are the North and South islands very far apart?

Here’s a basic map. If you look a smidge to the right of Hamilton, that’s where I am in Cambridge. If you see Wellington, that’s where Don the Gnome is. You can see the world famous Wanaka in the centre-bottom of the South Island.

By the way, the islands are generally known as ‘the North Island’, and ‘the South Island’. Foreigners simply tend to say ‘North Island’ and ‘South Island’ (in a manner as if they were named after Mr North and Mr South, if you see what I mean). It’s one of those Kiwi curiosities. Almost every island and coastal area with an English name was named by Captain Cook, but it seems he had an off day when it came to the greatest land masses!

In the very olden days, the maps actually showed The North Island, The Middle Island and The South Islnd, till they realised middle and south were one and the same – no bull!

By the way, here’s some trivia, Mount Cook, our tallest mountain, was named after James Cook, but not THE James Cook. It was named after a navigator called James Cook! I only found this out the other day.

*Looks around for Atlas*

:rolleyes:

A great photo Don, thanks. I have read many accounts of Kiwi airmen on their way to the UK and the war, who stopped or diverted to meet Nola and visit her club in New York. An amazing lady who needs more recognition here these days.

CB – no, the burger has everything, plus the sliced beetroot. Even McDonalds did a Kiwiburger with everything plus beetroot, right up till the company started to go bust in the USA and they’ve now changed to more salds. The Kiwiburger actually had more salad and was healthier than any other in their range, but the idiots have dropped it. It tasted great and was unique to NZ. Pity.

If you look at amap you can see the way they’ve pulled apart over time (all as part of the split from Gondwanaland). The SI fits in under the Western/LH part of the NI. And they continue to do – big fault line in there

Geography
It consists of two main islands (North and South) and a number of smaller ones, the largest being Stewart Island in the south.

Well, I knew a good amount about New Zealand before (basic stuff) but am surprised at this, surprised I never knew that! I would have instantly said it was just one island. Are the North and South islands very far apart?

This site has some good Kiwi icons on it. If you need further explanation, feel free to ask
http://adamdesign.co.nz/xIcons.htm

Nola Luxford

New Zealand actress Nola Luxford was the driving force behind the ANZAC Club in NYC – this club entertained some 35,000 ANZAC (AUS and NZ) personnel in WWII.
http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/eddesk.nsf/printing/CAE478044D067BE7CA256A33001BCF23

Dave FYI, the guy in the centre background of this photo (over Nola’s LH shoulder as you look at her, has a moustache) is my Uncle Lloyd English who subsequently died at Peenemunde!