What have you heard about New Zealanders/Kiwis?

I'd like to know what people have heard about people from New Zealand.
Have you ever heard a stereotype about New Zealand or the people?
Can you tell me what sort of rumours there are about New Zealander's overseas, please?

Lol I may not be the best person to answer this because I am a Kiwi.

People generally see us as being laid back, not too self centered, generous, humble, interesting.

When telling people I'm from New Zealand I've had questions like..

Have you seen a koala?
Do you have kangaroos?
What's the difference between New Zealand and Australian accents?
Where is New Zealand?
Isn't that like the Antarctic down there?
Are there more sheep than people in New Zealand?

Well of course there is the 'sheep shagging' rumors, but they're not true.

I'll star and some of my contacts will be able to give you better answers =]

...

rumours - the maori's wiped out the moriori
and something about sheep
facts - new zealand has a pretty good rugby team
all my kiwi friends are party animals and really good fun to be around

Friendly, funny, rowdy, hard working, active, generally delightful, fun loving people! They are culturally drinkers though. I have met quite a few and the country is incredibly beautiful to boot.

The rumours are just that RUMOURS!....Try looking at information about my country on the internet then see for yourself our beautiful scenery. (Imagine the Swiss Alps) that is what the scenery is like in the South Island of New Zealand and btw we are also very friendly and hospitable to our overseas visitors so those in here who don't know anything about my country look in your own backyards first before insulting my country!......We also have the tastiest beef and lamb in the world due to our temperate climate and green pastures so don't knock us or insult us

kiwis are amongst the most liked people i think..specially as they have the same kind of humour as poms like me..there are a couple of bad apples which turn out to not actually be born kiwis or some hot head maori kids..apart from that they are cool...i have several very good mates over there and i know some maori .......ko wai to ingoa(similar to "what do they call you") and my name is TANE O INGERANGI (male from england) from my chat name ..ka pai.....ka kite apopo/anui

all the ones i have ever hung out with are goofy. and they kinda have a chip on their shoulder. like the little guy who wants to be bigger. they all have a weird look in their eye, as maybe a hint of inbreeding?

New Zealand is AWESOME! I'm a kiwi, so I'm biast, but I love my country and I think everyone should come here for a holiday and see how beautiful it is! We do not shag sheep, we do not eat people, and we are generally really friendly people!
Check out http://www.newzealand.com you can select the country you come from and see what's up down here in Aotearoa!
Peace :)

kiwis think they are the best of everything in the world....they have the best universities, they have the best country, they are the highest, the smartest, the most beautiful, the friendiest, the coolest and the list go on......

prior to coming to new zealand from England 3 years ago. i was warned about kangaroos, snakes, and told to pat the koala. because the truth is many people know very little about new zealand. many people think is a state of Australia or similar to Fiji. no one outside of NZ knows what a Maori is or how to pronounce it. people assume they speak either new zealandish (I'm serious) or English. one person actually told me to learn Aborigine! people assume Auckland is the capital and i have an encyclopedia that says it is. many people don't know who Helen Clark is and when they see pictures of her the assume she is man. because according to many books you have 60 million sheep (there are 60 million people in Britain) people assume that you are all farmers and Auckland is the only city. i have only heard new zealand mentioned a few times on us TV. once on a bones episode where they talk about waitomo (and Prince it wrong) and the ad for the t-shirts where it shows the silver fern on Santa Monica beach and they pronounce waitangi y-tang-gee. kiwis are also known as overly friendly, too laid back and poor workers as well as under-qualified. to the rest of the world you are a 2nd world country. sorry its the truth.

edit
many people don't believe the sheep ******* rumours and think only white people live in new zealand. the only thing people know for sure is that Xmas is in summer and its cold in august basically that NZ is in the southern hemisphere (like Brazil) everyone prefers Aussies over kiwis anyway.

11deadly what are you on about your f****d in the head we are not a second world country and know other countries no about us because there so obsesed with there own country people in america dont even know other cities in ther own or other states and dont understand that new zealand isnt a state of aussie i bet you a kiwi could name more us cities than you ever could!

they eat chinese gooseberries

they fear the highway 101
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mad max is not fiction to them or futuristic. its now.

in order to become a citizen you have to drink a quart ofwhiskey, make love to a sally and pull the tooth outta an aligator

i heard that they love to **** sheep

i haven't heard rumors about kiwis except that the white people there think they're lazy...
but white people always say that about people whose lands they take lol.
i saw a special on television with some cute kiwi kids doing a tribal greeting dance at school; it looked very nice :)
other than that, i haven't heard much about them.