FAQs or Facts About New Zealand...
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When you say Kiwi are you talking about the fruit?
Well that depends, most people refer to the fruit as a kiwifruit although some use the shorter term.
The kiwi, New Zealand's national symbol or emblem, is a flightless nocturnal bird with hair-like lpumage and a long, slender bill with sensitive nostrils at the tip, which it uses to smell, locate and pull worms and insects out of the ground. Found only in New Zealand and more plentiful in some areas than others, its night activity is thought to come from aversion to predators in the wilderness areas of the country. You must visit one of the many kiwi houses, like the excellent one at Rainbow Springs outside Rotorua near the Agrodome, where Kiwis can be observed safely under special night lighting.
The kiwifruit name was given by New Zealand's marketing folks to the Chinese Goosebery when New Zealand stared exporting it in great quantity in the 1980s. Even with the fruit now being grown in several other countries it has retained the kiwifruit name.
New Zealanders often refer to themselves as Kiwis and the New Zealand Dollar is also referred to on the stock exchange as the kiwi.
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