23 Beautiful Facts About New Zealand That’ll Surprise You

In 1984, the New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon got drunk and decided to spontaneously call a general election, which he lost.

A former New Zealand politician named Joseph Hatch established a company in 1878 which killed 2 million penguins and extracted oil from them.

A New Zealand politician named Jerningham Wakefield was such a notorious drunk that his friends would lock him in Parliament overnight to keep him sober enough to vote the next day. However, this failed in 1872 when his political enemies began lowering bottles of whiskey down the chimney.

“Coffin Clubs” are groups of old people in New Zealand who are banding together to make their own funeral caskets. They say that it helps combat loneliness and is a cost-effective way of having a coffin. They also make baby coffins and donate them to local hospitals.

New Zealand's native Māori make up only 15% of the population, but over 50% of the imprisoned population.

In 2003, a New Zealand engineer named Bruce Simpson designed a $5,000 cruise missile using off the shelf parts sourced from the Internet. Despite being entirely legal, his project was shut down by the government.

The New Zealand badminton team were called the "Black Cocks" however The International Badminton Federation (IBF) found the name hard to swallow and made them change it.

The Parliament of New Zealand keeps an official list of "unparliamentary language", that is, insults/obscenities its members have used through the years that were not considered appropriate, such as "His brains could revolve inside a peanut shell for a thousand years without touching the sides."

There is a mountain named Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu in New Zealand. Its name translates to "The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the slider, climber of mountains, the land-swallower who traveled about, played his nose flute to his loved one."

New Zealand Victoria Cross recipient James Ward, won it for actions during a raid over Germany on 7 July 1941. When his aircraft was set on fire, Ward crawled out onto the wing, several thousand feet in the air, and smothered the flames out. The bomber made it back