Living the Kiwi Dream: Australia Day

Yesterday was Australia Day! Woopdeehdooh!

The Kiwis I spoke to weren't that interested. Hard on the outside, green and soft on the inside, and a little furry. My general impression of Kiwi/Aussie banter is that there is a lot of mutual respect, and rivalry between two countries with shared history (Empire rule) in a somewhat isolated part of the globe. Also the two countries have only ever fought each other on rugby fields, cricket grounds and other sports courts. So, the Kiwis consider their bigger neighbours arrogant, and themselves a far more chilled out lot - I have yet to hear the flip side of that story.

I reckon you could compare their relations to those of the USA and Canada. Each country having the upper hand in a major sport (rugby and cricket Down Under, ice hockey and all other US sports in North America). The way Australia Day was celebrated in New Zealand, at least on TV, was by programming reruns of sporting events in which the Kiwis - or any other team, for that matter - beat Australia at Rugby, Cricket, Tiddly Winks. Meanwhile, the Aussies scored a personal victory by converting David Kirk, the 1987 NZ All Blacks Rugby World Cup winning captain, to Australian citizenship during an Australia Day ceremony.

David Kirk - Forever All Black?

This rivalry, however, seems healthy and, happily untainted by previous armed conflicts between the two sides - a situation from which most, if not all, European, Latin American, and African national rivalries are somewhat burdened by.

So while Kiwis use Australia Day to reminisce the sporting defeats of their nearest rivals, they do not have a national holiday of their own. They celebrate the Anniversaries of the Founding Provinces, which were determined in the mid 1800s, and almost all abolished in 1876, due to numerous acts of self-interest in Provincial politics.

North Island Provinces - 1850s

South Island Provinces - 1850s

Monday (Australia Day) also happened to be Auckland Day, a bank holiday monday in Auckland. The Taranaki Anniversary Day Bank holiday is on the 10th of March. The old provinces have another modern day use, as the National Provincal Championship is the domestic Kiwi Rugby Union championship, and has at least one representative

of each province vying for the trophy .

Finally, a few pictures Ivor - a fellow doctor at the hospital who is considering working in France in the near future, took after we got out the water soon after New Year's. I think I'd mentioned the quality of the waves, but he emailed me these pictures last saturday and I can't resist putting them up. The spot is called Wisey's, the conditions were perfect. Hope you enjoy them.