Australia and New Zealand - what's the same and what's different?

FLAGS

Flag of Australia User DO'Neil on en.wikipedia

Flag of New Zealand

Let's start with the flags. Currently, in February 2025, both flags have a small Union Jack flag of Britain in the top left corner. Both have the four stars of the Southern Cross on the right.These stars are seen in the sky from both countries. But Australia's  flag's stars are white, with many points whilst New Zealand's have five points with white borders. Australia has an extra large white star on the lower. left. Like Texas, How do you remember which is which? Australia is bigger, more points and more stars.

LAND

Next lets look at the land masses. New Zealand has lots of islands. North Island. South Island. Little islands. The third most populated island, pretty, hilly Waiheke. The Bay of Islands. 

Australia is not considered an island but a continent. It's huge. Off the southern coast is Tasmania.

ANIMALS, BIRDS 

The wildlife, symbols and toys are different.

Australia has kangaroos and koala bears.

Australia has laughing kookaburras.

New Zealand has sheep. (also cows, goats,horses.)

New Zealand has and flightless kiwi birds, with long beaks. Also kias which attack car windscreen wipers at ski resorts.

FOOD

Pavlovas

Both countries feature pavolvas, large donut shape white hard meringues with a solid base in the middle supporting mixed fresh fruit. Both countries were visited by the by the British ballet dancer Pavlova and her troupe.

Australians use passionfruit. New Zealanders use green kiwi fruit.

Lamingtons

Both countries sell Lamingtons. Cubes of pale coloured sponge covered in a thin shell of brown chocolate covered in white shredded coconut.

Lamington in New Zealand. Photo by Angela Lansbury.  Copyright. 

ACCENT

Australians and New Zealanders speak English and can understand British English. 

Australians speak louder and you will recognize Australian if you think of Oss- try-lee -er.  The word today sound like to die. This can be unnerving when you are asked what you are intending to do to die.

New Zealanders speak quietly with their teeth closer together.

You can recognize the New Zealand accent if you think of asking a New Zealander a question and getting the answer yiss and hearing the number seven as siven..

NATIVE PEOPLE

Australia has Aboriginies. 

New Zealand has Maoris.

NATIVE LANGUAGES

Australian words you may recognize include

boomerang

Maori words you may recognize include 

kia ora. - greeting familiar to visitors because it is used as a brand name for a drink

Drink to buy with Maori greeting as brand name.

. JEWELLERY SOUVENIRS

Australia has opal jewellery.Opal is the national gemstone. From Coober Pedy.

New Zealand has paoa shell jewellery.

Useful Websites

Australia

https://www.pmc.gov.au/honours-and-symbols/australian-national-symbols/australian-floral-emblem
New Zealand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_symbols_of_New_Zealand

Fun With Flags - can you see what I see on the stars on the flags?

Problem
You want a break but you want to do something useful, learn something, not waste time?

Answer
Learn a language. Learn to recognize flags.

Today I looked back at the flags of the USA, Australia and New Zealand. I hope they don't change their flags. I've just gone to the trouble of learning to recognize which is which.

I looked back at the stars on the flags and was amazed. How many points on the stars? I started counting points.

I looked at the Australian and New Zealand flags and discovered the stars were quite different. Every time I walk into a big hotel or conference centre, or walk past a hotel in the streets of a big city like London, I see these flags, often dozens of them, and most of the flags are a mystery to me.

Put these two flats side by side and look at the stars and it's suddenly obvious. The bigger country, Australia, has more stars. You can even imagine that the bigger stars are the shape of the country, Australia, and that that smaller country, New Zealand, has fewer stars. The Australian stars have, let's count them, seven points. One smaller star has five points.

The New Zealand flag stars have five points. Later, I shall find five cities in New Zealand. Then every time I see a New Zealand flag it will remind me of the five cities. Alternatively, four cities, for the four stars.

Australian flag -

Then I went back. How many points on the leaves of the Canadian flag? Only three on each of three sections. What colour? Red. I can easily remember and recognize the Canadian flag, but how will I remember the colour? The letter d in Candian and the d in red, a red flag. I could go further and use each of the three points to remind myself of three cities on the east side of Canada, three in the middle, and three on the west. I'll come back to that. Let's just look at some more flags.

Here's the Esperanto flag, for the universal language, the simplest kind of star, only five points.

I won't often see that. But if I take the trouble, or start learning Esperanto, which has helped me make sense of the basics of grammar in English and other languages I shall at least see it on internet pages. I will see it if I go internet pages about the museum of languages in Vienna, Austria, or the museum about Zamenhof in Poland, adn at those places when I eventually get there. 

Now,  for the cities in New Zealand. I've been to New Zealand several times, mostly on skiing holidays. I need four or five names. Looking at the list of cities is a surprise, listed in Wikipedia. Only one has more than a million people.The major cities are the capital, Wellington, presumably named after the Duke of Wellington. I can imagine marching around the capital in Wellington boots. Auckland.

I go to the tourist board website, and it has too many cities, helpful links to every tourist organisation in the coutnry, great if you know where you are going but I want an overview. I try Tripadvisor. First I get hotels. Then the whole of Polynesia and best beachs and a quiz on what type of traveller I am and do I folow a butterfly or a compass. Depends if I am in a car or walking, whether I am going to a museum or on a picnic. Where do I get an overview. I need to creat my own, but first I need a reminder. 

Then I think how about Wikitravel. New Zealand is God's own country and Paradise of the Pacific. But Australians call it the shaky isalnd. Wow. Yes, I read about the earthquakes in Christchurch.

I started off counting points on stars. Now I look at the New Zealand flag and have a whole new world of facts flooding my mind.

My other wish is to learn the constellantion of stars that those stars on both flags represent. For a coffee break diversion, or killing time waiting for a plane at an airport, this has been an entertaining and instructive excercise.

Finally, stars on the American flag - fifty, one for each state. A nice round number. I always get muddled as to whether it's 50 or 52. It's 50. Wasington DC is not a state. Puerto Rico is not a state. 50 states on the mainland. Fifty stars.

The stars on the American flag have five points, like the old Egyptian wasy of drawing stars. Stars are drawn with spikes because your eyes see lines coming out of stars when you look at the stars.

Useful Travel websites:

Visitusa.com

https://www.newzealand.com/uk/visitor-information-centre/

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/111-observational-astronomy/stargazing/general-questions/674-why-do-people-draw-stars-with-five-points-intermediate

https://www.newzealand.com/uk/visitor-information-centre/

https://www.australia.com/en-gb

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.