Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio Guess What Will? What's that Mango? So you're never
Speaker 1: gonna believe this, but I finally found a new Zealand
Speaker 1: bird that's even more endearing than the Kiwi. I actually
Speaker 1: feel weird saying this, but I know I need to
Speaker 1: congratulate you, because I'm pretty sure this has been a
Speaker 1: dream of yours for a while now, So so congrats,
Speaker 1: thank you. I mean, some days I doubted it was
Speaker 1: even possible, but this week I read about these big
Speaker 1: green parrots that lived there, called kias, and they are
Speaker 1: so mischievous and so clever that I just had to
Speaker 1: give them the top spot because I know it's a
Speaker 1: controversial pick, but I like to keep things spicy. You're
Speaker 1: saying this is actually controversial, Yeah, So I'm like Kiwi's
Speaker 1: Kaas aren't universally adored. They are kind of these one
Speaker 1: and a half foot tall mischief makers, and they will
Speaker 1: steal laces from boots or strip the rubber off your
Speaker 1: windshield wipers. But the wildest prank I've heard is that
Speaker 1: ki has actually dragged traffic cones into the middle of
Speaker 1: the road and leave them there. And some researchers believe
Speaker 1: this is an intentional act, like it's a crafty way
Speaker 1: to get drivers to slow down enough that the parents
Speaker 1: can beg for food. Wow. I mean that is kind
Speaker 1: of a kneetrich. It also does down a little bit dangerous.
Speaker 1: I wonder how many of these get hit. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's become a real problem. But the good news
Speaker 1: is that there's this conservation team in New Zealand that's
Speaker 1: been testing this ingenious way to keep the kias distracted.
Speaker 1: They've installed all these little parrot gyms by the roadside,
Speaker 1: and so it kind of looks like a miniature jungle
Speaker 1: gym with swings and spinning toys and little ladders. I
Speaker 1: guess I kind of feel like everything you've said to
Speaker 1: this point may not actually be true, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go with it. So are are these you call them gyms?
Speaker 1: Are these gyms actually helping? Yeah? They are so far
Speaker 1: fewer birds are messing with traffic cones and the roads
Speaker 1: are a whole lot safer. But you know, these parrot
Speaker 1: gyms aren't the only out of the box solution that
Speaker 1: news Lin's come up with over the past few years.
Speaker 1: From state approved wizards to car driving dogs. The country
Speaker 1: has plenty of eccentricities to go around, so for today's show,
Speaker 1: I thought we could dive into some of that. A
Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Speaker 1: Pearson and it's always I'm joined by my good friend
Speaker 1: mangesh Ticketer on the other side of the soundproof glass,
Speaker 1: just sipping his way through what he claims is a
Speaker 1: hokey pokey milkshake. That's what That's what he says. At
Speaker 1: least that is our friend and producer Lull. So I
Speaker 1: don't know what a hokey pokey milkshake is. You dip
Speaker 1: one finger in, you dip one figure out, I guess.
Speaker 1: So any anytime anyone says hokey pokey, it reminds me
Speaker 1: of that shirt we made at Metal Flass. Oh that
Speaker 1: was I was trying to remember that. It said hokey
Speaker 1: pokey anonymous. Is that right? Yeah? And and and the
Speaker 1: tagline was a place to turn yourself Around, which I
Speaker 1: kind of loved. I actually saw someone in that shirt
Speaker 1: this year, which which amazed. Let's keep the focus on
Speaker 1: Lull here the way he likes it. What exactly is
Speaker 1: a hokey pokey milkshake. Yeah, so I've I've I've pulled
Speaker 1: it up here. So hokey pokey is I guess what
Speaker 1: we'd call honeycomb toffee. You know that we always call
Speaker 1: things honeycomb toffee. But it's like this light, crunchy candy
Speaker 1: made from brown sugar and corn syrup. And apparently everyone
Speaker 1: in New Zealand fell in love with the flavor way
Speaker 1: back in the nineteen forties and they have been obsessed
Speaker 1: with it ever since, especially when it takes the form
Speaker 1: of milkshake. So now I see why he just seems
Speaker 1: so happy over there. I mean, it's a great nickname.
Speaker 1: I also really like the cup he's drinking from. I
Speaker 1: I wish listeners could see it. It's a white cup
Speaker 1: with a red and blue cartoon giraffe on the side,
Speaker 1: and in big red letters it says the longest drink
Speaker 1: in town. I mean, if you're gonna toll how big
Speaker 1: your beverages. It feels so much cooler than like a
Speaker 1: big goal. Yeah, a long drink. Yeah. Actually I looked
Speaker 1: this up to and the longest drink in the world
Speaker 1: cup is actually pretty iconic. So this design debut in
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties and for the next several decades, it
Speaker 1: was featured on just about every paper milkshake cup in
Speaker 1: the country. He became synonymous with summertime in New Zealand,
Speaker 1: and thanks in large part to that widespread nostalgia, the
Speaker 1: longest drink in the world is still served up at
Speaker 1: New Zealand ice cream parlors today. Also, just because I
Speaker 1: kind of fell in love with the lingo this week,
Speaker 1: I have to mention that if you're inspired to bring
Speaker 1: ice cream or cold milk to work, just like LOL
Speaker 1: did today, a cooler in New Zealand is called a
Speaker 1: chili bin. I kind of like that. I like that.
Speaker 1: So where do you want to start today? All right, well,
Speaker 1: how about we start with the country's name? Like this
Speaker 1: is something that's always confused me, because if the country
Speaker 1: is New Zealand, that kind of implies that there is
Speaker 1: an old Zealand out there, right, so maybe just or
Speaker 1: just Zealand. I guess I was curious about this. I
Speaker 1: guess I hadn't really thought about that, Like, is there
Speaker 1: a Zealand in in Europe or somewhere there actually is?
Speaker 1: The original Zealand is all the way over in the
Speaker 1: far west of the Netherlands and just like with the
Speaker 1: names of early American cities and states, it goes back
Speaker 1: to the era of European exploration, and in New Zealand's case,
Speaker 1: it goes back to a Dutch explorer named Able Tasman,
Speaker 1: the namesake of Tasmania. So in sixteen forty two, Tasman
Speaker 1: was off exploring the southern Pacific Ocean. This was on
Speaker 1: behalf of the Dutch East India Company, and it was
Speaker 1: on that voyage that he stumbled upon the territories that
Speaker 1: we now know as Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. So
Speaker 1: when Tasman got home, he told his fellow navigators what
Speaker 1: he'd found, and pretty soon the islands were added to
Speaker 1: the charts of their day. So as for the name,
Speaker 1: Dutch map makers were already calling Australia New Holland at
Speaker 1: the time, so they just decided to keep this convention
Speaker 1: going and name Tasman's territory New Zealand, after a coastal
Speaker 1: province in the southwest region of the Netherlands. So British
Speaker 1: colonists later settled on the island about a hundred years later,
Speaker 1: but by then the Dutch name was so established that
Speaker 1: they just decided to keep it and just anglicize the
Speaker 1: spelling of it. Do we know why the Dutch named
Speaker 1: it Zealand in the first place, Like, was there something
Speaker 1: about New Zealand that reminded them of this old Zealand? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess it was the geography. I mean, apparently the
Speaker 1: province in the Netherlands is made up of a bunch
Speaker 1: of little islands and peninsulas with rivers crossing through them.
Speaker 1: And because of that that yet it really is I've
Speaker 1: actually never been you've been there before, the New Zealand,
Speaker 1: I haven't. I haven't either, And so because of that,
Speaker 1: the Dutch called the region Zealand, which translates as sea Land.
Speaker 1: So it's maybe not the most creative name in the world,
Speaker 1: but certainly a fitting one for the area. Well, since
Speaker 1: you brought up geography and Matt Makers, I I think
Speaker 1: it's time we addressed the fact that a lot of
Speaker 1: modern match don't include New Zealand and the country is
Speaker 1: just straight up missing, with nothing more than ocean where
Speaker 1: it's a cluster of six d us islands should be. Actually,
Speaker 1: I had heard about this. I mean, this is a
Speaker 1: pretty widespread error though, right it is. Yeah, there's actually
Speaker 1: an entire maps without New Zealand sub credit, where users
Speaker 1: have cataloged hundreds of examples of places that use bad maps,
Speaker 1: including video games, magazines, textbooks, hotels, restaurants, ikea, even uh
Speaker 1: for for instance, you know that giant rotating globe that
Speaker 1: sits in front of Universal Studios that is missing news.
Speaker 1: Also the map on the risk board missing New Zealand.
Speaker 1: There are even some international airports that have maps without
Speaker 1: New Zealand hung in their terminals, even though they offer
Speaker 1: flights straight to New Zealand. Wow, I mean a country that,
Speaker 1: according to their maps doesn't exist. It gets to it
Speaker 1: gets to a point where people just feel like they
Speaker 1: should just keep going with it just to be jerks
Speaker 1: about it. Yeah, and I'm sure it's some sort of
Speaker 1: existential problem for New Zealanders, but it's pretty funny how
Speaker 1: far this goes. So Like, there's a world map in
Speaker 1: front of the United Nations office in Geneva, and apparently
Speaker 1: New Zealand isn't on that, despite the country being a
Speaker 1: founding member. And if all that wasn't bad enough, New
Speaker 1: Zealand actually uses these maps themselves. Gave point me to this,
Speaker 1: but it's on their four or four error page for
Speaker 1: its official government website, and it shows a world map
Speaker 1: that doesn't include its own country, which is intentional. Actually,
Speaker 1: I just pulled this up and it's pretty funny. It
Speaker 1: has this four or four map and says something is missing,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's cute that they've got this sense
Speaker 1: of humor about it. But why does this phenomenon of
Speaker 1: cutting New Zealand off maps keep happening. I mean, they're
Speaker 1: definitely smaller places in the world. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: mostly because of that Mercater projection, which is the one
Speaker 1: that most world maps are based on, and as you
Speaker 1: might expect, it has a serious old World bias. This
Speaker 1: map places Europe and the dead center often while poor
Speaker 1: New Zealand is shoved way down in the bottom right
Speaker 1: hand corner and there's all is. It's kind of an
Speaker 1: awkward placement, and it's easy to crop, and if a
Speaker 1: designer isn't careful, they might try to turn some of
Speaker 1: the Pacific Ocean from the image and wind up blopping
Speaker 1: off an entire country in the process. But you know,
Speaker 1: judging by the number of places that that these apps
Speaker 1: have turned up, it's apparently something that happens all the time.
Speaker 1: But New Zealand just kind of taken and stride. Actually,
Speaker 1: there's this Kiwi comedian re star Be, and this is
Speaker 1: how he puts it. We are quite a fiddly looking
Speaker 1: shaped country, a bit like a half eaten land chop.
Speaker 1: Perhaps people are just leaving us off, thinking we're a mistake.
Speaker 1: That's such a great line. It's funny what you said
Speaker 1: about European bias, because I guess you could use a
Speaker 1: projection of a Mercator map that places New Zealand at
Speaker 1: the center and it wouldn't be any more inaccurate. That's true,
Speaker 1: and in fact, many maps in New Zealand classrooms actually
Speaker 1: do that. They place Middle Earth in the actual middle
Speaker 1: of the Earth. I mean, it's hard to argue with
Speaker 1: the logic on that one. But well, here's another thing
Speaker 1: I read this week and wanted to talk about. So
Speaker 1: this was in two thousand and sixteen, New Zealand spent
Speaker 1: over seventeen million U S dollars on a contest to
Speaker 1: redesign its national flag, and then the country voted to
Speaker 1: just keep the flag they already had. I guess it
Speaker 1: turned out to be not such a bad flag, so
Speaker 1: that it's seventeen million dollars. That's crazy. I know, it
Speaker 1: kind of makes me want to see the other designs, like,
Speaker 1: do you know how bad they were? So well? I mean,
Speaker 1: the contest was open to the public and over ten
Speaker 1: thousand people submitted designs, many of which were actually pretty
Speaker 1: elegant and well designed. I mean, there's some really pretty
Speaker 1: ones on there, but yeah, there were also some really
Speaker 1: horrible ones. One of my favorites is this blue and
Speaker 1: red one here. It's it's got this very cruelly drawn
Speaker 1: sheep on the blue half because New Zealand has a
Speaker 1: lot of those, obviously, and then on the red half
Speaker 1: there's an equally crudely drawn ice cream cone. So just
Speaker 1: you know, two things they like to think about. I mean,
Speaker 1: I bet I can guess what flavor that it is. Oh,
Speaker 1: I know you can. It's rum raisin. No, I'm kidding,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a it's hokey pokey, of course. And
Speaker 1: the artist even included little flex of the candy in
Speaker 1: their drawing to make that as clear as possible. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine if that the cand the new flag like
Speaker 1: they cleaned up, the design would be the most beloved
Speaker 1: flag in the world. I think, you know, it does.
Speaker 1: I mean it feels like because they're able to sort
Speaker 1: of laugh at their situation, they might have on with
Speaker 1: something like that. But there was actually another one that
Speaker 1: has a black flag with a silver fern, which is
Speaker 1: one of the country's national symbols, which is elegant enough,
Speaker 1: but the real highlight is it's got this Kiwi bird
Speaker 1: on the other side and it's blasting this green laser
Speaker 1: beam from its eyes. So it's probably not the most
Speaker 1: scientifically accurate flag in the world, but you know, it's
Speaker 1: pretty interesting. It might be the most badass though. I
Speaker 1: can see why New Zealand kind of decided to stick
Speaker 1: with their old flag. Why was there like such a
Speaker 1: push to change it in the first place. Well, I
Speaker 1: don't know how familiar you are with the real New
Speaker 1: Zealand flag. Very actually a lot of carbon San Diego.
Speaker 1: That's right. Well as a refresher for anybody who's listening.
Speaker 1: It's basically a blue flag with a Union Jack symbol
Speaker 1: and the top left hand corner and four red stars
Speaker 1: on the body representing the Southern Cross constellation. So the
Speaker 1: original design is a hundred years older. So and for
Speaker 1: a long time now people have debated whether it was
Speaker 1: appropriate to have a British symbol on the New Zealand flag,
Speaker 1: you know, since it's a sovereign country but technically still
Speaker 1: part of the British Commonwealth. So, I mean, the other
Speaker 1: thing that's always struck me is odd is is like
Speaker 1: how close the flag actually looks to Australia's flag. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was one of the other main contentions, that the
Speaker 1: flag is too derivative and not really representative of New Zealand.
Speaker 1: But despite all these complaints, when the issue was finally
Speaker 1: put to a national vote, of New Zealanders voted to
Speaker 1: keep the original flag versus forty three percent who voted
Speaker 1: for the new firm design. And the reason for that
Speaker 1: upset is pretty interesting. According to interviews conducted by The Guardian,
Speaker 1: many New Zealanders voted against the new flags simply because
Speaker 1: they'd grown disillusioned with how costly the campaign was. Dollars
Speaker 1: is a lot of money, yeah, and you know they
Speaker 1: didn't want the country to spend more money on top
Speaker 1: of that to produce tens of thousands of new flags
Speaker 1: to replace all the old ones. So anyway, well, now
Speaker 1: that we've gotten the lay of the land, let's zoom
Speaker 1: in a little bit closer and talk about the finer
Speaker 1: details that make New Zealand such a special place. But
Speaker 1: before we get to that, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1: You're listening to part Time Genius and we're talking about
Speaker 1: some of New Zealand's strangest claims to fame. All right, Mago,
Speaker 1: the wheel is yours. So where do you want to
Speaker 1: go first? So I really like that fact about where
Speaker 1: the new and New Zealand's name comes from. But there's
Speaker 1: actually a hill on the North Island of New Zealand
Speaker 1: with an even better story behind its name. It's this
Speaker 1: thousand foot hill. It's named after Tomatea, who's a legendary
Speaker 1: explorer from New Zealand's Maori culture, part of their mythical
Speaker 1: culture there and Tomatea is said to have been one
Speaker 1: of the first ever to step foot on New Zealand,
Speaker 1: long long before any European columnists came along. And the
Speaker 1: sound of the hill is where he supposedly played the
Speaker 1: nose flute for his beloved The nose flute Is that
Speaker 1: what I think it is? Yeah, it's exactly where sounds
Speaker 1: like it's It's a flute you play by exhaling through
Speaker 1: your nose. Wow. You know, I know how we like
Speaker 1: to give tips to our listeners, So I feel good
Speaker 1: about this one. Like if you ever need to charm
Speaker 1: someone with a private nose flute concert, then Tomata Hill
Speaker 1: is that that's the place to go. It seems like
Speaker 1: here's the thing. It's not actually called Tomata Hill. The
Speaker 1: Maori people wanted to really celebrate tomatas exploits and not
Speaker 1: sounding short, so they named the hill using an entire
Speaker 1: sense and roughly translated, it's an eighty five character name.
Speaker 1: It means the summit where tomatea, the man with the
Speaker 1: big knees, the slider clyber of mountains, the lance wallower
Speaker 1: who traveled about played his nose flute to his loved one,
Speaker 1: and the name means all of that, Like wouldn't you
Speaker 1: love to be known as the man with the big knees?
Speaker 1: Like that? I feel like that's great. But it's such
Speaker 1: such a great title. I do feel like you bury
Speaker 1: the lead here? What what is this eight five character name?
Speaker 1: How do you say it? So I'm gonna apologize a
Speaker 1: little because my my Maori is a little rusty, But
Speaker 1: this is how it goes. Tama to Waka Tongua Hanga Cara,
Speaker 1: Tomma t I am butchering this right. It goes thin.
Speaker 1: It's so long, Paru, it goes you should stop. And
Speaker 1: I'm really not trying to be disrespectful, but it is
Speaker 1: amazing and it makes for a very, very long street sign.
Speaker 1: It's actually the longest place name in the world according
Speaker 1: to Guinness. The wildest part, though, is that there's actually
Speaker 1: an unofficial version of the name that adds an extra
Speaker 1: twenty characters worth of details. So, according to Atlas Obscure,
Speaker 1: the extended version translates as the Hill of the Nose
Speaker 1: flute playing by Tomateo, who was blown hither from afar
Speaker 1: how to split penis, raised his knees climbing mountains, fell
Speaker 1: on the earth and encircle the land to his beloved
Speaker 1: and wore You ask that one part is a reference
Speaker 1: to basically what's in our version of a circumcision? Oh
Speaker 1: got it? Yeah, I was was kind of curious. Well,
Speaker 1: for any geography nerds who find themselves in New Zealand,
Speaker 1: another can't miss landmark on your list should be the
Speaker 1: slightly more plainly named Baldwin Street. So it's located in
Speaker 1: the city of Dunedin and Baldwin Street is one of
Speaker 1: the steepest streets in the world. It only runs about
Speaker 1: which is less than a fourth of a mile, but
Speaker 1: for every three horizontal meters there is a rise of
Speaker 1: one meter. So the result is that it takes ten
Speaker 1: minutes or more to basically climb up this relatively short street.
Speaker 1: It's pretty crazy. What I want to know is why
Speaker 1: would anyone put a street though to begin with? It
Speaker 1: seems like if the land is that steep, it would
Speaker 1: be easier to just kind of plan around it, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's true, and I'm sure that's exactly what
Speaker 1: the city planner would have done had he actually looked
Speaker 1: at the land he was planning for. Instead that the
Speaker 1: city was planned by these London based designers who never
Speaker 1: bothered to see the topography in person. They just laid
Speaker 1: out a grid system on top of a flat map
Speaker 1: and called it a day, I guess, and that oversight
Speaker 1: resulted in a number of these incredibly steep streets, with
Speaker 1: Baldwin being the most extreme of them. Wait, so are
Speaker 1: there houses on Baldwin? There actually our houses, and the
Speaker 1: cool thing is they are all built into this hill
Speaker 1: at an angle. It's worth taking a look at it.
Speaker 1: So if you walk down or up Baldwin Street, you'll
Speaker 1: pass a row of these severely slanted houses. I just
Speaker 1: put it up. This is insane. It's like you're living
Speaker 1: in like one of those old V eight commercials. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: It does feel like it would be a dream for Instagrammers,
Speaker 1: but probably a huge pain in the neck for residents.
Speaker 1: But you know what, we've talked about a couple of
Speaker 1: special places that New Zealanders can boast about. But why
Speaker 1: don't we talk about one of their exceptional citizens next? Alright,
Speaker 1: so so who would it be? Let me let me guess.
Speaker 1: Is it one of the Flight of the Concordes? No?
Speaker 1: I mean that's a good guess. But but this guy's
Speaker 1: birth name is Ian Brackenbury Channel. But today people around
Speaker 1: the world know him simply as the Wizard. And he
Speaker 1: is the Wizard, mind you, not not a wizard, because
Speaker 1: not only does he have the driver's license to prove it,
Speaker 1: he also has the backing of New Zealand's government back
Speaker 1: in the country's Prime Minister and made Channel the world's
Speaker 1: first and still only state appointed wizard. I have so
Speaker 1: many questions about this, but I guess the first one
Speaker 1: is how exactly one gets appointed the official Wizard of
Speaker 1: New Zealand. I think it starts with a wardrobe. But
Speaker 1: but New Zealand's Wizard has a pretty impressive resident. He
Speaker 1: was born in London in nineteen two and later served
Speaker 1: as a navigator in the Royal Air Force. In nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty three, he earned a double b a in psychology
Speaker 1: and sociology and began teaching in the Middle East in Australia.
Speaker 1: And given his dual fields of study as a teacher,
Speaker 1: Channel was especially interested in experimental teaching and social reform techniques.
Speaker 1: But as for his wizarding career, that started to take
Speaker 1: off in the mid seventies, and and that's when Channel
Speaker 1: began appearing throughout New Zealand as a public speaker. He
Speaker 1: would dress in a long black robe and a wizard's hat,
Speaker 1: and of course he carried his staff. And then you'd
Speaker 1: go to Cathedral Square in christ Church and you climb
Speaker 1: up on a ladder and share his views on all
Speaker 1: sorts of topics with passes by, no matter how taboo
Speaker 1: the subject. So public officials initially tried to have a
Speaker 1: banned from the premises, but eventually they gave up, and
Speaker 1: the Wizard kind of became this weird cultural institution slash
Speaker 1: tourist attraction. Alright, So to to sum this up, you
Speaker 1: had a decorated British veteran turned Australian school teacher who
Speaker 1: made his way to New Zealand, began dressing as a wizard,
Speaker 1: lost his mind and began scaring people in the streets.
Speaker 1: That I had that right, yeah, I mean everything except
Speaker 1: lost his mind part. Like the Wizard was and is eccentric,
Speaker 1: but he still has a firm grip on his mind.
Speaker 1: His body, though, was donated to the National Gallery of Victoria,
Speaker 1: which officially recognizes it as a living work of art.
Speaker 1: Of course they did. I mean, nothing about this surprises
Speaker 1: me at this point. But all right, so he's harassing
Speaker 1: people on this ladder and then what well from there,
Speaker 1: the city of christ You're kind of fell under his spell.
Speaker 1: He got super popular. In fact, the director of the
Speaker 1: Robert McDougal Art Gallery and christ Church actually contacted the
Speaker 1: National Gallery of Victoria and they arranged to have the
Speaker 1: living work of Art title transferred to christ Church. You're
Speaker 1: kidding me, no, it's this is all real and the
Speaker 1: Wizard's fame only grew from there, so in he was
Speaker 1: appointed to be the official arch Wizard of Canterbury and
Speaker 1: then ten years after that he was appointed Wizard of
Speaker 1: New Zealand by Prime Minister Mike Moore. And remind me
Speaker 1: again what a state appointed wizard actually does. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a good question. So this is the official proclamation that
Speaker 1: that that was declared at the time. Quote, the first
Speaker 1: Wizard of New Zealand is entitled to where the appropriate
Speaker 1: regalia and required to carry out the duties of national Wizard,
Speaker 1: namely to protect the government, to bless new enterprises, cast
Speaker 1: out evil spites, upset fanatics, cheer up the population, and
Speaker 1: most importantly, design and promote a new and improved universe
Speaker 1: which puts New Zealand on top of the world with
Speaker 1: physically and metaphysically. So now that the truth comes out,
Speaker 1: you forget Middle Earth. They actually want to be on
Speaker 1: top of it. I think is the the issue here, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So so I'm rooting for them and for the Wizard,
Speaker 1: and I don't think I'm alone in that either. The
Speaker 1: Wizard retired from his active duties back in two thousand five,
Speaker 1: but he still speaks publicly on occasion and to this day,
Speaker 1: he remains a beloved bigger in christ Church. In fact,
Speaker 1: there's one quick story that really shows how big a
Speaker 1: role the Wizard has played in the community there. This
Speaker 1: is back when the christ Church City Council hosted a
Speaker 1: whole week of activities to celebrate his twenty first year
Speaker 1: as the local Wizard. So if festivities began with the
Speaker 1: Wizard hovering above a rugby match in a helicopter, and
Speaker 1: and he was chanting a spell the whole time, which
Speaker 1: supposedly helped the home team win the game. But it
Speaker 1: concluded with him hatching from a giant egg inside the
Speaker 1: city's art gallery. So he hadged from an egg. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is years before Lady Gaga did. But you know,
Speaker 1: to to complete the process, everyone in attendance had to
Speaker 1: chant the correct hum while he was hatching. Alright, I
Speaker 1: feel like this is the perfect place for an ad break.
Speaker 1: We'll be back with more stories in just a minute.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to part time genius. All right, Mango. So
Speaker 1: New Zealanders have a reputation for being some of the
Speaker 1: friendliest and really most cheerful people in the world. I
Speaker 1: think most of the stories we've talked about today kind
Speaker 1: of attest to that in one way or another. But
Speaker 1: the people there do have a somber side just like
Speaker 1: anybody else, and a growing number of Kiwi's have taken
Speaker 1: up a new pastime to help fill their more reflective moments,
Speaker 1: and that's actually building their own coffins. That's unusual. What
Speaker 1: what why is that? Well, it's a trend that's been
Speaker 1: going on for about a decade now, and it started
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and ten when the Kiwi Coffin
Speaker 1: Club was formed in the town of Rota Rua. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I'm prenny oouncing that right, but according
Speaker 1: to its mission statement, the club is meant to provide
Speaker 1: quote an environment in which issues of death and loss
Speaker 1: can be raised, addressed, understood and accepted through discussions, support
Speaker 1: and the activity of painting and lining your own coffins.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess you can see how that could
Speaker 1: be cathartic or or maybe even sobering in a way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I guess it's a you know, it's filling a need.
Speaker 1: Since the first one in two thousand ten, coffin clubs
Speaker 1: have actually sprung up all across New Zealand, with some
Speaker 1: of the bigger ones boasting more than two hundred members
Speaker 1: and counting. In fact, most members view the actual coffin
Speaker 1: building as a way to celebrate their lives and showcase
Speaker 1: their personalities. So are these coffins themed? Sometimes they are? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it really depends on what the builder wants.
Speaker 1: Some people build playing wooden coffins, others go a little
Speaker 1: bit more elaborate. So, for instance, I saw one that
Speaker 1: had a hand painted nature seen on the exterior and
Speaker 1: another that had a collage of Elvis photos. And it
Speaker 1: it turns out there really no rules for d I
Speaker 1: y coffin building. Uh, I'm sure it is, or if
Speaker 1: it's not, they can use it if they want. But
Speaker 1: it's a pretty upbeat way to embrace death. And the
Speaker 1: meetings are kind of this three part blend, like it's
Speaker 1: a woodworking class, it's a therapy group, it's a social
Speaker 1: mixer and as one club treasurer John Russell told The Atlantic,
Speaker 1: we had a TV crew come to film one of
Speaker 1: our meetings thinking it would be formal, but they were
Speaker 1: astonished to see that we chat about everything but death
Speaker 1: and dying. It's a really great atmosphere. And has this
Speaker 1: expanded to other countries or is it just kind of
Speaker 1: stayed local to New Zealand. You know, I was actually
Speaker 1: wondering the same thing. And in that same story, The
Speaker 1: Atlantic reports that Coffin clubs have since launched in Australia
Speaker 1: and the UK, and yes, even here in the US.
Speaker 1: The first one opened earlier this year in Cleveland, Ohio.
Speaker 1: So heads up to our listeners. There is a waiting
Speaker 1: list for the club right now. So if you're on
Speaker 1: a tight schedule, you might want to think about just
Speaker 1: starting up your own chapter. That is kind of kind
Speaker 1: of amazing. I don't want to end the show on
Speaker 1: build your own coffin themes. So so I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you about the time New Zealand taught some dogs to
Speaker 1: drive a car. Oh well, and so successfully did this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this happened back into that and twelve when New
Speaker 1: Zealand's spc A realized that not enough people who are
Speaker 1: adopting their dogs. So the organization came up with a
Speaker 1: very sane and very sensible solution. They were going to
Speaker 1: teach a couple of their dogs how to drive a car.
Speaker 1: And and I guess for some reason, this seemed to
Speaker 1: make them more appealing. According to the group's Facebook page, quote.
Speaker 1: Our dogs maybe a motley bunch, but they're all smart
Speaker 1: and they're all lovable, so please don't write them off.
Speaker 1: Adopt them. If we can teach one to drive, we
Speaker 1: think you'll do just fine. So so how did they
Speaker 1: do this? The plan for the stunt was to have
Speaker 1: the dogs drive a modified Mini along a racetrack while
Speaker 1: sitting on their haunches in the driver's seat. So they
Speaker 1: customized the brake, pedal and a clutch. For some reason,
Speaker 1: they didn't teach them to go automatic. They they taught
Speaker 1: them to shift gears, but they made it long enough
Speaker 1: for for the dogs to actually reach them. So the
Speaker 1: dogs went through five weeks of indoor training where they
Speaker 1: were encouraged to touch and move replica break pedals and
Speaker 1: and gear sticks and and steering wheels. And then once
Speaker 1: the dogs had mastered the driving position and how to steer,
Speaker 1: they moved on to these little goat cars. And after
Speaker 1: a few weeks of that, the pups were ready to
Speaker 1: hit the road. Um So in December, one warm December
Speaker 1: day in New Zealand, they these two dogs took to
Speaker 1: the racetrack and the first dog to make history was
Speaker 1: one named Porter. He was a ten month old Beardy
Speaker 1: Cross and he drove this mini straight and then and
Speaker 1: then around a turn. And then Monty followed him. He
Speaker 1: was an eighteen month old Schnauser Cross and he completed
Speaker 1: the same course. And and to their credit, both dogs
Speaker 1: were wearing seatbelts. I'm curious that did this stunt work?
Speaker 1: Like did the dogs find homes? Yeah? So, as you
Speaker 1: might imagine that spc A and Auckland was swamped with
Speaker 1: calls from people who wanted to adopt these two amazing dogs.
Speaker 1: In the end, they actually decided to give the pups
Speaker 1: to the trainer who had spent these two months training
Speaker 1: them to drive the cars. But Porter and Monty stunt
Speaker 1: was broadcast live online and and helped drive up adoption
Speaker 1: rates kind of around the world. And in fact, the
Speaker 1: campaign was so popular in New Zealand that a year
Speaker 1: later the spc A launched a follow up where every
Speaker 1: dog adopted was given its own card to drive home in.
Speaker 1: But this time, like it was it was kind of
Speaker 1: a crate. It was a real car, and and this
Speaker 1: box opened up into sort of a cozy dog bed.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's more my dog speed. But all right,
Speaker 1: well you were right, mego that was a nice way
Speaker 1: for for us to close out the show, although we're
Speaker 1: not quite done yet because like a map without New Zealand,
Speaker 1: our show isn't complete without a fiddly shaped factoph Alright, So,
Speaker 1: like I mentioned earlier, I've been really digging Kiwi slang
Speaker 1: this week, and so here's another word you can expect
Speaker 1: me to slip into our conversation soon. Jandals. That's the
Speaker 1: New Zealand word for flip flops and it was coined
Speaker 1: by a Kiwi businessman who was inspired by the footwear
Speaker 1: he saw on a trip to Japan. So soon after
Speaker 1: he and his son started making their own version of
Speaker 1: the rubber slip ons in their own garage in New Zealand,
Speaker 1: and as a way to pay homage to the culture
Speaker 1: that inspired it all, they named their product Jandals, which
Speaker 1: is sort of like a portmanteau of the words Japanese
Speaker 1: and sandals. So you know the kids show Power Rangers,
Speaker 1: right of course, Power Rangers. I can explain it to you. O. Um. So,
Speaker 1: so you know the show was massively popular. It was
Speaker 1: It was filmed with this like existing footage in Japan
Speaker 1: and then and then new characters in California and other places.
Speaker 1: But but you know, the the show was a massive
Speaker 1: success and it got imported all around the world, but
Speaker 1: not to New Zealand. The show was actually banned there
Speaker 1: for being too violent and and this was true even
Speaker 1: after production for the show shifted to New Zealand in
Speaker 1: the late nineties. More than a dozen seasons with the
Speaker 1: long running show were filmed there over the years, but
Speaker 1: kids in New Zealand didn't get to see any of
Speaker 1: it it until the band was lifted in two Wow,
Speaker 1: thank goodness was lifted. Well, you've probably heard all the
Speaker 1: rumors about all the crazy laws that New Zealand supposedly has,
Speaker 1: like the one that prohibits quote malicious bell ringing. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: while that was really a law in New Zealand at
Speaker 1: one point, it is no longer on the books. In fact,
Speaker 1: the country has been pretty good about updating its laws
Speaker 1: and doing away with weird, outdated stuff. But there is
Speaker 1: at least one exception though. According to the New Zealand Herald,
Speaker 1: it is still against the law to say no questions
Speaker 1: asked when advertising a reward for missing property. So if
Speaker 1: your dog drives off with the car one day, you
Speaker 1: can't post a flyer asking them for their return, no
Speaker 1: questions asked. If you do, you could actually be slammed
Speaker 1: with a fine of up to two hundred dollars. Here's
Speaker 1: a nice feel good story from a few years back.
Speaker 1: In two thousand sixty, New Zealanders banded together and bought
Speaker 1: the country a brand new public beach. And when the
Speaker 1: stretch of sand went up for sale earlier that year,
Speaker 1: two brothers in law, Adam Gardner and Dwayne Major, decided
Speaker 1: to launch a crowdfunding campaign to try and keep the
Speaker 1: beach from falling into private ownership. So during the campaign,
Speaker 1: individuals and corporations like pitched in to help buy the park.
Speaker 1: The New Zealand government even got into action. They threw
Speaker 1: in two thousand dollars US dollars to the effort, and
Speaker 1: in the end, the donors raised about one point seven
Speaker 1: million dollars, which was enough to buy the beach from
Speaker 1: the original owner, and today the beaches run as part
Speaker 1: of the able Tasman National Park, where it's free and
Speaker 1: open to the public. Yeah, it's definitely a feel good story.
Speaker 1: But I actually think I can top this story because
Speaker 1: one thing I learned this week is that New Zealand
Speaker 1: is home to the first of its kind, a nationwide
Speaker 1: Secret Santa Gift exchange. So this program started on Twitter
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and ten, when one New Zealand
Speaker 1: users suggested that anyone interested should connect through the site
Speaker 1: and then dig through the post of their assigned person
Speaker 1: in order to sniff out clues about the kind of
Speaker 1: gift that they might like. The first couple gift exchanges
Speaker 1: proved so popular with the public that in two thousand thirteen,
Speaker 1: New Zealand's postal service actually signed on as the official sponsor.
Speaker 1: So the program continued in the years since, even adding
Speaker 1: a physical warehouse to help deal with all the packages.
Speaker 1: Now thousands of kiwis take part each year, and it's
Speaker 1: all for the sake of making a stranger's holiday just
Speaker 1: a little bit brighter. Oh I really like that, and
Speaker 1: and I think it is better than My Beach Story.
Speaker 1: And it's also seasonal, which is right, which is great.
Speaker 1: So so congratulations, I think you get the trophy. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for today's Part Time Genius for myself, Mango, Gabe,
Speaker 1: and Lowell. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back
Speaker 1: soon with another episode. Part Time Genius is a production
Speaker 1: of i heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, apple Pie Podcast, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows m HM