Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Guess what's that Mango?
Speaker 1: So you're never gonna believe this, but I finally found
Speaker 1: a new Zealand bird that's even more endearing than the Kiwi.
Speaker 3: I actually feel weird saying this, but i know I
Speaker 3: need to congratulate you, because I'm pretty sure this has
Speaker 3: been a dream of yours for a while now. So
Speaker 3: so congratulating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you. I mean Sundays, I doubted it was
Speaker 1: even possible, But this week I read about these big
Speaker 1: green parrots that live there called Chaos, 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.
Speaker 2: Wait, you're saying this is actually controversial.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So i'mlike Kiwi's kaas aren't universally adored. They are
Speaker 1: kind of these one and a half foot tall mischief makers,
Speaker 1: and they will steal laces from boots or strip the
Speaker 1: rubber off your windshield wipers. But the wildest prank I've
Speaker 1: heard is that kias actually dragged traffic cones into the
Speaker 1: middle of the road and leave them there and some
Speaker 1: researchers believe this is an intentional act, like it's a
Speaker 1: crafty way to get drivers to slow down enough that
Speaker 1: the parrots can beg for food.
Speaker 3: Wow, I mean that is kind of a nee trick.
Speaker 3: It also does sound a little bit dangerous. I wonder
Speaker 3: how many of these get hit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's become a real problem. But the
Speaker 1: good news is that there's this conservation team in New
Speaker 1: Zealand that's been testing this ingenious way to keep the
Speaker 1: kaas distracted. They've installed all these little parrot gyms by
Speaker 1: the roadside, and so it kind of looks like a
Speaker 1: miniature jungle gym with swings and spinning toys and little ladders.
Speaker 3: I guess I kind of feel like everything you've said
Speaker 3: to this point may not actually be true, but I'm
Speaker 3: gonna go with it. So are these you call them gyms?
Speaker 3: Are these gyms actually helping?
Speaker 1: Yeah? They are so far fewer birds are messing with
Speaker 1: traffic cones and the roads are a whole lot safer.
Speaker 1: But you know, these parrot gyms aren't the only out
Speaker 1: of the box solution that NEWSS come up with over
Speaker 1: the past few years. From state approved wizards to car
Speaker 1: driving dogs. The country has plenty of eccentricities to go around,
Speaker 1: so for today's show, I thought we could dive into
Speaker 1: some of that.
Speaker 3: Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Speaker 3: Will Pearson and is always I'm joined by my good
Speaker 3: friend mangesh hot Ticketter on the other side of the
Speaker 3: soundproof glass, just sipping his way through what he claims
Speaker 3: is a hokey pokey milkshake. That's what That's what he says.
Speaker 3: At least that is our friend and producer loll So.
Speaker 3: I don't know what a hokey pokey milkshake is.
Speaker 1: You dip one finger in, you dip one finger out,
Speaker 1: I guess. So anytime anyone says hokey pokey, it reminds
Speaker 1: me of that shirt we made at Metal Floss.
Speaker 2: I was trying to remember it that it said hokey
Speaker 2: pokey anonymous. Is that right?
Speaker 1: Yeah? And the tagline was a place to turn yourself around,
Speaker 1: which I kind of loved. I actually saw someone in
Speaker 1: that shirt this year, which which amazs me, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Let's keep the focus on loll here the way he
Speaker 1: likes it. Well, what exactly is a hokey poke milkshake?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I've pulled it up here.
Speaker 3: So hokey pokey is I guess what we'd call honeycomb toffee.
Speaker 3: You know, we always call things honeycomb toffee. But it's
Speaker 3: like this light, crunchy candy made from brown sugar and
Speaker 3: corn syrup. And apparently everyone in New Zealand fell in
Speaker 3: love with the flavor way back in the nineteen forties
Speaker 3: and they have been obsessed with it ever since, especially
Speaker 3: when it takes the form of milkshake.
Speaker 2: So now I see why he just seems so happy
Speaker 2: over there.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a great nickname. I also really like
Speaker 1: the cup he's drinking it from. I wish listeners could
Speaker 1: see it. It's a white cup with a red and
Speaker 1: blue cartoon giraffe on the side, and in big red
Speaker 1: letters it says the longest drink in town. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're going to tell how big your beverages, it
Speaker 1: feels so much cooler than like a big goal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, A long drink. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I actually I looked this up too, and the longest
Speaker 3: drink in the world cup is actually pretty iconic. So
Speaker 3: this design debuted in the nineteen sixties and for the
Speaker 3: next several decades it was featured on just about every
Speaker 3: paper milkshake cup in the country.
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
Speaker 3: It became synonymous with summertime in New Zealand, and thanks
Speaker 3: in large part to that widespread nostalgia, the longest drink
Speaker 3: in the world is still served up at New Zealand
Speaker 3: ice cream parlors today. Also, just because I kind of
Speaker 3: fell in love with the lingo this week, I have
Speaker 3: to mention that if you're inspired to bring ice cream
Speaker 3: or cold milk to work, just like Loulda today, a
Speaker 3: cooler in New Zealand is called a chili bin.
Speaker 2: I kind of like that.
Speaker 1: I like that. So where do you want to start today?
Speaker 3: All right, well, how about we start with the country's name. Like,
Speaker 3: this is something that's always confused me, because if the
Speaker 3: country is New Zealand, that kind of implies that there
Speaker 3: is an old Zealand out there, right, so maybe just
Speaker 3: or just Zealand.
Speaker 2: I guess I was curious about this.
Speaker 1: I guess I hadn't really thought about that, Like, is
Speaker 1: there a Zealand in Europe or somewhere.
Speaker 2: There actually is?
Speaker 3: The original Zealand is all the way over in the
Speaker 3: far west of the Netherlands. And just like with the
Speaker 3: names of early American cities and states. It goes back
Speaker 3: to the era of European exploration, and in New Zealand's case,
Speaker 3: it goes back to a Dutch explorer named Abel Tasman,
Speaker 3: the namesake of Tasmania. So in sixteen forty two, Tasman
Speaker 3: was off exploring the southern Pacific Ocean. This was on
Speaker 3: behalf of the Dutch East India Company, and it was
Speaker 3: on that voyage that he stumbled upon the territories that
Speaker 3: we now know as Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. So
Speaker 3: when Tasman got home, he told his fellow navigators what
Speaker 3: he'd found, and pretty soon the islands were added to
Speaker 3: the charts of their day. So as for the name,
Speaker 3: Dutch map makers were already calling Australia New Holland at
Speaker 3: the time, so they just decided to keep this convention
Speaker 3: going and name Tasman's territory New Zealand, after a coastal
Speaker 3: province in the southwest region of the Netherlands. So British
Speaker 3: colonists later settled on the island about one hundred years later,
Speaker 3: but by then the Dutch name was so established that
Speaker 3: they just decided to keep it and just anglicize the
Speaker 3: spelling of it.
Speaker 1: Do we know why the Dutch named it Zealand in
Speaker 1: the first place, Like, was there something about New Zealand
Speaker 1: that reminded them of this old Zealand?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess it was the geography.
Speaker 3: I mean, apparently the province and the Netherlands is made
Speaker 3: up of a bunch of little islands and peninsulas with
Speaker 3: rivers crossing through them. And because of that that yet
Speaker 3: it really is I've actually never been Have you ever
Speaker 3: been there before?
Speaker 2: The New Zealand? Oh I haven't.
Speaker 3: I haven't either, And so because of that, the Dutch
Speaker 3: called the region Zealand, which translates as Sealand. So it's
Speaker 3: maybe not the most creative name in the world, but
Speaker 3: certainly a fitting one for the area.
Speaker 1: Well, since you brought up geography and Matt Makers, I
Speaker 1: think it's time we addressed the fact that a lot
Speaker 1: of modern maps don't include New Zealand and the country
Speaker 1: is just straight up missing, with nothing more than ocean
Speaker 1: where it's cluster of six hundred plus US island should be.
Speaker 3: Actually, I had heard about this. I mean, this is
Speaker 3: a pretty widespread era though, right it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's actually an entire maps without New Zealand subreddit,
Speaker 1: where users have cataloged hundreds of examples of places that
Speaker 1: use bad maps, including video games, magazines, textbooks, hotels, restaurants, ikea.
Speaker 1: Even for instance, did you know that giant rotating globe
Speaker 1: that sits in front of Universal Studios that is missing
Speaker 1: New ze Also the map on the risk board missing
Speaker 1: New Zealand. There are even some international airports that have
Speaker 1: maps without New Zealand hung in their terminals, even though
Speaker 1: they offer flights straight to New Zealand.
Speaker 3: Wow, I mean the country that, according to their maps
Speaker 3: doesn't exist. It gets to a point where people just
Speaker 3: feel like they should just keep going with it just
Speaker 3: to be jerks about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm sure it's some sort of existential problem
Speaker 1: for New Zealanders, but it's pretty funny how far this goes.
Speaker 1: So Like, there's a World map in front of the
Speaker 1: United Nations office in Geneva, and apparently New Zealand isn't
Speaker 1: on that, despite the country being a found member. And
Speaker 1: if all that wasn't bad enough, New Zealand actually uses
Speaker 1: these maps themselves. Gabe pointed me to this, but it's
Speaker 1: on their four h four error page for its official
Speaker 1: government website and it shows a world map that doesn't
Speaker 1: include its own country, which is intentional.
Speaker 3: Actually, I just pulled this up and it's pretty funny.
Speaker 3: It has this four or four map and says something
Speaker 3: is missing, and you know, it's cute that they've got
Speaker 3: this sense of humor about it. But why does this
Speaker 3: phenomenon of cutting New Zealand off maps keep happening?
Speaker 2: I mean, there are definitely smaller places in the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's mostly because of that Mercator projection,
Speaker 1: which is the one that most world maps are based on,
Speaker 1: and as you might expect, it has a serious old
Speaker 1: World bias. This map places Europe in the dead center
Speaker 1: often while poor New Zealand is shoved way down in
Speaker 1: the bottom right hand corner. And the result is it's
Speaker 1: kind of an awkward placement and it's easy to crop,
Speaker 1: and if a designer isn't careful, they might try to
Speaker 1: turn some of the Pacific Ocean from the image and
Speaker 1: wind up blopping off an entire country in the process.
Speaker 1: But you know, judging by the number of places that
Speaker 1: these have turned up, it's apparently something that happens all
Speaker 1: the time. But New Zealand just kind of take it
Speaker 1: in stride. Actually, there's this Kiwi comedian ree Starby, and
Speaker 1: this is how he puts it, quote, we are quite
Speaker 1: a fiddly looking shaped country, a bit like a half
Speaker 1: eaten lamb chop. Perhaps people are just leaving us off,
Speaker 1: thinking we're a mistake.
Speaker 2: That's such a great line.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny what you said about European bias, because
Speaker 3: I guess you could use a projection of a Mercader
Speaker 3: map that places New Zealand at the center and it
Speaker 3: wouldn't be any more inaccurate.
Speaker 1: That's true, and in fact, many maps in New Zealand
Speaker 1: classrooms actually do that. They place Middle Earth in the
Speaker 1: actual middle of the Earth.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's hard to argue with the logic on
Speaker 3: that one. But well, here's another thing I read this
Speaker 3: week and wanted to talk about. So this was in
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen, New Zealand spent over seventeen million US dollars
Speaker 3: on a contest to redesign its national flag, and then
Speaker 3: the country voted to just keep the flag they already had.
Speaker 3: I guess it turned out to be not such a
Speaker 3: bad flag, So that seventeen million dollars it's crazy.
Speaker 1: I know, it kind of makes me want to see
Speaker 1: the other designs, Like, do you know how bad they were?
Speaker 2: So well?
Speaker 3: I mean, the contest was open to the public and
Speaker 3: over ten thousand people submitted designs, many of which were
Speaker 3: actually pretty elegant and well designed. I mean, there's some
Speaker 3: really pretty ones on there, but yeah, there were also
Speaker 3: some really horrible ones. One of my favorites is this
Speaker 3: blue and red one here. It's got this very cruelly
Speaker 3: drawn sheep on the blue half because New Zealand has
Speaker 3: a lot of those, obviously, and then on the red
Speaker 3: half there's an equally crudely drawn ice cream cone.
Speaker 2: So just you know two things they like to think about.
Speaker 1: I mean, I bet I can guess what flavor that is.
Speaker 2: Oh, I know you can. It's rum raisin. No, I'm kidding.
Speaker 3: It's hokey pokey, of course. And the artist even included
Speaker 3: little flex of the candy in there, drawing to make
Speaker 3: that as clear as possible.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine this about the cand the new flag, Like,
Speaker 1: and they cleaned up the design, it'd be the most
Speaker 1: beloved flag in the world.
Speaker 2: I think you know it does.
Speaker 3: I mean, it feels like because they're able to sort
Speaker 3: of laugh at their situation, they might have gone on
Speaker 3: with something like that, but it was actually another one
Speaker 3: that has a black flag with a silver fern, which
Speaker 3: is one of the country's national symbols, which is elegant enough,
Speaker 3: but the real highlight is it's got this Kiwi bird
Speaker 3: on the other side and it's blasting this green laser
Speaker 3: beam from its eyes. So it's probably not the most
Speaker 3: scientifically accurate flag in the world, but you know, it's
Speaker 3: pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: It might be the most badass, though, I might. I
Speaker 1: can see why New Zealand kind of decide to stick
Speaker 1: with their old flag. Why was there like such a
Speaker 1: push to change it in the first place.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know how familiar you are with the
Speaker 2: real New Zealand flag very.
Speaker 1: I said a lot of carbon San Diego as a kid.
Speaker 3: That's right, well as a refresher for anybody who's listening.
Speaker 3: It's basically a blue flag with a Union Jack symbol
Speaker 3: in the top left hand corner and four red stars
Speaker 3: on the body representing the Southern Cross constellation. So the
Speaker 3: original design is one hundred years old or so, and
Speaker 3: for a long time now people have debated whether it
Speaker 3: was appropriate to have a British symbol on the New
Speaker 3: Zealand flag, you know, since it's a sovereign country but
Speaker 3: technically still part of the British Commonwealth.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, the other thing that's always struck me
Speaker 1: as odd is like how close the flag actually looks
Speaker 1: to Australia's flag.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was one of the other main contentions, that
Speaker 3: the flag is too derivative and not really representative of
Speaker 3: New Zealand. But despite all these complaints, when the issue
Speaker 3: was finally put to a national vote, fifty six percent
Speaker 3: of New Zealanders voted to keep the original flag versus
Speaker 3: forty three percent who voted for the new fern design.
Speaker 3: And the reason for that upset is pretty interesting. According
Speaker 3: to interviews conducted by The Guardian, many New Zealanders voted
Speaker 3: against the new flags simply because they'd grown disillusioned with
Speaker 3: how costly the campaign was.
Speaker 1: Seventeen million dollars is a lot of.
Speaker 3: Money, yeah, and you know they didn't want the country
Speaker 3: to spend more money on top of that to produce
Speaker 3: tens of thousands of new flags to replace all the
Speaker 3: old ones. So anyway, well, now that we've gotten the
Speaker 3: lay of the land, let's zoom in a little bit closer.
Speaker 3: And talk about the finer details that make New Zealand
Speaker 3: such a special place. But before we get to that,
Speaker 3: let's take a quick break. You're listening to part time
Speaker 3: Genius and we're talking about some of New Zealand's strangest
Speaker 3: claims to fame. All right, Mago, the wheel is yours.
Speaker 3: So where do you want to go first?
Speaker 1: So I really like that fact about where the new
Speaker 1: in New Zealand's name comes from. But there's actually a
Speaker 1: hill on the North Island of New Zealand with an
Speaker 1: even better story behind its name. It's this thousand foot hill.
Speaker 1: It's named after Tamata, who's a legendary explorer from New
Speaker 1: Zealand's Maori culture, part of their mythical culture there and
Speaker 1: Tamata is said to have been one of the first
Speaker 1: ever to step foot on New Zealand, long long before
Speaker 1: any European columnists came along. And the summit of the
Speaker 1: hill is where he supposedly played the nose flute for.
Speaker 2: His beloved The nose flute. Is that what I think
Speaker 2: it is?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's exactly what it sounds like. It's a flute
Speaker 1: you play by exhaling through your nose.
Speaker 3: Wow, this you know, I know how we like to
Speaker 3: give tips to our listeners, So I feel good about
Speaker 3: this one. Like, if you ever need to charm someone
Speaker 3: with a private nose flute concert, then Tamataya Hill is
Speaker 3: that's the place to go.
Speaker 2: It seems like here's the thing.
Speaker 1: It's not actually called Tamatya Hill. The Maori people wanted
Speaker 1: to really celebrate Tamataya's exploits and not sound short, so
Speaker 1: they named the hill using an entire sense and roughly translated,
Speaker 1: it's an eighty five character name. It means the summit
Speaker 1: where Tamataya, the man with the big knees, the slider
Speaker 1: climber of mountains, the land swallower who traveled about played
Speaker 1: his nose flute to his loved one.
Speaker 3: And the name means all of that, Like wouldn't you
Speaker 3: love to be known as the man with the big knees?
Speaker 1: Like that?
Speaker 3: I feel like that's great. But it's such such a
Speaker 3: great title. I do feel like you bury the lead here?
Speaker 3: What is this eighty five character name? How do you
Speaker 3: say it?
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna apologize a little because my uh my
Speaker 1: Maori is a little rusty, but this is how it
Speaker 1: goes Tamatawaka Tonga Honga kara tom. I am butchering this right,
Speaker 1: it goes.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 1: It's so long, seman nogaru Akau, it goes.
Speaker 2: You should really stop.
Speaker 1: And I'm really not trying to be disrespectful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it.
Speaker 1: Is amazing and it makes for a very very long
Speaker 1: street sign. It's actually the longest place name in the
Speaker 1: world according to Guinness. The wildest part, though, is that
Speaker 1: there's actually an unofficial version of the name that adds
Speaker 1: an extra twenty character. It's worth of details.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: So according to Atlas Obscure, the extended version translates as
Speaker 1: the Hill of the Nose flute playing by Tamatao, who
Speaker 1: was blown hither from Afar, had a split penis, raised
Speaker 1: his knees climbing mountains, fell on the earth, and encircled
Speaker 1: the land to his beloved and so good before you ask,
Speaker 1: that one part is a reference to basically what's in
Speaker 1: my version of a circumcision?
Speaker 2: Oh got it? Yeah, I was kind of curious.
Speaker 3: Well, for any geography nerds who find themselves in New Zealand,
Speaker 3: another cantonss landmark on your list should be the slightly
Speaker 3: more plainly named Baldwin Street. So it's located in the
Speaker 3: city of Dunedin, and Baldwin Street is one of the
Speaker 3: steepest streets in the world. It only runs about three
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty meters, which is less than a fourth
Speaker 3: of a mile, but for every three horizontal meters there
Speaker 3: is a rise of one meter, So the result is
Speaker 3: that it takes ten minutes or more to basically climb
Speaker 3: up this relatively short street.
Speaker 2: It's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: What I want to know is why wouldn't anyone put
Speaker 1: a street though to begin with? It seems like if
Speaker 1: the land is that steep, it'd be easier to just
Speaker 1: kind of plan around it.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I mean that's true, and I'm sure that's
Speaker 3: exactly what the city planner would have done had he
Speaker 3: actually looked at the land he was planning for. Instead
Speaker 3: that the city was planned by these London based designers
Speaker 3: who never bothered to see the topography in person. They
Speaker 3: just laid out a grid system on top of a
Speaker 3: flat map and called it a day, I guess, and
Speaker 3: that oversight resulted in a number of these incredibly steep streets,
Speaker 3: with Baldwin being the most extreme of them.
Speaker 1: Wait, so are there houses on Baldwin Street.
Speaker 3: There actually are houses, and the cool thing is they
Speaker 3: are all built into this hill at an angle. It's
Speaker 3: worth taking a look at it. So if you walk
Speaker 3: down or up Baldwin Street, you'll pass a row of
Speaker 3: these severely slanted houses.
Speaker 1: I just hould it up. This is insane. It's like
Speaker 1: you're living in like one of those old v commercials.
Speaker 1: Everything's built. It's amazing. It does feel like it would
Speaker 1: be a dream for Instagrammers, but probably a huge pain
Speaker 1: in the neck for residents. But you know what, we've
Speaker 1: talked about a couple of special places that New Zealanders
Speaker 1: can boast about. But why don't we talk about one
Speaker 1: of their exceptional citizens next?
Speaker 2: All right, so who would it be? Let me let
Speaker 2: me guess. Is it one of the Flight of the Concords?
Speaker 1: No, I mean that's a good guess. 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 nineteen ninety the country's Prime Minister made Channel the
Speaker 1: world's first and still only state appointed wizard.
Speaker 3: I have so many questions about this, but I guess
Speaker 3: the first one is how exactly one gets appointed the
Speaker 3: official Wizard of New Zealand.
Speaker 1: I think it starts with the wardrobe. But New Zealand's
Speaker 1: Wizard has a pretty impressive resiment. He was born in
Speaker 1: London in nineteen thirty two and later served as a
Speaker 1: navigator in the Royal Air Force. In nineteen sixty three,
Speaker 1: he earned a double BA in psychology and sociology and
Speaker 1: began teaching in the Middle East in Australia, and given
Speaker 1: his dual fields of study as a teacher, Channel was
Speaker 1: especially interested in experimental teaching and social reform techniques. But
Speaker 1: as for his wizarding career, that started to take off
Speaker 1: in the mid seventies, and that's when Channel began appearing
Speaker 1: throughout New Zealand as a public speaker. He would dress
Speaker 1: in a long black robe and a wizard's hat, and
Speaker 1: of course he carried his staff. And then he'd go
Speaker 1: to Cathedral Square in christ Church and he'd climb up
Speaker 1: on a ladder and share his views on all sorts
Speaker 1: of topics with passes by, no matter how taboo the subject.
Speaker 1: So public officials initially tried to have a banned from
Speaker 1: the premises, but eventually they gave up and the Wizard
Speaker 1: kind of became this weird cultural institution slash tourist attraction.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: So to sum this up, you had a decorated British
Speaker 3: veteran turned Australian school teacher who made his way to
Speaker 3: New Zealand, began dressing as a wizard, lost his mind
Speaker 3: and began scaring people in the streets.
Speaker 2: That I have that right, yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean everything except that lost his mind part. Like
Speaker 1: the wizard was and is eccentric, but he still has
Speaker 1: a firm grip on his mind. His body, though, was
Speaker 1: donated to the National Gallery of Victoria, which officially recognizes
Speaker 1: it as a living work of art.
Speaker 3: Of course they did. I mean nothing about this surprises
Speaker 3: me at this point. But so he's harassing people on
Speaker 3: this ladder and then what.
Speaker 1: Well from there the city of christ which kind of
Speaker 1: fell under his spell, he got super popular. In fact,
Speaker 1: the director of the Robert McDougall Art Gallery and christ
Speaker 1: Church actually contacted the National Gallery of Victoria and they
Speaker 1: arranged to have the living work of art title transferred
Speaker 1: to christ Church. You're kidding me, No, this is all real,
Speaker 1: and the Wizard's fame only grew from there. So in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty he was appointed to be the official arch
Speaker 1: Wizard of Kenterbury, and then ten years after that he
Speaker 1: was appointed Wizard of New Zealand by Prime Minister Mike Moore.
Speaker 3: And remind me again what a state appointed wizard actually does.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good question. So this is the official
Speaker 1: proclamation that was declared at the time. Quote. The first
Speaker 1: Wizard of New Zealand is entitled to wear the appropriate
Speaker 1: regalia and required to carry out the duties of national Wizard,
Speaker 1: namely to protect the government, to blessed new enterprises, cast
Speaker 1: out evil spits, 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, both
Speaker 1: physically and metaphysically.
Speaker 3: So, now that the truth comes out, you forget Middle Earth.
Speaker 3: They actually want to be on top of it. I
Speaker 3: think is the issue here, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, 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
Speaker 1: and five, but he still speaks publicly on occasion, and
Speaker 1: to this day he remains a beloved figure in christ Church.
Speaker 1: In fact, there's one quick story that really shows how
Speaker 1: big a role the Wizard is played in the community there.
Speaker 1: This is back in nineteen ninety five when the christ
Speaker 1: Church City Council hosted a whole week of activities to
Speaker 1: celebrate his twenty first year as the local Wizard. So
Speaker 1: festivities began with the Wizard hovering above a rugby match
Speaker 1: in a helicopter and he was chanting a spell the
Speaker 1: whole time, which supposedly helped the home team win the game.
Speaker 1: But it concluded with him hatching from a giant egg
Speaker 1: inside the city's art gallery.
Speaker 2: So he hashed from an egg.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is years before Lady Gaga did. But you know,
Speaker 1: to complete the process, everyone in attendance had to chant
Speaker 1: the correct hum while he was hatching.
Speaker 3: All right, I feel like this is the perfect place
Speaker 3: for an ad break. We'll be back with more stories
Speaker 3: in just a minute. Welcome back to part time genius.
Speaker 2: All right, Mango.
Speaker 3: So New Zealanders have a reputation for being some of
Speaker 3: the friendliest and really most cheerful people in the world.
Speaker 3: I think most of the stories we've talked about today
Speaker 3: kind of a test to that in one way or another.
Speaker 3: But the people there do have a somber side just
Speaker 3: like anybody else, and a growing number of Kiwis have
Speaker 3: taken up a new pastime to help fill their more
Speaker 3: reflective moments, and that's actually building their own coffins.
Speaker 1: Huh, that's unusual. Why is that?
Speaker 3: Well, it's a trend that's been going on for about
Speaker 3: a decade now, and it started back in twenty ten
Speaker 3: when the Kiwi Coffin Club was formed in the town
Speaker 3: of Rotorua. I don't know if I'm bouncing that right,
Speaker 3: but according to its mission statement, the club is meant
Speaker 3: to provide quote an environment in which issues of death
Speaker 3: and loss can be raised, addressed, understood and accepted through discussion, support,
Speaker 3: and the activity of painting and lining your own coffins.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I can see how that could
Speaker 1: be cathartic or maybe even sobering in a way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I guess it's a you know, it's filling
Speaker 3: a need since the first one in twenty ten, coffin
Speaker 3: clubs have actually sprung up all across New Zealand, with
Speaker 3: some of the bigger ones boasting more than two hundred
Speaker 3: members and counting. In fact, most members view the actual
Speaker 3: coffin building as a way to celebrate their lives and
Speaker 3: showcase their personalities.
Speaker 1: So are these coffins themed?
Speaker 3: Sometimes they are? Yeah, I mean it really depends on
Speaker 3: what the builder wants. Some people build plain wooden coffins,
Speaker 3: others go a little bit more elaborate. So, for instance,
Speaker 3: I saw one that had a hand painted nature scene
Speaker 3: on the exterior and another that had a collage of
Speaker 3: Elvis photos. And it turns out there are really no
Speaker 3: rules for DIY coffin building. Is that line in the
Speaker 3: pressure I'm sure that is, Or if it's not, they
Speaker 3: can use it if they want. But it's a pretty
Speaker 3: upbeat way to embrace death. And the meetings are kind
Speaker 3: of this three part blind like it's a woodworking class,
Speaker 3: it's a therapy group, it's a social mixer and as
Speaker 3: one club treasurer John Russell told The Atlantic, we had
Speaker 3: a TV crew come to film one of our meetings
Speaker 3: thinking it would be formal, but they were astonished to
Speaker 3: see that we chat about everything but death and dying.
Speaker 3: It's a really great atmosphere.
Speaker 1: And has this expanded to other countries or is it
Speaker 1: just kind of stayed local in New Zealand.
Speaker 3: You know, I was actually wondering the same thing. And
Speaker 3: in that same story, The Atlantic reports that Coffin clubs
Speaker 3: have since launched in Australia and the UK, and yes,
Speaker 3: even here in the US. The first one opened earlier
Speaker 3: this year in Cleveland, Ohio. So heads up to our listeners.
Speaker 3: There is a waiting list for the club right now.
Speaker 3: So if you're on a tight schedule, you might want
Speaker 3: to think about just starting up your own chapter.
Speaker 1: That is kind of amazing. I don't want to end
Speaker 1: the show on build your own coffin themes. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to tell you about the time New Zealand taught
Speaker 1: some dogs to drive a car.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, and so successfully did this?
Speaker 1: Yeah. So this happened back in twenty twelve when New
Speaker 1: Zealand's SPCA realized that not enough people were adopting their dogs.
Speaker 1: So the organization came up with a very sane and
Speaker 1: very sensible solution. They were going to teach a couple
Speaker 1: of their dogs how to drive a car. And I
Speaker 1: guess for some reason, this seemed to make them more appealing.
Speaker 1: According to the group's Facebook page quote, our dogs may
Speaker 1: be a motley bunch, but they're all smart and they're
Speaker 1: all lovable, so please don't write them off. Adopt them.
Speaker 1: If we can teach one to drive, we think you'll
Speaker 1: do just fine.
Speaker 2: Wow. So how did they do this?
Speaker 1: The plan for the stunt was to have the dogs
Speaker 1: drive a modified Mini along a racetrack while sitting on
Speaker 1: their haunches in the driver's seat, so they customized the
Speaker 1: brake pedal and a clutch. For some reason, they didn't
Speaker 1: teach them to go automatic. They taught them to shift gears,
Speaker 1: but they made it long enough for the dogs to
Speaker 1: actually reach them. So the dogs went through five weeks
Speaker 1: of indoor training where they were encouraged to touch and
Speaker 1: move replica brake pedals and gearsticks and steering wheels. And
Speaker 1: then once the dogs had mastered the driving position and
Speaker 1: how to steer, they moved on to these little goat courts.
Speaker 1: And after a few weeks of that, the pups were
Speaker 1: ready to hit the road. So in December, one warm
Speaker 1: December day in New Zealand, they these two dogs took
Speaker 1: to the racetrack and the first dog to make history
Speaker 1: was one named Porter. He was a ten month old
Speaker 1: Beardy Cross and he drove this mini straight and then
Speaker 1: and then around a turn. And then Monty followed him.
Speaker 1: He was an eighteen month old Schnauzer Cross and he
Speaker 1: completed the same course. And to their credit, both dogs
Speaker 1: were wearing seabelts.
Speaker 2: I'm curious, though, did this stunt work, like, did the
Speaker 2: dogs find homes?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So, as you might imagine that SPCA and Auckland
Speaker 1: was swamped with calls from people who wanted to adopt
Speaker 1: these two amazing dogs. In the end, they actually decided
Speaker 1: to give the pups to the trainer who'd spent these
Speaker 1: two months training them to drive the cars. But Porter
Speaker 1: and Monty stunt was broadcast live online and it helped
Speaker 1: drive up adoption rates kind of around the world. And
Speaker 1: in fact, the campaign was so popular in New Zealand
Speaker 1: that a year later at SPCA launched a follow up
Speaker 1: where every dog adopted was given its own car to
Speaker 1: drive home in. But this time it was kind of
Speaker 1: a crate. It wasn't a real car, and this box
Speaker 1: opened up into sort of a cozy dog bed.
Speaker 3: I feel like that's more my dog speed. But all right,
Speaker 3: well you were right, Mago. That was a nice way
Speaker 3: for us to close out the show, although we're not
Speaker 3: quite done yet because like a map without New Zealand,
Speaker 3: our show isn't complete without a fiddly shaped fact off.
Speaker 3: All right, So, like I mentioned earlier, I've been really
Speaker 3: digging Kiwi slang this week, and so here's another word
Speaker 3: you can expect me to slip into our conversation soon.
Speaker 2: Jandles.
Speaker 3: That's the New Zealand word for flip flops and it
Speaker 3: was coined by a Kiwi businessman who was inspired by
Speaker 3: the footwear he saw on a trip to Japan. So
Speaker 3: soon after he and his son started making their own
Speaker 3: version of the rubber slip ons in their own garage
Speaker 3: in New Zealand, and as a way to pay homage
Speaker 3: to the culture that inspired it all, they named their
Speaker 3: product Jandles, which is sort of like a portmanteau of
Speaker 3: the words Japanese and sandals.
Speaker 1: So you know the kids show Power Rangers, right of course,
Speaker 1: look at show on Power Rangers. I can explain it
Speaker 1: to you. So you know, the show was massively popular.
Speaker 1: It was filmed with this like existing footage in Japan
Speaker 1: and the new characters in California and other places. But
Speaker 1: but you know, the show was a massive success and
Speaker 1: it got imported all around the world, but not to
Speaker 1: New Zealand. The show was actually banned there for being
Speaker 1: too violent, and this was true even after production for
Speaker 1: the show shifted to New Zealand in the late nineties.
Speaker 1: More than a dozen seasons of the long running show
Speaker 1: were filmed there over the years, but kids in New
Speaker 1: Zealand didn't get to see any of it until the
Speaker 1: band was lifted in twenty eleven.
Speaker 2: Wow, thank goodness, I was lifted.
Speaker 3: Well, you've probably heard all the rumors about all the
Speaker 3: crazy laws that New Zealand supposedly has, like the one
Speaker 3: that prohibits quote, malicious bell ringing. Unfortunately, while that was
Speaker 3: really a law in New Zealand at one point, it
Speaker 3: is no longer on the books. In fact, the country
Speaker 3: has been pretty good about updating its laws and doing
Speaker 3: away with weird, outdated stuff. But there is at least
Speaker 3: one exception though. According to the New Zealand Herald, it
Speaker 3: is still against the law to say no questions asked
Speaker 3: when advertising a reward for missing property. So if your
Speaker 3: dog drives off with the car one day. You can't
Speaker 3: post a flyer asking them for their return, no questions asked.
Speaker 3: If you do, you could actually be slammed with a
Speaker 3: fine of up to two hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: Here's a nice feel good story from a few years back.
Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, forty thousand New Zealanders banded together and
Speaker 1: bought the country a brand new public beach. And when
Speaker 1: the eight hundred meter stretches In went up for sale
Speaker 1: early that year, two brothers in law, Adam Gardner and
Speaker 1: Dwayne Major, decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign to try
Speaker 1: and keep the beach from falling into private ownership. So
Speaker 1: during the campaign, individuals and corporations alike pitched in to
Speaker 1: help buy the park. The New Zealand government even got
Speaker 1: into action. They threw in two hundred and twenty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars US dollars to the effort, and in the
Speaker 1: end the donors raised about one point seven million dollars,
Speaker 1: which was enough to buy the beach from the original
Speaker 1: owner and today the beach is run as part of
Speaker 1: the Able Tasman National Park, where it's free and open
Speaker 1: to the public.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's definitely a feel good story. But I actually
Speaker 3: think I can top this story because one thing I
Speaker 3: learned this week is that New Zealand is home to
Speaker 3: the first of its kind, a nationwide secret Santa Gift exchange.
Speaker 3: So this program started on Twitter back in twenty ten,
Speaker 3: when one New Zealand user suggested that anyone interested should
Speaker 3: connect through the site and then dig through the post
Speaker 3: of their assigned person in order to sniff out clues
Speaker 3: about the kind of gift that they might like. The
Speaker 3: first couple gift exchanges proved so popular with the public
Speaker 3: that in twenty thirteen, New Zealand's postal service actually signed
Speaker 3: on as the official sponsor. So the program continued in
Speaker 3: the years since, even adding a physical warehouse to help
Speaker 3: deal with all the packages. Now thousands of kiwis take
Speaker 3: part each year, and it's all for the sake of
Speaker 3: making a stranger's holiday just a little bit brighter.
Speaker 1: Oh I really like that, and I think it is
Speaker 1: better than my beuch story. And it's also seasonal, is right,
Speaker 1: which is great. So congratulations, I think you get the trophy.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, that's going to do it for today's
Speaker 3: part time genius for myself, Mango, Gabe and Lowell. Thanks
Speaker 3: so much for listening. We'll be back soon with another episode.
Speaker 3: Part Time Genius is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 3: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Potodcast, or
Speaker 3: wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M HM.