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.
I got up at 4am to watch the All Blacks win the World Cup. I hadn’t seen a full rugby game before in my life. By halftime I was completely hooked.
New Zealand has over 100 hot pools — from luxury spas to free natural creeks steaming in the bush. If you enjoy soaking your troubles away, you moved to the right country.
Try singing “and a pukeko in a pohutukawa tree” to the tune of Twelve Days of Christmas. I’ll wait. It gets funnier every time.
In 2016, Auckland ranked in the top ten most liveable cities in the world. New Zealand had three cities in the top 20 friendliest. And Queenstown made Condé Nast’s list of most beautiful cities on the planet. I lived there. I was not surprised by any of this — though I’ll admit I had some thoughts about Queenstown sharing a “friendliest cities” list with Charleston and Savannah.
The Charleston/Savannah line is too good not to tease in the excerpt — it’s funny and very you.
On Highway 2 between Auckland and Tauranga sits the small town of Paeroa, birthplace of L&P — New Zealand’s most beloved soft drink and the source of the phrase “World Famous in New Zealand.” The giant bottle on the main street used to be a space rocket. Of course it did.
A three-minute film about two Chinese refugees who came to New Zealand as children, became the country’s largest kumara growers, saved an entire crop from extinction, and refused to be paid for it. Watch it.
William Larnach built New Zealand’s only castle in the 1870s. His last wife had an affair with his son. He shot himself in parliament. The castle is beautiful. The story is a lot.
Tirau has a population of about 800 people and a giant corrugated iron dog, sheep, and ram on its main street. It calls itself the Corrugated Capital of the World. It’s not wrong.
I wrote a whole blog post about how New Zealand doesn’t want to kill you. Then I went through my photos and found the great white shark warning sign. Oops.