The tourism industry of New Zealand has embarked upon a campaign to promote the country in a rather odd fashion: exploit the fact that the country is mysteriously missing from thousands of world maps.
New Zealand Does Not Exist.
Despite the facts that New Zealand is larger than the United Kingdom in terms of area and is greater than two-thirds the size of Japan — as well as has more miles of coastline than the state of California; a mountain range which is larger than the Alps in Europe; and a lake which is the size of Singapore — the country has been inexplicably ignored by the rest of the world in terms of being missing on an increasing collection of global maps; and therefore, nowhere to be seen.
To raise awareness of this issue, Rhys Darby stars in a campaign of videos for Tourism New Zealand which lightheartedly uncovers the conspiracy of the rest of the world to leave New Zealand off of global maps…
…and even Jacinda Ardern — who is the current prime minister of New Zealand — appears in both videos in a significant boost to the campaign.
The first video was released on Tuesday, May 1, 2018…
…followed by this video, which was released on Saturday, October 27, 2018…
…and a new Middle-earth map — which you can download — was used as evidence in order to purportedly solve the possible global conspiracy theories behind the mystery.
Tourism New Zealand is calling on residents of the country to share the aforementioned videos and uses the hash tag #getNZonthemap. Markets from which visitors to New Zealand originate — such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia — are prime targets for the video campaign…
…and the rest of the world is indeed taking notice of this bizarre aberration: for example, this community on Reddit — which is called r/MapsWithoutNZ — is comprised of at least 61,000 members; and it is growing.
Summary
Because people generally regard Australia as a country — even though it is also considered one of the seven continents of the world — New Zealand is an anomaly of sorts. Not to confuse the perception of geography amongst people, no one says that New Zealand is part of the continent of Australia; but rather that it is a part of Australasia — or simply part of the South Pacific.
I have rented a vehicle and explored both the North Island and South Island of New Zealand. From Auckland to Milford Sound to Rotorua to Queenstown, it is an amazing country to visit — especially if you enjoy the outdoors. I have plenty of memories of my visit there years ago and highly recommend New Zealand as a place to visit. Spend at least a week there.
In the meantime, poor New Zealand seems to have an identity crisis: first, when choosing a new national flag down to the final contenders which resulted in this final choice of flag; and now being increasingly disappearing off of world maps.
What is a country to do?!?
Source: Tourism New Zealand.
Bonus Feature
During my visit to New Zealand, I stopped off at a local Burger King in Rotorua for a quick bite. At that time, Burger King restaurants in New Zealand were themed with United States back in the 1950s — complete with music playing from that period of time, posters, and even black-and-white checkered linoleum tiled floors.
As I approached the counter, I found that this Burger King offered a chicken club sandwich which was not available yet in the United States — so I ordered it.
The young woman behind the counter had such a thick New Zealand accent that all I could understand from her question is that it ended with what I thought were the words fly by.
“Uh…no…I am just passing through,” I sheepishly replied.
She was so angry at me that when I asked for a side of extra pickles, she exclaimed “No!” and stormed off to get my order.
I just stood there, perplexed.
I found out later — after being laughed at by people who knew what she meant — that what she was asking me is if I had a card as a member of Fly Buys, with which you can earn and spend points…
