My first Auckland Christmas involved a woman in a pink cotton ball costume, a Santa parade viewed from my apartment window, and a light display on Franklin Street that made me briefly forget it was summer. Auckland does Christmas differently.
The earthquake earlier this month caused the seabed to raise up around Kaikoura and exposed a lot of paua which is likely to kill them. There’s been quite a bit of controversy over volunteer efforts to save the paua and return them to the sea – over 300 volunteers showed up to help but the…
Four days after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit New Zealand’s South Island, I was watching from the US while my partner described our Auckland apartment building swaying. This is what the first days looked like — and why Kiwis are some of the toughest, most resourceful people I’ve ever encountered.
Bulls, New Zealand has a population of about 2,000 people and exactly one joke. They have been making that joke for decades. It never gets old.
A town of 1,600 people in the middle of the North Island decided to become the Gumboot Capital of the World. It worked. There’s an annual throwing competition, a corrugated iron sculpture, and you can throw gumboots any day of the year.
In 2003 New Zealand passed one of the most progressive prostitution laws in the world — by a single vote. It all started with the Massage Parlours Act of 1978 and a street in Auckland called K Road.
Anzac Day marks the anniversary of a military disaster where thousands of New Zealanders died. Kiwis observe it with enormous pride. Once you understand why, it makes complete sense.
The full name is Tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao. Whakarewarewa for short. It’s a real village built on top of a geothermal wonderland where people have lived since 1325 — and yes, they still cook in the hot pools.
Kiwis refuse to use three syllables when two will do. They also have a phrase for drunk driving that sounds completely wrong, bacon that isn’t bacon, and a dismissal that’s basically a polite version of a very impolite thing. Part 3 of How to Talk Like a Kiwi.
New Zealand’s first flag was chosen by Māori chiefs in 1834. Then came the Union Jack, a very angry chief with an axe, and eventually the flag that looks suspiciously like Australia’s. There’s a lot of history here.