In moving to New Zealand, we've been interested in learning what our Kiwi friends think about America, especially since so many of them only know the USA that's represented in media, music and movies.
For instance, their idea of an American Christmas is based on movies like "It's a Wonderful Life." An American childhood looks a bit like the TV show "The Wonder Years," and daily life falls somewhere between Honey Boo-Boo and the Kardashians. (There's probably some truth to this :)
But it's also been interesting to see how the world views New Zealand. As with any country or culture, New Zealand's image abroad is shaped by its one-off news stories, cultural stereotypes and caricatures, as well as assumptions made by people who've never stepped foot on Kiwi land.
Our friends here are well aware of what the world thinks and says about them. (And, frankly, the Kiwis have their own things to say about the world ;) But as somebody with a foot in both worlds, so to speak, I've picked up on a few stereotypes and made my own judgment of what's fair and unfair, true and not in how the world sees NZ.
1 NZ's off the map
You know how in America when you look at a map of the world, our country is usually front and center, loud and proud? Well, New Zealanders get used to looking at maps of the world with apprehension, fingers crossed their country even makes an appearance.
Since we've adopted New Zealand as home, we've come across a number of maps in books, in news reports that don't even include our country in the illustration. Australia's always represented, but not New Zealand. Even if there's room to include our little two-island nation on the page, it somehow gets left off. This makes our family mad, so I can only imagine the complex it inspires in our Kiwi friends to be literally off the map.
2 NZ's the 'cousin across the ditch'
We watch a lot of Australian TV shows now, and we've noticed that game show hosts have a tendency to subtly put down New Zealand contestants. We're known as "the cousins across the ditch" or "cuzzie bros." We've watched clips of our Auckland brethren training for intense physical challenges by doing chin-ups...on a tractor...in a field of sheep. I have to think that was a set up made for Australian laughs.
There seems to be quite a rivalry between "Straya" and NZ, and the judgment definitely goes in both directions. While some Australians view NZ as backwater, "country," unsophisticated. (I wouldn't classify the Kiwis I know like this AT ALL. Believe me, I know country!), New Zealanders have described Australia to me as a "little version of America," with loud people, annoying accents and an in-your-face culture.
Coming from the other side of the world, I perhaps wrongly assumed Australia and New Zealand were much closer, geographically and culturally. In reality, there's a 4-hour plane ride separating the two and, for as much culture as they share (they're both part of the Commonwealth, after all), there's certainly differences. I'll get a sense of exactly what those differences are when we travel to Australia next month!
3 NZ's the country of sheep
Everyone in the world seems to know that New Zealand has more sheep than people. The Pope's Catholic. Bears shit in the woods. NZ has a lot of sheep. It's just one of those basic facts of life we all have to learn. :)
And it's true: We do have a lot of sheep. You see them roaming on farm land all around the Auckland region, even at famous landmarks such as One Tree Hill and Cornwall Park, smack dab in the middle of the city. But we don't have as many sheep as we used to. The ratio has fallen to 7 to 1, from a high of 20 to 1 years ago. (To compare, Australia has about 3 sheep for every 1 person; South Dakota has 4 cows to every human.) And actually our cow population is on the rise, with a herd of 3.7 million counted two years ago. Of course, that same year, there were 28.3 million sheep and about 5 million people, so I guess the stereotype still has a leg -- or hoof -- to stand on.
But I think the larger stereotype this fact provokes is that New Zealanders are backward farmhands who love a good leg of lamb -- when in actuality, most of us are progressive city-dwellers (more than 2/3 of Kiwis live in urban areas) ... who love a good leg of lamb.
4 NZ's a small country
NZ is a small country, with square mileage about the same size as Oregon. But at the same time, it's not a small country at all. It's surprisingly big -- and we've seen surprisingly little of it since we've been living here, even though we've gone adventuring every possible moment we can.
The thing to remember about NZ is that, though the square mileage is small, the land mass is long. Superimposed on the East Coast of the U.S., the country would stretch from, roughly, Pennsylvania to Florida. That's a pretty big distance, and there's a lot of great towns and awesome natural wonders to see along all points of the map.
When my mom first landed in Auckland, she was ready to see everything New Zealand had to offer. The glaciers in the South Island? A long weekend trip. The Hobbiton movie set? Just outside of town, right? In reality, the North and South islands are separated by a 3-hour ferry ride (and getting to the ferry takes 8 hours by car). A flight from Auckland to Christchurch takes about 2 hours. Hobbiton is a 2-hour-15-minute car ride from Auckland, exactly 2 hours too long for the Adorable Two. These places are not that close, and there's PLENTY of other amazing things to see right in the Auckland region.
So while my mom fretted about not seeing ALL of New Zealand on her three-week visit, I explained it this way: "You wouldn't go to America on vacation and expect to see everything between Pittsburgh and Miami. You'll just have to come again."
5 NZ's politics are a laugh
I love the comedian John Oliver. I think he's hilarious. But he seems to enjoy -- a little too much -- making fun of New Zealand's sometimes-quirky national news. This clip represents one of the weirder -- and funnier -- news stories to come out of our political cast, and Oliver has a whole series of NZ segments you can watch at your leisure.
While the Prime-Minister-ponytail-pulling story's definitely made for late-night TV, I'd take political drama like this over the news headlines in the U.S. any day. Because, let's face it, a ponytail fetish is nothing compared to the porn star revelations you all have to suffer through ;)
So while the politics here might seem funny when John Oliver tells it, they're actually so calm, so sensible so...boring...compared to anything we're used to -- it's a beautiful thing. :)
