Edge of the World (Cup) Musing

The Rugby World Cup saw columnists muse on NZ’s evolving relationship with its (big) brotherly neighbour. SMH: “For those who’ve not noticed, New Zealand – a small nation off the east coast of Tasmania – has matured significantly in recent years […] A significant proportion of an increasingly sophisticated and prosperous New Zealand population now enjoys a rich cosmopolitan lifestyle that rarely involves turning up at the local sheep dog trials with a bunch of flowers and a bottle of wine.” The Times: “Actually, New Zealand is nowhere near Australia; it’s nowhere near anywhere. It is an independent ocean state. New Zealanders pride themselves on that. And they don’t do what big nations tell them these days. They will tell anybody to get stuffed if they threaten to bring nukes within sniffing distance of the Pacific. The Australians aren’t altogether happy with that: neither with the policy nor with the independence. And, oddly enough, New Zealanders don’t see themselves as an unglamorous, down-market, provincial version of Australia, any more than they see themselves as a nation that takes a lead from the Big Brother  across the water.”