December 5, 2019 • 32 mins
Everything Will and Mango read about New Zealand made them want to visit! From how Hokey Pokey became the country's favorite ice cream flavor, to why the nation is giving away free gym memberships... to birds, to the reason the coffin clubs are taking off, Will and Mango dig deep into the country's history to discover why New Zealand is *so much* better than the Old one.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart
Radio Guess What Will? What's that Mango? So you're never
gonna believe this, but I finally found a new Zealand
bird that's even more endearing than the Kiwi. I actually
feel weird saying this, but I know I need to
(00:24):
congratulate you, because I'm pretty sure this has been a
dream of yours for a while now, So so congrats,
thank you. I mean, some days I doubted it was
even possible, but this week I read about these big
green parrots that lived there, called kias, and they are
so mischievous and so clever that I just had to
give them the top spot because I know it's a
controversial pick, but I like to keep things spicy. You're
(00:48):
saying this is actually controversial, Yeah, So I'm like Kiwi's
Kaas aren't universally adored. They are kind of these one
and a half foot tall mischief makers, and they will
steal laces from boots or strip the rubber off your
windshield wipers. But the wildest prank I've heard is that
ki has actually dragged traffic cones into the middle of
the road and leave them there. And some researchers believe
(01:10):
this is an intentional act, like it's a crafty way
to get drivers to slow down enough that the parents
can beg for food. Wow. I mean that is kind
of a kneetrich. It also does down a little bit dangerous.
I wonder how many of these get hit. Yeah, I
mean it's become a real problem. But the good news
is that there's this conservation team in New Zealand that's
been testing this ingenious way to keep the kias distracted.
(01:31):
They've installed all these little parrot gyms by the roadside,
and so it kind of looks like a miniature jungle
gym with swings and spinning toys and little ladders. I
guess I kind of feel like everything you've said to
this point may not actually be true, but I'm gonna
go with it. So are are these you call them gyms?
Are these gyms actually helping? Yeah? They are so far
(01:52):
fewer birds are messing with traffic cones and the roads
are a whole lot safer. But you know, these parrot
gyms aren't the only out of the box solution that
news Lin's come up with over the past few years.
From state approved wizards to car driving dogs. The country
has plenty of eccentricities to go around, so for today's show,
I thought we could dive into some of that. A
(02:33):
their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Pearson and it's always I'm joined by my good friend
mangesh Ticketer on the other side of the soundproof glass,
just sipping his way through what he claims is a
hokey pokey milkshake. That's what That's what he says. At
least that is our friend and producer Lull. So I
don't know what a hokey pokey milkshake is. You dip
one finger in, you dip one figure out, I guess.
(02:55):
So any anytime anyone says hokey pokey, it reminds me
of that shirt we made at Metal Flass. Oh that
was I was trying to remember that. It said hokey
pokey anonymous. Is that right? Yeah? And and and the
tagline was a place to turn yourself Around, which I
kind of loved. I actually saw someone in that shirt
this year, which which amazed. Let's keep the focus on
Lull here the way he likes it. What exactly is
(03:17):
a hokey pokey milkshake. Yeah, so I've I've I've pulled
it up here. So hokey pokey is I guess what
we'd call honeycomb toffee. You know that we always call
things honeycomb toffee. But it's like this light, crunchy candy
made from brown sugar and corn syrup. And apparently everyone
in New Zealand fell in love with the flavor way
back in the nineteen forties and they have been obsessed
(03:38):
with it ever since, especially when it takes the form
of milkshake. So now I see why he just seems
so happy over there. I mean, it's a great nickname.
I also really like the cup he's drinking from. I
I wish listeners could see it. It's a white cup
with a red and blue cartoon giraffe on the side,
and in big red letters it says the longest drink
in town. I mean, if you're gonna toll how big
(04:00):
your beverages. It feels so much cooler than like a
big goal. Yeah, a long drink. Yeah. Actually I looked
this up to and the longest drink in the world
cup is actually pretty iconic. So this design debut in
the nineteen sixties and for the next several decades, it
was featured on just about every paper milkshake cup in
the country. He became synonymous with summertime in New Zealand,
(04:23):
and thanks in large part to that widespread nostalgia, the
longest drink in the world is still served up at
New Zealand ice cream parlors today. Also, just because I
kind of fell in love with the lingo this week,
I have to mention that if you're inspired to bring
ice cream or cold milk to work, just like LOL
did today, a cooler in New Zealand is called a
chili bin. I kind of like that. I like that.
(04:47):
So where do you want to start today? All right, well,
how about we start with the country's name? Like this
is something that's always confused me, because if the country
is New Zealand, that kind of implies that there is
an old Zealand out there, right, so maybe just or
just Zealand. I guess I was curious about this. I
guess I hadn't really thought about that, Like, is there
(05:07):
a Zealand in in Europe or somewhere there actually is?
The original Zealand is all the way over in the
far west of the Netherlands and just like with the
names of early American cities and states, it goes back
to the era of European exploration, and in New Zealand's case,
it goes back to a Dutch explorer named Able Tasman,
the namesake of Tasmania. So in sixteen forty two, Tasman
(05:31):
was off exploring the southern Pacific Ocean. This was on
behalf of the Dutch East India Company, and it was
on that voyage that he stumbled upon the territories that
we now know as Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. So
when Tasman got home, he told his fellow navigators what
he'd found, and pretty soon the islands were added to
the charts of their day. So as for the name,
(05:52):
Dutch map makers were already calling Australia New Holland at
the time, so they just decided to keep this convention
going and name Tasman's territory New Zealand, after a coastal
province in the southwest region of the Netherlands. So British
colonists later settled on the island about a hundred years later,
but by then the Dutch name was so established that
they just decided to keep it and just anglicize the
(06:15):
spelling of it. Do we know why the Dutch named
it Zealand in the first place, Like, was there something
about New Zealand that reminded them of this old Zealand? Yeah,
I guess it was the geography. I mean, apparently the
province in the Netherlands is made up of a bunch
of little islands and peninsulas with rivers crossing through them.
And because of that that yet it really is I've
actually never been you've been there before, the New Zealand,
(06:36):
I haven't. I haven't either, And so because of that,
the Dutch called the region Zealand, which translates as sea Land.
So it's maybe not the most creative name in the world,
but certainly a fitting one for the area. Well, since
you brought up geography and Matt Makers, I I think
it's time we addressed the fact that a lot of
modern match don't include New Zealand and the country is
just straight up missing, with nothing more than ocean where
(06:58):
it's a cluster of six d us islands should be. Actually,
I had heard about this. I mean, this is a
pretty widespread error though, right it is. Yeah, there's actually
an entire maps without New Zealand sub credit, where users
have cataloged hundreds of examples of places that use bad maps,
including video games, magazines, textbooks, hotels, restaurants, ikea, even uh
(07:18):
for for instance, you know that giant rotating globe that
sits in front of Universal Studios that is missing news.
Also the map on the risk board missing New Zealand.
There are even some international airports that have maps without
New Zealand hung in their terminals, even though they offer
flights straight to New Zealand. Wow, I mean a country that,
according to their maps doesn't exist. It gets to it
(07:41):
gets to a point where people just feel like they
should just keep going with it just to be jerks
about it. Yeah, and I'm sure it's some sort of
existential problem for New Zealanders, but it's pretty funny how
far this goes. So Like, there's a world map in
front of the United Nations office in Geneva, and apparently
New Zealand isn't on that, despite the country being a
founding member. And if all that wasn't bad enough, New
(08:02):
Zealand actually uses these maps themselves. Gave point me to this,
but it's on their four or four error page for
its official government website, and it shows a world map
that doesn't include its own country, which is intentional. Actually,
I just pulled this up and it's pretty funny. It
has this four or four map and says something is missing,
and you know, it's cute that they've got this sense
(08:22):
of humor about it. But why does this phenomenon of
cutting New Zealand off maps keep happening. I mean, they're
definitely smaller places in the world. Yeah, I mean it's
mostly because of that Mercater projection, which is the one
that most world maps are based on, and as you
might expect, it has a serious old World bias. This
map places Europe and the dead center often while poor
New Zealand is shoved way down in the bottom right
(08:45):
hand corner and there's all is. It's kind of an
awkward placement, and it's easy to crop, and if a
designer isn't careful, they might try to turn some of
the Pacific Ocean from the image and wind up blopping
off an entire country in the process. But you know,
judging by the number of places that that these apps
have turned up, it's apparently something that happens all the time.
But New Zealand just kind of taken and stride. Actually,
(09:05):
there's this Kiwi comedian re star Be, and this is
how he puts it. We are quite a fiddly looking
shaped country, a bit like a half eaten land chop.
Perhaps people are just leaving us off, thinking we're a mistake.
That's such a great line. It's funny what you said
about European bias, because I guess you could use a
projection of a Mercator map that places New Zealand at
(09:25):
the center and it wouldn't be any more inaccurate. That's true,
and in fact, many maps in New Zealand classrooms actually
do that. They place Middle Earth in the actual middle
of the Earth. I mean, it's hard to argue with
the logic on that one. But well, here's another thing
I read this week and wanted to talk about. So
this was in two thousand and sixteen, New Zealand spent
over seventeen million U S dollars on a contest to
(09:48):
redesign its national flag, and then the country voted to
just keep the flag they already had. I guess it
turned out to be not such a bad flag, so
that it's seventeen million dollars. That's crazy. I know, it
kind of makes me want to see the other designs, like,
do you know how bad they were? So well? I mean,
the contest was open to the public and over ten
(10:08):
thousand people submitted designs, many of which were actually pretty
elegant and well designed. I mean, there's some really pretty
ones on there, but yeah, there were also some really
horrible ones. One of my favorites is this blue and
red one here. It's it's got this very cruelly drawn
sheep on the blue half because New Zealand has a
lot of those, obviously, and then on the red half
(10:29):
there's an equally crudely drawn ice cream cone. So just
you know, two things they like to think about. I mean,
I bet I can guess what flavor that it is. Oh,
I know you can. It's rum raisin. No, I'm kidding,
it's it's it's a it's hokey pokey, of course. And
the artist even included little flex of the candy in
their drawing to make that as clear as possible. Can
(10:50):
you imagine if that the cand the new flag like
they cleaned up, the design would be the most beloved
flag in the world. I think, you know, it does.
I mean it feels like because they're able to sort
of laugh at their situation, they might have on with
something like that. But there was actually another one that
has a black flag with a silver fern, which is
one of the country's national symbols, which is elegant enough,
but the real highlight is it's got this Kiwi bird
(11:11):
on the other side and it's blasting this green laser
beam from its eyes. So it's probably not the most
scientifically accurate flag in the world, but you know, it's
pretty interesting. It might be the most badass though. I
can see why New Zealand kind of decided to stick
with their old flag. Why was there like such a
push to change it in the first place. Well, I
(11:33):
don't know how familiar you are with the real New
Zealand flag. Very actually a lot of carbon San Diego.
That's right. Well as a refresher for anybody who's listening.
It's basically a blue flag with a Union Jack symbol
and the top left hand corner and four red stars
on the body representing the Southern Cross constellation. So the
original design is a hundred years older. So and for
(11:55):
a long time now people have debated whether it was
appropriate to have a British symbol on the New Zealand flag,
you know, since it's a sovereign country but technically still
part of the British Commonwealth. So, I mean, the other
thing that's always struck me is odd is is like
how close the flag actually looks to Australia's flag. Yeah,
that was one of the other main contentions, that the
flag is too derivative and not really representative of New Zealand.
(12:19):
But despite all these complaints, when the issue was finally
put to a national vote, of New Zealanders voted to
keep the original flag versus forty three percent who voted
for the new firm design. And the reason for that
upset is pretty interesting. According to interviews conducted by The Guardian,
many New Zealanders voted against the new flags simply because
they'd grown disillusioned with how costly the campaign was. Dollars
(12:44):
is a lot of money, yeah, and you know they
didn't want the country to spend more money on top
of that to produce tens of thousands of new flags
to replace all the old ones. So anyway, well, now
that we've gotten the lay of the land, let's zoom
in a little bit closer and talk about the finer
details that make New Zealand such a special place. But
before we get to that, let's take a quick break.
(13:17):
You're listening to part Time Genius and we're talking about
some of New Zealand's strangest claims to fame. All right, Mago,
the wheel is yours. So where do you want to
go first? So I really like that fact about where
the new and New Zealand's name comes from. But there's
actually a hill on the North Island of New Zealand
with an even better story behind its name. It's this
thousand foot hill. It's named after Tomatea, who's a legendary
(13:37):
explorer from New Zealand's Maori culture, part of their mythical
culture there and Tomatea is said to have been one
of the first ever to step foot on New Zealand,
long long before any European columnists came along. And the
sound of the hill is where he supposedly played the
nose flute for his beloved The nose flute Is that
what I think it is? Yeah, it's exactly where sounds
(14:00):
like it's It's a flute you play by exhaling through
your nose. Wow. You know, I know how we like
to give tips to our listeners, So I feel good
about this one. Like if you ever need to charm
someone with a private nose flute concert, then Tomata Hill
is that that's the place to go. It seems like
here's the thing. It's not actually called Tomata Hill. The
Maori people wanted to really celebrate tomatas exploits and not
(14:21):
sounding short, so they named the hill using an entire
sense and roughly translated, it's an eighty five character name.
It means the summit where tomatea, the man with the
big knees, the slider clyber of mountains, the lance wallower
who traveled about played his nose flute to his loved one,
and the name means all of that, Like wouldn't you
love to be known as the man with the big knees?
(14:44):
Like that? I feel like that's great. But it's such
such a great title. I do feel like you bury
the lead here? What what is this eight five character name?
How do you say it? So I'm gonna apologize a
little because my my Maori is a little rusty, But
this is how it goes. Tama to Waka Tongua Hanga Cara,
(15:05):
Tomma t I am butchering this right. It goes thin.
It's so long, Paru, it goes you should stop. And
I'm really not trying to be disrespectful, but it is
(15:26):
amazing and it makes for a very, very long street sign.
It's actually the longest place name in the world according
to Guinness. The wildest part, though, is that there's actually
an unofficial version of the name that adds an extra
twenty characters worth of details. So, according to Atlas Obscure,
the extended version translates as the Hill of the Nose
flute playing by Tomateo, who was blown hither from afar
(15:48):
how to split penis, raised his knees climbing mountains, fell
on the earth and encircle the land to his beloved
and wore You ask that one part is a reference
to basically what's in our version of a circumcision? Oh
got it? Yeah, I was was kind of curious. Well,
for any geography nerds who find themselves in New Zealand,
another can't miss landmark on your list should be the
(16:10):
slightly more plainly named Baldwin Street. So it's located in
the city of Dunedin and Baldwin Street is one of
the steepest streets in the world. It only runs about
which is less than a fourth of a mile, but
for every three horizontal meters there is a rise of
one meter. So the result is that it takes ten
(16:30):
minutes or more to basically climb up this relatively short street.
It's pretty crazy. What I want to know is why
would anyone put a street though to begin with? It
seems like if the land is that steep, it would
be easier to just kind of plan around it, right, Yeah,
I mean that's true, and I'm sure that's exactly what
the city planner would have done had he actually looked
at the land he was planning for. Instead that the
(16:51):
city was planned by these London based designers who never
bothered to see the topography in person. They just laid
out a grid system on top of a flat map
and called it a day, I guess, and that oversight
resulted in a number of these incredibly steep streets, with
Baldwin being the most extreme of them. Wait, so are
there houses on Baldwin? There actually our houses, and the
(17:12):
cool thing is they are all built into this hill
at an angle. It's worth taking a look at it.
So if you walk down or up Baldwin Street, you'll
pass a row of these severely slanted houses. I just
put it up. This is insane. It's like you're living
in like one of those old V eight commercials. It's amazing.
It does feel like it would be a dream for Instagrammers,
(17:33):
but probably a huge pain in the neck for residents.
But you know what, we've talked about a couple of
special places that New Zealanders can boast about. But why
don't we talk about one of their exceptional citizens next? Alright,
so so who would it be? Let me let me guess.
Is it one of the Flight of the Concordes? No?
I mean that's a good guess. But but this guy's
birth name is Ian Brackenbury Channel. But today people around
(17:56):
the world know him simply as the Wizard. And he
is the Wizard, mind you, not not a wizard, because
not only does he have the driver's license to prove it,
he also has the backing of New Zealand's government back
in the country's Prime Minister and made Channel the world's
first and still only state appointed wizard. I have so
many questions about this, but I guess the first one
(18:18):
is how exactly one gets appointed the official Wizard of
New Zealand. I think it starts with a wardrobe. But
but New Zealand's Wizard has a pretty impressive resident. He
was born in London in nineteen two and later served
as a navigator in the Royal Air Force. In nineteen
sixty three, he earned a double b a in psychology
and sociology and began teaching in the Middle East in Australia.
(18:41):
And given his dual fields of study as a teacher,
Channel was especially interested in experimental teaching and social reform techniques.
But as for his wizarding career, that started to take
off in the mid seventies, and and that's when Channel
began appearing throughout New Zealand as a public speaker. He
would dress in a long black robe and a wizard's hat,
and of course he carried his staff. And then you'd
(19:03):
go to Cathedral Square in christ Church and you climb
up on a ladder and share his views on all
sorts of topics with passes by, no matter how taboo
the subject. So public officials initially tried to have a
banned from the premises, but eventually they gave up, and
the Wizard kind of became this weird cultural institution slash
tourist attraction. Alright, So to to sum this up, you
(19:24):
had a decorated British veteran turned Australian school teacher who
made his way to New Zealand, began dressing as a wizard,
lost his mind and began scaring people in the streets.
That I had that right, yeah, I mean everything except
lost his mind part. Like the Wizard was and is eccentric,
but he still has a firm grip on his mind.
His body, though, was donated to the National Gallery of Victoria,
(19:47):
which officially recognizes it as a living work of art.
Of course they did. I mean, nothing about this surprises
me at this point. But all right, so he's harassing
people on this ladder and then what well from there,
the city of christ You're kind of fell under his spell.
He got super popular. In fact, the director of the
Robert McDougal Art Gallery and christ Church actually contacted the
(20:08):
National Gallery of Victoria and they arranged to have the
living work of Art title transferred to christ Church. You're
kidding me, no, it's this is all real and the
Wizard's fame only grew from there, so in he was
appointed to be the official arch Wizard of Canterbury and
then ten years after that he was appointed Wizard of
New Zealand by Prime Minister Mike Moore. And remind me
(20:28):
again what a state appointed wizard actually does. Yeah, it's
a good question. So this is the official proclamation that
that that was declared at the time. Quote, the first
Wizard of New Zealand is entitled to where the appropriate
regalia and required to carry out the duties of national Wizard,
namely to protect the government, to bless new enterprises, cast
(20:49):
out evil spites, upset fanatics, cheer up the population, and
most importantly, design and promote a new and improved universe
which puts New Zealand on top of the world with
physically and metaphysically. So now that the truth comes out,
you forget Middle Earth. They actually want to be on
top of it. I think is the the issue here, right, Yeah,
So so I'm rooting for them and for the Wizard,
(21:12):
and I don't think I'm alone in that either. The
Wizard retired from his active duties back in two thousand five,
but he still speaks publicly on occasion and to this day,
he remains a beloved bigger in christ Church. In fact,
there's one quick story that really shows how big a
role the Wizard has played in the community there. This
is back when the christ Church City Council hosted a
whole week of activities to celebrate his twenty first year
(21:34):
as the local Wizard. So if festivities began with the
Wizard hovering above a rugby match in a helicopter, and
and he was chanting a spell the whole time, which
supposedly helped the home team win the game. But it
concluded with him hatching from a giant egg inside the
city's art gallery. So he hadged from an egg. Yeah,
this is years before Lady Gaga did. But you know,
(21:56):
to to complete the process, everyone in attendance had to
chant the correct hum while he was hatching. Alright, I
feel like this is the perfect place for an ad break.
We'll be back with more stories in just a minute.
(22:22):
Welcome back to part time genius. All right, Mango. So
New Zealanders have a reputation for being some of the
friendliest and really most cheerful people in the world. I
think most of the stories we've talked about today kind
of attest to that in one way or another. But
the people there do have a somber side just like
anybody else, and a growing number of Kiwi's have taken
up a new pastime to help fill their more reflective moments,
(22:45):
and that's actually building their own coffins. That's unusual. What
what why is that? Well, it's a trend that's been
going on for about a decade now, and it started
back in two thousand and ten when the Kiwi Coffin
Club was formed in the town of Rota Rua. I
don't know if I'm prenny oouncing that right, but according
to its mission statement, the club is meant to provide
quote an environment in which issues of death and loss
(23:07):
can be raised, addressed, understood and accepted through discussions, support
and the activity of painting and lining your own coffins.
I mean, I guess you can see how that could
be cathartic or or maybe even sobering in a way. Yeah,
And I guess it's a you know, it's filling a need.
Since the first one in two thousand ten, coffin clubs
have actually sprung up all across New Zealand, with some
(23:27):
of the bigger ones boasting more than two hundred members
and counting. In fact, most members view the actual coffin
building as a way to celebrate their lives and showcase
their personalities. So are these coffins themed? Sometimes they are? Yeah,
I mean it really depends on what the builder wants.
Some people build playing wooden coffins, others go a little
bit more elaborate. So, for instance, I saw one that
(23:48):
had a hand painted nature seen on the exterior and
another that had a collage of Elvis photos. And it
it turns out there really no rules for d I
y coffin building. Uh, I'm sure it is, or if
it's not, they can use it if they want. But
it's a pretty upbeat way to embrace death. And the
meetings are kind of this three part blend, like it's
(24:10):
a woodworking class, it's a therapy group, it's a social
mixer and as one club treasurer John Russell told The Atlantic,
we had a TV crew come to film one of
our meetings thinking it would be formal, but they were
astonished to see that we chat about everything but death
and dying. It's a really great atmosphere. And has this
expanded to other countries or is it just kind of
stayed local to New Zealand. You know, I was actually
(24:31):
wondering the same thing. And in that same story, The
Atlantic reports that Coffin clubs have since launched in Australia
and the UK, and yes, even here in the US.
The first one opened earlier this year in Cleveland, Ohio.
So heads up to our listeners. There is a waiting
list for the club right now. So if you're on
a tight schedule, you might want to think about just
starting up your own chapter. That is kind of kind
(24:53):
of amazing. I don't want to end the show on
build your own coffin themes. So so I'm gonna tell
you about the time New Zealand taught some dogs to
drive a car. Oh well, and so successfully did this. Yeah,
so this happened back into that and twelve when New
Zealand's spc A realized that not enough people who are
adopting their dogs. So the organization came up with a
(25:13):
very sane and very sensible solution. They were going to
teach a couple of their dogs how to drive a car.
And and I guess for some reason, this seemed to
make them more appealing. According to the group's Facebook page, quote.
Our dogs maybe a motley bunch, but they're all smart
and they're all lovable, so please don't write them off.
Adopt them. If we can teach one to drive, we
think you'll do just fine. So so how did they
(25:35):
do this? The plan for the stunt was to have
the dogs drive a modified Mini along a racetrack while
sitting on their haunches in the driver's seat. So they
customized the brake, pedal and a clutch. For some reason,
they didn't teach them to go automatic. They they taught
them to shift gears, but they made it long enough
for for the dogs to actually reach them. So the
dogs went through five weeks of indoor training where they
(25:56):
were encouraged to touch and move replica break pedals and
and gear sticks and and steering wheels. And then once
the dogs had mastered the driving position and how to steer,
they moved on to these little goat cars. And after
a few weeks of that, the pups were ready to
hit the road. Um So in December, one warm December
day in New Zealand, they these two dogs took to
(26:17):
the racetrack and the first dog to make history was
one named Porter. He was a ten month old Beardy
Cross and he drove this mini straight and then and
then around a turn. And then Monty followed him. He
was an eighteen month old Schnauser Cross and he completed
the same course. And and to their credit, both dogs
were wearing seatbelts. I'm curious that did this stunt work?
(26:40):
Like did the dogs find homes? Yeah? So, as you
might imagine that spc A and Auckland was swamped with
calls from people who wanted to adopt these two amazing dogs.
In the end, they actually decided to give the pups
to the trainer who had spent these two months training
them to drive the cars. But Porter and Monty stunt
was broadcast live online and and helped drive up adoption
(27:01):
rates kind of around the world. And in fact, the
campaign was so popular in New Zealand that a year
later the spc A launched a follow up where every
dog adopted was given its own card to drive home in.
But this time, like it was it was kind of
a crate. It was a real car, and and this
box opened up into sort of a cozy dog bed.
(27:22):
I feel like that's more my dog speed. But all right,
well you were right, mego that was a nice way
for for us to close out the show, although we're
not quite done yet because like a map without New Zealand,
our show isn't complete without a fiddly shaped factoph Alright, So,
(27:45):
like I mentioned earlier, I've been really digging Kiwi slang
this week, and so here's another word you can expect
me to slip into our conversation soon. Jandals. That's the
New Zealand word for flip flops and it was coined
by a Kiwi businessman who was inspired by the footwear
he saw on a trip to Japan. So soon after
he and his son started making their own version of
the rubber slip ons in their own garage in New Zealand,
(28:08):
and as a way to pay homage to the culture
that inspired it all, they named their product Jandals, which
is sort of like a portmanteau of the words Japanese
and sandals. So you know the kids show Power Rangers,
right of course, Power Rangers. I can explain it to you. O. Um. So,
(28:30):
so you know the show was massively popular. It was
It was filmed with this like existing footage in Japan
and then and then new characters in California and other places.
But but you know, the the show was a massive
success and it got imported all around the world, but
not to New Zealand. The show was actually banned there
for being too violent and and this was true even
(28:50):
after production for the show shifted to New Zealand in
the late nineties. More than a dozen seasons with the
long running show were filmed there over the years, but
kids in New Zealand didn't get to see any of
it it until the band was lifted in two Wow,
thank goodness was lifted. Well, you've probably heard all the
rumors about all the crazy laws that New Zealand supposedly has,
like the one that prohibits quote malicious bell ringing. Unfortunately,
(29:14):
while that was really a law in New Zealand at
one point, it is no longer on the books. In fact,
the country has been pretty good about updating its laws
and doing away with weird, outdated stuff. But there is
at least one exception though. According to the New Zealand Herald,
it is still against the law to say no questions
asked when advertising a reward for missing property. So if
(29:36):
your dog drives off with the car one day, you
can't post a flyer asking them for their return, no
questions asked. If you do, you could actually be slammed
with a fine of up to two hundred dollars. Here's
a nice feel good story from a few years back.
In two thousand sixty, New Zealanders banded together and bought
the country a brand new public beach. And when the
(29:57):
stretch of sand went up for sale earlier that year,
two brothers in law, Adam Gardner and Dwayne Major, decided
to launch a crowdfunding campaign to try and keep the
beach from falling into private ownership. So during the campaign,
individuals and corporations like pitched in to help buy the park.
The New Zealand government even got into action. They threw
in two thousand dollars US dollars to the effort, and
(30:19):
in the end, the donors raised about one point seven
million dollars, which was enough to buy the beach from
the original owner, and today the beaches run as part
of the able Tasman National Park, where it's free and
open to the public. Yeah, it's definitely a feel good story.
But I actually think I can top this story because
one thing I learned this week is that New Zealand
is home to the first of its kind, a nationwide
(30:41):
Secret Santa Gift exchange. So this program started on Twitter
back in two thousand and ten, when one New Zealand
users suggested that anyone interested should connect through the site
and then dig through the post of their assigned person
in order to sniff out clues about the kind of
gift that they might like. The first couple gift exchanges
proved so popular with the public that in two thousand thirteen,
(31:04):
New Zealand's postal service actually signed on as the official sponsor.
So the program continued in the years since, even adding
a physical warehouse to help deal with all the packages.
Now thousands of kiwis take part each year, and it's
all for the sake of making a stranger's holiday just
a little bit brighter. Oh I really like that, and
and I think it is better than My Beach Story.
(31:26):
And it's also seasonal, which is right, which is great.
So so congratulations, I think you get the trophy. All right, Well,
that's gonna do it for today's Part Time Genius for myself, Mango, Gabe,
and Lowell. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back
soon with another episode. Part Time Genius is a production
(31:55):
of i heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, apple Pie Podcast, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows m HM
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart
Radio Guess What Will? What's that Mango? So you're never
gonna believe this, but I finally found a new Zealand
bird that's even more endearing than the Kiwi. I actually
feel weird saying this, but I know I need to
(00:24):
congratulate you, because I'm pretty sure this has been a
dream of yours for a while now, So so congrats,
thank you. I mean, some days I doubted it was
even possible, but this week I read about these big
green parrots that lived there, called kias, and they are
so mischievous and so clever that I just had to
give them the top spot because I know it's a
controversial pick, but I like to keep things spicy. You're
(00:48):
saying this is actually controversial, Yeah, So I'm like Kiwi's
Kaas aren't universally adored. They are kind of these one
and a half foot tall mischief makers, and they will
steal laces from boots or strip the rubber off your
windshield wipers. But the wildest prank I've heard is that
ki has actually dragged traffic cones into the middle of
the road and leave them there. And some researchers believe
(01:10):
this is an intentional act, like it's a crafty way
to get drivers to slow down enough that the parents
can beg for food. Wow. I mean that is kind
of a kneetrich. It also does down a little bit dangerous.
I wonder how many of these get hit. Yeah, I
mean it's become a real problem. But the good news
is that there's this conservation team in New Zealand that's
been testing this ingenious way to keep the kias distracted.
(01:31):
They've installed all these little parrot gyms by the roadside,
and so it kind of looks like a miniature jungle
gym with swings and spinning toys and little ladders. I
guess I kind of feel like everything you've said to
this point may not actually be true, but I'm gonna
go with it. So are are these you call them gyms?
Are these gyms actually helping? Yeah? They are so far
(01:52):
fewer birds are messing with traffic cones and the roads
are a whole lot safer. But you know, these parrot
gyms aren't the only out of the box solution that
news Lin's come up with over the past few years.
From state approved wizards to car driving dogs. The country
has plenty of eccentricities to go around, so for today's show,
I thought we could dive into some of that. A
(02:33):
their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Pearson and it's always I'm joined by my good friend
mangesh Ticketer on the other side of the soundproof glass,
just sipping his way through what he claims is a
hokey pokey milkshake. That's what That's what he says. At
least that is our friend and producer Lull. So I
don't know what a hokey pokey milkshake is. You dip
one finger in, you dip one figure out, I guess.
(02:55):
So any anytime anyone says hokey pokey, it reminds me
of that shirt we made at Metal Flass. Oh that
was I was trying to remember that. It said hokey
pokey anonymous. Is that right? Yeah? And and and the
tagline was a place to turn yourself Around, which I
kind of loved. I actually saw someone in that shirt
this year, which which amazed. Let's keep the focus on
Lull here the way he likes it. What exactly is
(03:17):
a hokey pokey milkshake. Yeah, so I've I've I've pulled
it up here. So hokey pokey is I guess what
we'd call honeycomb toffee. You know that we always call
things honeycomb toffee. But it's like this light, crunchy candy
made from brown sugar and corn syrup. And apparently everyone
in New Zealand fell in love with the flavor way
back in the nineteen forties and they have been obsessed
(03:38):
with it ever since, especially when it takes the form
of milkshake. So now I see why he just seems
so happy over there. I mean, it's a great nickname.
I also really like the cup he's drinking from. I
I wish listeners could see it. It's a white cup
with a red and blue cartoon giraffe on the side,
and in big red letters it says the longest drink
in town. I mean, if you're gonna toll how big
(04:00):
your beverages. It feels so much cooler than like a
big goal. Yeah, a long drink. Yeah. Actually I looked
this up to and the longest drink in the world
cup is actually pretty iconic. So this design debut in
the nineteen sixties and for the next several decades, it
was featured on just about every paper milkshake cup in
the country. He became synonymous with summertime in New Zealand,
(04:23):
and thanks in large part to that widespread nostalgia, the
longest drink in the world is still served up at
New Zealand ice cream parlors today. Also, just because I
kind of fell in love with the lingo this week,
I have to mention that if you're inspired to bring
ice cream or cold milk to work, just like LOL
did today, a cooler in New Zealand is called a
chili bin. I kind of like that. I like that.
(04:47):
So where do you want to start today? All right, well,
how about we start with the country's name? Like this
is something that's always confused me, because if the country
is New Zealand, that kind of implies that there is
an old Zealand out there, right, so maybe just or
just Zealand. I guess I was curious about this. I
guess I hadn't really thought about that, Like, is there
(05:07):
a Zealand in in Europe or somewhere there actually is?
The original Zealand is all the way over in the
far west of the Netherlands and just like with the
names of early American cities and states, it goes back
to the era of European exploration, and in New Zealand's case,
it goes back to a Dutch explorer named Able Tasman,
the namesake of Tasmania. So in sixteen forty two, Tasman
(05:31):
was off exploring the southern Pacific Ocean. This was on
behalf of the Dutch East India Company, and it was
on that voyage that he stumbled upon the territories that
we now know as Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. So
when Tasman got home, he told his fellow navigators what
he'd found, and pretty soon the islands were added to
the charts of their day. So as for the name,
(05:52):
Dutch map makers were already calling Australia New Holland at
the time, so they just decided to keep this convention
going and name Tasman's territory New Zealand, after a coastal
province in the southwest region of the Netherlands. So British
colonists later settled on the island about a hundred years later,
but by then the Dutch name was so established that
they just decided to keep it and just anglicize the
(06:15):
spelling of it. Do we know why the Dutch named
it Zealand in the first place, Like, was there something
about New Zealand that reminded them of this old Zealand? Yeah,
I guess it was the geography. I mean, apparently the
province in the Netherlands is made up of a bunch
of little islands and peninsulas with rivers crossing through them.
And because of that that yet it really is I've
actually never been you've been there before, the New Zealand,
(06:36):
I haven't. I haven't either, And so because of that,
the Dutch called the region Zealand, which translates as sea Land.
So it's maybe not the most creative name in the world,
but certainly a fitting one for the area. Well, since
you brought up geography and Matt Makers, I I think
it's time we addressed the fact that a lot of
modern match don't include New Zealand and the country is
just straight up missing, with nothing more than ocean where
(06:58):
it's a cluster of six d us islands should be. Actually,
I had heard about this. I mean, this is a
pretty widespread error though, right it is. Yeah, there's actually
an entire maps without New Zealand sub credit, where users
have cataloged hundreds of examples of places that use bad maps,
including video games, magazines, textbooks, hotels, restaurants, ikea, even uh
(07:18):
for for instance, you know that giant rotating globe that
sits in front of Universal Studios that is missing news.
Also the map on the risk board missing New Zealand.
There are even some international airports that have maps without
New Zealand hung in their terminals, even though they offer
flights straight to New Zealand. Wow, I mean a country that,
according to their maps doesn't exist. It gets to it
(07:41):
gets to a point where people just feel like they
should just keep going with it just to be jerks
about it. Yeah, and I'm sure it's some sort of
existential problem for New Zealanders, but it's pretty funny how
far this goes. So Like, there's a world map in
front of the United Nations office in Geneva, and apparently
New Zealand isn't on that, despite the country being a
founding member. And if all that wasn't bad enough, New
(08:02):
Zealand actually uses these maps themselves. Gave point me to this,
but it's on their four or four error page for
its official government website, and it shows a world map
that doesn't include its own country, which is intentional. Actually,
I just pulled this up and it's pretty funny. It
has this four or four map and says something is missing,
and you know, it's cute that they've got this sense
(08:22):
of humor about it. But why does this phenomenon of
cutting New Zealand off maps keep happening. I mean, they're
definitely smaller places in the world. Yeah, I mean it's
mostly because of that Mercater projection, which is the one
that most world maps are based on, and as you
might expect, it has a serious old World bias. This
map places Europe and the dead center often while poor
New Zealand is shoved way down in the bottom right
(08:45):
hand corner and there's all is. It's kind of an
awkward placement, and it's easy to crop, and if a
designer isn't careful, they might try to turn some of
the Pacific Ocean from the image and wind up blopping
off an entire country in the process. But you know,
judging by the number of places that that these apps
have turned up, it's apparently something that happens all the time.
But New Zealand just kind of taken and stride. Actually,
(09:05):
there's this Kiwi comedian re star Be, and this is
how he puts it. We are quite a fiddly looking
shaped country, a bit like a half eaten land chop.
Perhaps people are just leaving us off, thinking we're a mistake.
That's such a great line. It's funny what you said
about European bias, because I guess you could use a
projection of a Mercator map that places New Zealand at
(09:25):
the center and it wouldn't be any more inaccurate. That's true,
and in fact, many maps in New Zealand classrooms actually
do that. They place Middle Earth in the actual middle
of the Earth. I mean, it's hard to argue with
the logic on that one. But well, here's another thing
I read this week and wanted to talk about. So
this was in two thousand and sixteen, New Zealand spent
over seventeen million U S dollars on a contest to
(09:48):
redesign its national flag, and then the country voted to
just keep the flag they already had. I guess it
turned out to be not such a bad flag, so
that it's seventeen million dollars. That's crazy. I know, it
kind of makes me want to see the other designs, like,
do you know how bad they were? So well? I mean,
the contest was open to the public and over ten
(10:08):
thousand people submitted designs, many of which were actually pretty
elegant and well designed. I mean, there's some really pretty
ones on there, but yeah, there were also some really
horrible ones. One of my favorites is this blue and
red one here. It's it's got this very cruelly drawn
sheep on the blue half because New Zealand has a
lot of those, obviously, and then on the red half
(10:29):
there's an equally crudely drawn ice cream cone. So just
you know, two things they like to think about. I mean,
I bet I can guess what flavor that it is. Oh,
I know you can. It's rum raisin. No, I'm kidding,
it's it's it's a it's hokey pokey, of course. And
the artist even included little flex of the candy in
their drawing to make that as clear as possible. Can
(10:50):
you imagine if that the cand the new flag like
they cleaned up, the design would be the most beloved
flag in the world. I think, you know, it does.
I mean it feels like because they're able to sort
of laugh at their situation, they might have on with
something like that. But there was actually another one that
has a black flag with a silver fern, which is
one of the country's national symbols, which is elegant enough,
but the real highlight is it's got this Kiwi bird
(11:11):
on the other side and it's blasting this green laser
beam from its eyes. So it's probably not the most
scientifically accurate flag in the world, but you know, it's
pretty interesting. It might be the most badass though. I
can see why New Zealand kind of decided to stick
with their old flag. Why was there like such a
push to change it in the first place. Well, I
(11:33):
don't know how familiar you are with the real New
Zealand flag. Very actually a lot of carbon San Diego.
That's right. Well as a refresher for anybody who's listening.
It's basically a blue flag with a Union Jack symbol
and the top left hand corner and four red stars
on the body representing the Southern Cross constellation. So the
original design is a hundred years older. So and for
(11:55):
a long time now people have debated whether it was
appropriate to have a British symbol on the New Zealand flag,
you know, since it's a sovereign country but technically still
part of the British Commonwealth. So, I mean, the other
thing that's always struck me is odd is is like
how close the flag actually looks to Australia's flag. Yeah,
that was one of the other main contentions, that the
flag is too derivative and not really representative of New Zealand.
(12:19):
But despite all these complaints, when the issue was finally
put to a national vote, of New Zealanders voted to
keep the original flag versus forty three percent who voted
for the new firm design. And the reason for that
upset is pretty interesting. According to interviews conducted by The Guardian,
many New Zealanders voted against the new flags simply because
they'd grown disillusioned with how costly the campaign was. Dollars
(12:44):
is a lot of money, yeah, and you know they
didn't want the country to spend more money on top
of that to produce tens of thousands of new flags
to replace all the old ones. So anyway, well, now
that we've gotten the lay of the land, let's zoom
in a little bit closer and talk about the finer
details that make New Zealand such a special place. But
before we get to that, let's take a quick break.
(13:17):
You're listening to part Time Genius and we're talking about
some of New Zealand's strangest claims to fame. All right, Mago,
the wheel is yours. So where do you want to
go first? So I really like that fact about where
the new and New Zealand's name comes from. But there's
actually a hill on the North Island of New Zealand
with an even better story behind its name. It's this
thousand foot hill. It's named after Tomatea, who's a legendary
(13:37):
explorer from New Zealand's Maori culture, part of their mythical
culture there and Tomatea is said to have been one
of the first ever to step foot on New Zealand,
long long before any European columnists came along. And the
sound of the hill is where he supposedly played the
nose flute for his beloved The nose flute Is that
what I think it is? Yeah, it's exactly where sounds
(14:00):
like it's It's a flute you play by exhaling through
your nose. Wow. You know, I know how we like
to give tips to our listeners, So I feel good
about this one. Like if you ever need to charm
someone with a private nose flute concert, then Tomata Hill
is that that's the place to go. It seems like
here's the thing. It's not actually called Tomata Hill. The
Maori people wanted to really celebrate tomatas exploits and not
(14:21):
sounding short, so they named the hill using an entire
sense and roughly translated, it's an eighty five character name.
It means the summit where tomatea, the man with the
big knees, the slider clyber of mountains, the lance wallower
who traveled about played his nose flute to his loved one,
and the name means all of that, Like wouldn't you
love to be known as the man with the big knees?
(14:44):
Like that? I feel like that's great. But it's such
such a great title. I do feel like you bury
the lead here? What what is this eight five character name?
How do you say it? So I'm gonna apologize a
little because my my Maori is a little rusty, But
this is how it goes. Tama to Waka Tongua Hanga Cara,
(15:05):
Tomma t I am butchering this right. It goes thin.
It's so long, Paru, it goes you should stop. And
I'm really not trying to be disrespectful, but it is
(15:26):
amazing and it makes for a very, very long street sign.
It's actually the longest place name in the world according
to Guinness. The wildest part, though, is that there's actually
an unofficial version of the name that adds an extra
twenty characters worth of details. So, according to Atlas Obscure,
the extended version translates as the Hill of the Nose
flute playing by Tomateo, who was blown hither from afar
(15:48):
how to split penis, raised his knees climbing mountains, fell
on the earth and encircle the land to his beloved
and wore You ask that one part is a reference
to basically what's in our version of a circumcision? Oh
got it? Yeah, I was was kind of curious. Well,
for any geography nerds who find themselves in New Zealand,
another can't miss landmark on your list should be the
(16:10):
slightly more plainly named Baldwin Street. So it's located in
the city of Dunedin and Baldwin Street is one of
the steepest streets in the world. It only runs about
which is less than a fourth of a mile, but
for every three horizontal meters there is a rise of
one meter. So the result is that it takes ten
(16:30):
minutes or more to basically climb up this relatively short street.
It's pretty crazy. What I want to know is why
would anyone put a street though to begin with? It
seems like if the land is that steep, it would
be easier to just kind of plan around it, right, Yeah,
I mean that's true, and I'm sure that's exactly what
the city planner would have done had he actually looked
at the land he was planning for. Instead that the
(16:51):
city was planned by these London based designers who never
bothered to see the topography in person. They just laid
out a grid system on top of a flat map
and called it a day, I guess, and that oversight
resulted in a number of these incredibly steep streets, with
Baldwin being the most extreme of them. Wait, so are
there houses on Baldwin? There actually our houses, and the
(17:12):
cool thing is they are all built into this hill
at an angle. It's worth taking a look at it.
So if you walk down or up Baldwin Street, you'll
pass a row of these severely slanted houses. I just
put it up. This is insane. It's like you're living
in like one of those old V eight commercials. It's amazing.
It does feel like it would be a dream for Instagrammers,
(17:33):
but probably a huge pain in the neck for residents.
But you know what, we've talked about a couple of
special places that New Zealanders can boast about. But why
don't we talk about one of their exceptional citizens next? Alright,
so so who would it be? Let me let me guess.
Is it one of the Flight of the Concordes? No?
I mean that's a good guess. But but this guy's
birth name is Ian Brackenbury Channel. But today people around
(17:56):
the world know him simply as the Wizard. And he
is the Wizard, mind you, not not a wizard, because
not only does he have the driver's license to prove it,
he also has the backing of New Zealand's government back
in the country's Prime Minister and made Channel the world's
first and still only state appointed wizard. I have so
many questions about this, but I guess the first one
(18:18):
is how exactly one gets appointed the official Wizard of
New Zealand. I think it starts with a wardrobe. But
but New Zealand's Wizard has a pretty impressive resident. He
was born in London in nineteen two and later served
as a navigator in the Royal Air Force. In nineteen
sixty three, he earned a double b a in psychology
and sociology and began teaching in the Middle East in Australia.
(18:41):
And given his dual fields of study as a teacher,
Channel was especially interested in experimental teaching and social reform techniques.
But as for his wizarding career, that started to take
off in the mid seventies, and and that's when Channel
began appearing throughout New Zealand as a public speaker. He
would dress in a long black robe and a wizard's hat,
and of course he carried his staff. And then you'd
(19:03):
go to Cathedral Square in christ Church and you climb
up on a ladder and share his views on all
sorts of topics with passes by, no matter how taboo
the subject. So public officials initially tried to have a
banned from the premises, but eventually they gave up, and
the Wizard kind of became this weird cultural institution slash
tourist attraction. Alright, So to to sum this up, you
(19:24):
had a decorated British veteran turned Australian school teacher who
made his way to New Zealand, began dressing as a wizard,
lost his mind and began scaring people in the streets.
That I had that right, yeah, I mean everything except
lost his mind part. Like the Wizard was and is eccentric,
but he still has a firm grip on his mind.
His body, though, was donated to the National Gallery of Victoria,
(19:47):
which officially recognizes it as a living work of art.
Of course they did. I mean, nothing about this surprises
me at this point. But all right, so he's harassing
people on this ladder and then what well from there,
the city of christ You're kind of fell under his spell.
He got super popular. In fact, the director of the
Robert McDougal Art Gallery and christ Church actually contacted the
(20:08):
National Gallery of Victoria and they arranged to have the
living work of Art title transferred to christ Church. You're
kidding me, no, it's this is all real and the
Wizard's fame only grew from there, so in he was
appointed to be the official arch Wizard of Canterbury and
then ten years after that he was appointed Wizard of
New Zealand by Prime Minister Mike Moore. And remind me
(20:28):
again what a state appointed wizard actually does. Yeah, it's
a good question. So this is the official proclamation that
that that was declared at the time. Quote, the first
Wizard of New Zealand is entitled to where the appropriate
regalia and required to carry out the duties of national Wizard,
namely to protect the government, to bless new enterprises, cast
(20:49):
out evil spites, upset fanatics, cheer up the population, and
most importantly, design and promote a new and improved universe
which puts New Zealand on top of the world with
physically and metaphysically. So now that the truth comes out,
you forget Middle Earth. They actually want to be on
top of it. I think is the the issue here, right, Yeah,
So so I'm rooting for them and for the Wizard,
(21:12):
and I don't think I'm alone in that either. The
Wizard retired from his active duties back in two thousand five,
but he still speaks publicly on occasion and to this day,
he remains a beloved bigger in christ Church. In fact,
there's one quick story that really shows how big a
role the Wizard has played in the community there. This
is back when the christ Church City Council hosted a
whole week of activities to celebrate his twenty first year
(21:34):
as the local Wizard. So if festivities began with the
Wizard hovering above a rugby match in a helicopter, and
and he was chanting a spell the whole time, which
supposedly helped the home team win the game. But it
concluded with him hatching from a giant egg inside the
city's art gallery. So he hadged from an egg. Yeah,
this is years before Lady Gaga did. But you know,
(21:56):
to to complete the process, everyone in attendance had to
chant the correct hum while he was hatching. Alright, I
feel like this is the perfect place for an ad break.
We'll be back with more stories in just a minute.
(22:22):
Welcome back to part time genius. All right, Mango. So
New Zealanders have a reputation for being some of the
friendliest and really most cheerful people in the world. I
think most of the stories we've talked about today kind
of attest to that in one way or another. But
the people there do have a somber side just like
anybody else, and a growing number of Kiwi's have taken
up a new pastime to help fill their more reflective moments,
(22:45):
and that's actually building their own coffins. That's unusual. What
what why is that? Well, it's a trend that's been
going on for about a decade now, and it started
back in two thousand and ten when the Kiwi Coffin
Club was formed in the town of Rota Rua. I
don't know if I'm prenny oouncing that right, but according
to its mission statement, the club is meant to provide
quote an environment in which issues of death and loss
(23:07):
can be raised, addressed, understood and accepted through discussions, support
and the activity of painting and lining your own coffins.
I mean, I guess you can see how that could
be cathartic or or maybe even sobering in a way. Yeah,
And I guess it's a you know, it's filling a need.
Since the first one in two thousand ten, coffin clubs
have actually sprung up all across New Zealand, with some
(23:27):
of the bigger ones boasting more than two hundred members
and counting. In fact, most members view the actual coffin
building as a way to celebrate their lives and showcase
their personalities. So are these coffins themed? Sometimes they are? Yeah,
I mean it really depends on what the builder wants.
Some people build playing wooden coffins, others go a little
bit more elaborate. So, for instance, I saw one that
(23:48):
had a hand painted nature seen on the exterior and
another that had a collage of Elvis photos. And it
it turns out there really no rules for d I
y coffin building. Uh, I'm sure it is, or if
it's not, they can use it if they want. But
it's a pretty upbeat way to embrace death. And the
meetings are kind of this three part blend, like it's
(24:10):
a woodworking class, it's a therapy group, it's a social
mixer and as one club treasurer John Russell told The Atlantic,
we had a TV crew come to film one of
our meetings thinking it would be formal, but they were
astonished to see that we chat about everything but death
and dying. It's a really great atmosphere. And has this
expanded to other countries or is it just kind of
stayed local to New Zealand. You know, I was actually
(24:31):
wondering the same thing. And in that same story, The
Atlantic reports that Coffin clubs have since launched in Australia
and the UK, and yes, even here in the US.
The first one opened earlier this year in Cleveland, Ohio.
So heads up to our listeners. There is a waiting
list for the club right now. So if you're on
a tight schedule, you might want to think about just
starting up your own chapter. That is kind of kind
(24:53):
of amazing. I don't want to end the show on
build your own coffin themes. So so I'm gonna tell
you about the time New Zealand taught some dogs to
drive a car. Oh well, and so successfully did this. Yeah,
so this happened back into that and twelve when New
Zealand's spc A realized that not enough people who are
adopting their dogs. So the organization came up with a
(25:13):
very sane and very sensible solution. They were going to
teach a couple of their dogs how to drive a car.
And and I guess for some reason, this seemed to
make them more appealing. According to the group's Facebook page, quote.
Our dogs maybe a motley bunch, but they're all smart
and they're all lovable, so please don't write them off.
Adopt them. If we can teach one to drive, we
think you'll do just fine. So so how did they
(25:35):
do this? The plan for the stunt was to have
the dogs drive a modified Mini along a racetrack while
sitting on their haunches in the driver's seat. So they
customized the brake, pedal and a clutch. For some reason,
they didn't teach them to go automatic. They they taught
them to shift gears, but they made it long enough
for for the dogs to actually reach them. So the
dogs went through five weeks of indoor training where they
(25:56):
were encouraged to touch and move replica break pedals and
and gear sticks and and steering wheels. And then once
the dogs had mastered the driving position and how to steer,
they moved on to these little goat cars. And after
a few weeks of that, the pups were ready to
hit the road. Um So in December, one warm December
day in New Zealand, they these two dogs took to
(26:17):
the racetrack and the first dog to make history was
one named Porter. He was a ten month old Beardy
Cross and he drove this mini straight and then and
then around a turn. And then Monty followed him. He
was an eighteen month old Schnauser Cross and he completed
the same course. And and to their credit, both dogs
were wearing seatbelts. I'm curious that did this stunt work?
(26:40):
Like did the dogs find homes? Yeah? So, as you
might imagine that spc A and Auckland was swamped with
calls from people who wanted to adopt these two amazing dogs.
In the end, they actually decided to give the pups
to the trainer who had spent these two months training
them to drive the cars. But Porter and Monty stunt
was broadcast live online and and helped drive up adoption
(27:01):
rates kind of around the world. And in fact, the
campaign was so popular in New Zealand that a year
later the spc A launched a follow up where every
dog adopted was given its own card to drive home in.
But this time, like it was it was kind of
a crate. It was a real car, and and this
box opened up into sort of a cozy dog bed.
(27:22):
I feel like that's more my dog speed. But all right,
well you were right, mego that was a nice way
for for us to close out the show, although we're
not quite done yet because like a map without New Zealand,
our show isn't complete without a fiddly shaped factoph Alright, So,
(27:45):
like I mentioned earlier, I've been really digging Kiwi slang
this week, and so here's another word you can expect
me to slip into our conversation soon. Jandals. That's the
New Zealand word for flip flops and it was coined
by a Kiwi businessman who was inspired by the footwear
he saw on a trip to Japan. So soon after
he and his son started making their own version of
the rubber slip ons in their own garage in New Zealand,
(28:08):
and as a way to pay homage to the culture
that inspired it all, they named their product Jandals, which
is sort of like a portmanteau of the words Japanese
and sandals. So you know the kids show Power Rangers,
right of course, Power Rangers. I can explain it to you. O. Um. So,
(28:30):
so you know the show was massively popular. It was
It was filmed with this like existing footage in Japan
and then and then new characters in California and other places.
But but you know, the the show was a massive
success and it got imported all around the world, but
not to New Zealand. The show was actually banned there
for being too violent and and this was true even
(28:50):
after production for the show shifted to New Zealand in
the late nineties. More than a dozen seasons with the
long running show were filmed there over the years, but
kids in New Zealand didn't get to see any of
it it until the band was lifted in two Wow,
thank goodness was lifted. Well, you've probably heard all the
rumors about all the crazy laws that New Zealand supposedly has,
like the one that prohibits quote malicious bell ringing. Unfortunately,
(29:14):
while that was really a law in New Zealand at
one point, it is no longer on the books. In fact,
the country has been pretty good about updating its laws
and doing away with weird, outdated stuff. But there is
at least one exception though. According to the New Zealand Herald,
it is still against the law to say no questions
asked when advertising a reward for missing property. So if
(29:36):
your dog drives off with the car one day, you
can't post a flyer asking them for their return, no
questions asked. If you do, you could actually be slammed
with a fine of up to two hundred dollars. Here's
a nice feel good story from a few years back.
In two thousand sixty, New Zealanders banded together and bought
the country a brand new public beach. And when the
(29:57):
stretch of sand went up for sale earlier that year,
two brothers in law, Adam Gardner and Dwayne Major, decided
to launch a crowdfunding campaign to try and keep the
beach from falling into private ownership. So during the campaign,
individuals and corporations like pitched in to help buy the park.
The New Zealand government even got into action. They threw
in two thousand dollars US dollars to the effort, and
(30:19):
in the end, the donors raised about one point seven
million dollars, which was enough to buy the beach from
the original owner, and today the beaches run as part
of the able Tasman National Park, where it's free and
open to the public. Yeah, it's definitely a feel good story.
But I actually think I can top this story because
one thing I learned this week is that New Zealand
is home to the first of its kind, a nationwide
(30:41):
Secret Santa Gift exchange. So this program started on Twitter
back in two thousand and ten, when one New Zealand
users suggested that anyone interested should connect through the site
and then dig through the post of their assigned person
in order to sniff out clues about the kind of
gift that they might like. The first couple gift exchanges
proved so popular with the public that in two thousand thirteen,
(31:04):
New Zealand's postal service actually signed on as the official sponsor.
So the program continued in the years since, even adding
a physical warehouse to help deal with all the packages.
Now thousands of kiwis take part each year, and it's
all for the sake of making a stranger's holiday just
a little bit brighter. Oh I really like that, and
and I think it is better than My Beach Story.
(31:26):
And it's also seasonal, which is right, which is great.
So so congratulations, I think you get the trophy. All right, Well,
that's gonna do it for today's Part Time Genius for myself, Mango, Gabe,
and Lowell. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back
soon with another episode. Part Time Genius is a production
(31:55):
of i heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, apple Pie Podcast, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows m HM
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.