Hi friends! Happy Friday, I hope you've had a wonderful week so far! This afternoon, Luke and I are heading out to Lake Tekapo for the last weekend that we're here in NZ but if you wanna hear more about that, make sure you check out my weekly newsletter (it goes out on Friday afternoons usually).
Anyway, for today's edition of Freaky Friday Files (and because we are still in my homeland of Aotearoa), I thought we could take a look at some weird facts about New Zealand. And yes, I still encourage you to travel here because it's such a beautiful country.
Weird Facts About New Zealand
Much like New Zealand's neighbour across the ditch, Kiwis love their "big things". Make sure you check out the list I've hyperlinked but the ones I can think of off the top of my head are the big fish in Rakaia, the big ice cream near Kaikoura (this one might be gone now), the big L&P bottle, and the big fruit in Cromwell, but there's a lot more.
Possums and Wallabies are considered pests in NZ as they were introduced in colonial times. People are encouraged to hunt both possums and wallabies here.
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu is the longest place name in the world!
New Zealand has an official "wizard" - he's a bit crazy (still kicking on at 91 though). He used to speak at Cathedral Square in CHCH.
New Zealand has A LOT and I mean A LOT of McDonald's - I believe it's the 2nd highest number of McDonald's restaurants per head of population after the USA. There's also a McDonald's restaurant on a plane in Taupo where you can eat.
We used to have a giant bird called the Moa that is now extinct. They also recently found fossils of giant penguins which is pretty cool.
AJ Hackett popularised the extreme sport bungy jumping and created the first commercial one in Queenstown NZ.
New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote (woo, thank you NZ!)
NZ has 3 official languages: English, Māori, and Sign Language.
Want to know about earthquakes and volcanoes? Check out all the latest activity on Geonet! We've had a lot (NZ has over 20K quakes a year).
New Zealand doesn't have a 5 cent coin anymore.
New Zealanders are called Kiwis because that's our birdy.
There is a hole in the ozone layer so you will get sunburnt here any time of the year, slip slop slap everyone!!
Yeah, nah, yeah and nah, yeah, nah are very common slang sayings here.
New Zealand has an unofficial drinking day the first Saturday of every December known as "Crate Day" where the challenge is to finish a crate of 12 x (usually beer) alcohol between 12 pm and midnight.
In 2001, enough people said they were "Jedi" in the census, so now Jedisim is an official religion of NZ.
Baldwin Street in Dunedin is the steepest residential street and they often have jaffa races down it.
The Pawnee Map in the TV show Parks and Recreation is actually a map of Christchurch, hehe!
Instant coffee was invented in Invercargill.
The 4th chapter of the gang Hell's Angels formed in Auckland (source: Jarrod Gilbert).
NZ consumes the most ice cream per capita (Luke got to try the real fruit ice cream this week which was super exciting too).
Thanks for reading!
Much love,
Ash xoxo
コメント