A lot of people around around the globe think that Kiwis and Australians are pretty much one in the same, I have even had people ask me "where exactly in Australia is New Zealand located?". Some people don't realise that there are many differences between Kiwis and Aussies, but what are they?
Accents - whilst some people believe that the Kiwi and Aussie accent are the same, there are many subtle differences. The main difference to note is how we pronounce vowels, Australians put emphasis on the "ee" sound whilst Kiwis love the "u" sound, for example Aussies tend to say "Feesh and Cheeps" whilst Kiwis will say "Fush and Chups", Aussies will say "Seedney" (for the city Sydney) whilst Kiwis will say "Sudney".
Sport - Kiwis are mad on rugby and when their team is playing, the "All Blacks", you can bet that most of the country is watching, they do the famous Maori challenge called the "Haka" at the start of each game.
Whilst Aussies also love rugby, they are far more obsessed with cricket and their own brand of football which is known as "Aussie Rules" where the players wear some seriously tight ball gripping shorts and players attempt to kick goals instead of scoring tries.
Music - We both roughly like the same kind of music and we will forever argue whether the band Crowded House is an Aussie or a Kiwi band!
One difference in our music is that we both have different unofficial national anthems, these are classic pop songs that everyone knows the words to and you will be certain to hear them in your standard run of the mill Aussie and Kiwi pubs. The Aussie unofficial national anthem is "Land Downunder" By Men at Work, the Kiwi unofficial national anthem is "Slice of Heaven" by Dave Dobbyn which is from the classic 80s cartoon movie Footrot Flats.
Land Down Under - Australia's unofficial anthem
Slice of Heaven - NZ's unofficial anthem
Food - Both Kiwis and Aussies have a very strong BBQ culture. Nothing beats standing around the barbie while we sink a few beers from out of our coolers which the Aussies call an "Esky" and the kiwis call a "Chilly Bin" (pronounced chully bun).
If you want to start and argument between a Kiwi and an Aussie, just ask us them about the meringue-based dessert called the pavlova. There is a historical argument over this dessert and it's origin with both New Zealander's and Australians feeling quite claiming this dessert as their own creation.
We both have weird black yeast flavoured spreads for our toast and sandwiches that the rest of the world thinks is disgusting. Aussies will favour Vegemite in general whilst kiwis favour Marmite but they are very similar products.
The Flag - Our flags are always confused with each other by foreigners. If you look closely you will notice that the NZ flag has red stars and the Australian flag has white ones. Like most differences between our countries the difference is subtle.
Insults and Banter - It is pretty simple really, if you are and Aussie you are going to be at the end of jokes about you being a convict and if you are a Kiwi then you more than likely have heard a joke or two about being a "sheep shagger"
Check out how to insult as Aussie here https://www.keeplaughingforever.com/aussie-jokes
You can check out how to insult a Kiwi here https://www.keeplaughingforever.com/kiwi-jokes
Another bit of banter that Kiwis and Aussies will bring up is the underarm bowling incident whereby in 1981 NZ was playing Australia in a cricket match, the Kiwis needed a six (the equivalent of a home run in cricket) to tie the match. The Aussie captain Greg Chappell made his brother Trevor bowl the ball underarm along the ground preventing any chance of the Kiwi batsman Brian McKechnie hitting a six. Whilst this wasn't against the rules, it hadn't been done before and was very much against the spirit of the game.
Aussies still get given grief about this unsportsmanlike incident but it is generally all in good fun.
Conclusion - Aussies and Kiwis are very similar and there are many differences, most of which are subtle.
We will always be ANZAC brothers with Australia being the big brother and Kiwis being the little brother. There will always be a strong but friendly rivalry between the two countries but at the end of the day we will always sit down together and have a friendly beer together.
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