Blast from the Past
This traditional, carbonated NZ soft drink originally came from a spring in the Waikato and claims to be "world famous in New Zealand."
(L&P) Lemon and Paeroa
This wildly popular block-building video game allows players to mine resources, fight Creepers, and build whatever they imagine.
Minecraft
This native, flightless bird is the national icon of New Zealand and shares its name with a furry green fruit.
Kiwi
This city is the capital of New Zealand, famous for its windy weather and the beehive-shaped parliament building.
Wellington
This Lower Hutt-born pop superstar topped global music charts with her hit song "Royals" and won two Grammy Awards when she was just a teenager.
Lorde
Before digital streaming and DVDs, families went to a local shop to rent movies on these chunky plastic cassettes that had to be rewound before being returned.
VHS Tapes
If a student tells you your outfit is "Skibidi" or has "Rizz", they are using vocabulary born on this massive video-sharing platform.
TikTok (or YouTube)
This traditional Māori method of cooking food uses heated stones buried in a pit under the ground.
Hāngī
This large North Island lake, famous for trout fishing and watersports, was actually formed by a massive volcanic eruption thousands of years ago.
Lake Taupō
This legendary mountaineer, whose face is featured on our five-dollar note, became the first person ever to climb to the summit of Mount Everest in 1953.
Sir Edmund Hillary
In 1967, New Zealand changed its currency from pounds, shillings, and pence to this current system.
Decimal Currency
This animated Australian TV show about a family of Blue Heeler dogs is loved equally by toddlers, Year 7s, and grandparents worldwide.
Bluey
New Zealand and Australia still fiercely debate who truly invented this fluffy, meringue-based dessert.
Pavlova
This narrow stretch of water separates the North Island from the South Island.
Cook Strait
This famous Kiwi filmmaker directed the blockbuster Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, turning New Zealand into the official home of Middle-earth.
Sir Peter Jackson
This iconic Kiwi pop star of the 1960s was famous for his hit song "Poi E" with the Patea Maori Club in the 80s.
Dalvanius Prime
This global pop superstar brought her record-breaking "Eras Tour" down under, causing massive ticket scrambles.
Taylor Swift
This plant symbol is worn proudly by our national netballers, rugby players, and cricketers alike.
Silver Fern
This is the highest mountain in New Zealand, located in the Southern Alps.
Aoraki / Mount Cook
This Nelson-born scientist is known as the "Father of Nuclear Physics" for splitting the atom, and his face is proudly displayed on our one-hundred-dollar note.
Sir Ernest Rutherford
In the 1980s and 90s, before smartphones, people wore these small electronic devices on their belts that would beep and display a phone number, signaling that you needed to find a public phone box to call someone back.
Pager
In the gaming world, "V-Bucks" are the digital currency used specifically in this popular battle royale game.
Fortnite
This brightly coloured, endemic NZ parrot is famous for being incredibly cheeky, intelligent, and occasionally chewing the rubber off car windscreens.
Kea
This town at the bottom of the South Island is the southernmost city in New Zealand (and famous for its world-class oysters).
Invercargill
This pioneering New Zealand pilot made world history in 1936 by flying solo from England to New Zealand in just over 11 days, navigating by the stars.
Jean Batten