Definitions

Some “NZisms” that you may find useful.

Note that, although I am including a few Maori words and phrases here, anyone interested in accuracy and pronounciation would be better served by consulting the Te Aka Maori dictionary (Te Aka Maori Dictionary) or similar sources.

Kiwi. Not the fruit, which in the days of yore was called a Chinese Gooseberry and was small, slightly sour thing until the scientists of of New Zealand crossbred it into the plump, profitable pouch of green goodness that it is now. Which is when the marketers had a touch of genius, and seeing the brown, furry casing, decided it should be called Kiwifruit in honour of the Kiwi bird. But my novel isn't about the bird either, although it is interesting, and is considered iconic in these parts. It's a robust, not to say obese, bird that is covered in brown downy feathers which are useless for flying. It has a beak that resembles pinnichio's nose when he tells an especially large whopper and its life is mostly spent on the forest floor rooting about for worms. Sadly endangered, the Kiwi only comes out at night, and usually the only signs of its presence are its amazing hoots that can echo across several valleys. Naturally, the homo sapiens that inhabit Aotearoa have chosen this bird to represent us. Not for us the portentous symbolism of lions, eagles or bears, nor even the hyperactive hoppiness of the kangeroo. No, we are Kiwis. Although we lack downy feathers, and only occasionally eat worms, we resemble the bird in that we are not numerous, some of us are brown, and quite a few of us quite like poking around our bush clad mountains and valleys,

Aotearoa (See also Places). "The Land of The Long White Cloud". The Maori name for our isles, also called New Zealand. The latter, the "English" name, is in fact Dutch, bestowed on us by an early explorer (who did not in fact, set foot in New Zealand, being scared off by hostile Maoris). Zealand refers to Zeeland, a flat province of the Kingdom of The Netherlands that is currently in danger of innudnation by rising sea-levels. Like it's "new" counterpart, I understand old Zeeland also has quite a few cows,

Te Reo. "The Language" (of Maoris). Discouraged in the colonial period, it has undergone a renaissance in recent times. Many of its words and phrases have infriltrated New Zealand English especially amongst the young. This trend is deplored both by a few old white grinches who suffer from strange ideas about English's 'purity', and some of the stauncher Maori nationalists, who regard such usage as 'colonial'. My expectation is that history will, as usual, ignore such complaints.

Māori. Indigenous inhabitants of Aotearoa-New Zealand. Of Polynesian decent, they made a hazardous journey southward about 900 years ago (see “Places” page), and expanded across the country, carving out a living in a rough landscape and establishing a vibrant culture. European contact, wars and diseases considerably reduced their numbers, but they have rebounded in recent years, and now consitute about a fifth of the population. A proud, tough people who have always defended their interests with vigour, relations with the European settlers have sometimes been difficult. Still, Maori culture, values and language are increasingly a part ofNew Zealand’s national identity, and a central reason we are “Kiwis”, rather than “East Australians”.

Pākehā. People from New Zealand who are not Maori. In general it is only applied to those of European decent. There has been considerable inter-marriage between Maoris and Pakeha so in some cases the distinction is blurred, and is partly a matter of self-definition based almost as much on cultural identification as genetics.

Pāua. The New Zealand abalone, Big, with a gorgeous shell, its black sucker holds it firmly to rock faces, requiring a knife to prose it free.

Kākā. A big olive-green, intelligent, forest-dwelling parrot. Once rare due to introduced pests and habitat loss, it is staging a recovery and spreading across Wellington primarily due to the good work of the folk at our Zealandia nature reserve. (See places). In an act of splendid irony, kākā, which suffered from so long from non-NZ invaders, is now taking revenge against introduced species like cypress trees and oaks by very efficently shredding their bark. (Big native trees, having co-evolved with the feathered tree-shredder, seem less harmed).

Whānau. A word derived from “birth”, it originally meant something like extended family in the Māori tribal context. These days it is still used for family, but (especially among the young) has grown to include close friends in your social group.

Coffee. OK, I know people outside New Zealand drink the stuff, but in few places has this addictive, buzzy brown substance had such a transfromational effect on society. When, many years ago, I first left home to travel overseas, coffee here was mainly a nasty, dusty brown powder only availble in jars that you kept in the back of the cupboard to be added to hot water (with lots of milk and many teaspoons of sugar) when you found you’d run out of tea. In the modern Kiwi world there is a coffee shop on every corner, and barista courses are among the most popular at our Polytechnics. A good proportion of the population couldn’t get to 10am without indulging in a well-made, strongly brewed, ‘flat white’ with a koru (fern) pattern carefully swirled into its foamy milk topping. (Here, btw, ‘flat white’ does not refer to a Pākehā who’s been run over by a bus, nor is to demand a ‘long black’ anything racist - they are types of coffee, competing with Americano, lattes and others on the coffee shop list of offerings).