
Why Is New Zealand So Often Left Off World Maps? - prando
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/new-zealand-left-off-world-map
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darren_
As a new zealander this is my favourite map projection anyway
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peirce_quincuncial_projection#...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peirce_quincuncial_projection#/media/File:Peirce_quincuncial_projection_SW_20W.JPG)

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FooHentai
Huh, sure puts a lot of distance between the mainland and west island...

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peatmoss
I don’t get it; the mainland is clearly just above Te Ika a Maui in that map.

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amvalo
I think west island means australia

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FooHentai
He's out in-joke-ing me. West Island is a derogatory reference to Australia,
implying it's just a minor territory of NZ (north and south island being
'mainland').

But, 'mainland' is often used by South Island NZers to suggest that the north
island (by far the most populous) is nothing more than a secondary 'non-main'
island.

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cyberferret
I guess this is a domain specific issue? Right here in Australia, I know that
Tasmanians are regularly upset at being left off even localised maps of
Australia. I am sure other countries have small islands or principalities who
get left off due to time/scale/space constraints.

I also recall that when growing up in Malaysia, our school books always had
maps of the world with Malaysia itself being at the center of the page, and
usually scaled up to be proportionally far bigger that it really is in
comparison to its neighbouring countries?

Maybe that is is though - perhaps the Lamberts conformal orthogonic projection
will make the very southern latitude New Zealand look almost as big as
Australia and other powerful countries? Can't have that for a "mostly
harmless" country - one of the few countries in the world with NO Navy or Air
Force... ;) (For the record, I have visited, and LOVE NZ).

EDIT: Apologies to NZ HNers about the 'no navy or air force' comment - it
appears I was misinformed by the former NZAF pilot I met at a bar in Auckland
on one of my trips there. :)

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electricslpnsld
> one of the few countries in the world with NO Navy or Air Force

New Zealand has a navy [1]! Back when I lived in Wellington they ran
recruiting commercials non-stop.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_New_Zealand_Navy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_New_Zealand_Navy)

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peatmoss
At the movie theater before films. And those commercials—even as an avowed
peacenik—always made us chuckle as both my wife and I remembered the over-the-
top US military recruitment ads. By comparison the NZ navy’s ads felt
downright quaint.

We lived in Devonport for some time, and so were pretty accustomed to seeing
at least one or two naval ships whenever we took the ferry into downtown
Auckland, which was all the time because jobs, friends, and stuff to do were
all in town.

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Sniffnoy
> Most world maps use the Mercator projection. This 16th-century projection
> leaves New Zealand in the bottom right-hand corner of the world, and places
> Europe in the center.

That's not intrinsic to a Mercator projection...

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knz
I'm a kiwi who has lived in North America for over a decade. It's astounding
to me how many people I've met have no idea where New Zealand is or believe it
is near Scandinavia or Iceland - I'm not sure that issue is due to NZ missing
from a map occasionally though! Likewise with the number of people who believe
New Zealand is really part of Australia.

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tcheard
I'm a kiwi, who lived in the US from the age of 8 to 13 (1998 - 2003).

I remember getting into a massive argument with an Elementary school teacher
who tried to tell me I was wrong when I told her that my country was not in
fact part of the country of Australia (not just continent, but she was adamant
it was part of the Australian country).

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batiudrami
Bad news mate, much like we claim anyone famous from NZ, we also claim the
entire land mass:

Australian constitution, premable [corrected]:

"The States shall mean such of the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand,
Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia,
including the northern territory of South Australia [...] and each of such
parts of the Commonwealth shall be called a State."

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femto
Apparently those words mean NZ is "pre-approved" to join the Commonwealth of
Australia and she can unilaterally join at a time of her choosing [1]. If
true, it would make for an interesting scenario if acted upon.

[1]
[http://www.diskiller.net/nzstatehood/](http://www.diskiller.net/nzstatehood/)

\---

The words are actually in section 6 (definitions) of the preamble, not section
6 in the main body of the constitution.

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batiudrami
Hah, yeah I wasn't really suggesting it. Just one of those quirks. I am no
lawyer but I suspect we couldn't write up some paperwork to claim a country
without them agreeing to it anyway.

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Zanni
I just Googled "us map" and, of the first 32 results, Hawaii and Alaska are
missing from 6 of them.

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slapshot
Google "map of France." I see only one in the first 32 that includes French
Guiana ("fully" French, use Euro, etc).

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jcranmer
Well, French Guiana isn't part of Metropolitan France, is it?

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iamaelephant
Please stop calling our country Middle Earth.

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cc439
It's amazing how one, admittedly enormous, place in pop-culture history can
define an entire country in the mind's of a majority of the first world's
population. I imagine you feel the same way as people from Alabama and/or the
Louisiana coast feel about Forrest Gump references.

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robocat
There is a funny blog dedicated to this topic:

[http://worldmapswithout.nz](http://worldmapswithout.nz)

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flog
And the subreddit
[https://www.reddit.com/r/mapswithoutnewzealand/](https://www.reddit.com/r/mapswithoutnewzealand/)

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corysama
[https://www.reddit.com/r/mapswithoutnewzealand/](https://www.reddit.com/r/mapswithoutnewzealand/)

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nicostouch
lol it's cos we don't want anyone to know where it is. Why tell everyone about
such a nice place? :)

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elyobo
Successful advertising campaign? Wasn't expecting it to turn up here!

[https://mashable.com/2018/05/01/get-new-zealand-on-the-
map/](https://mashable.com/2018/05/01/get-new-zealand-on-the-map/)

