#52 Lists - List 4

I'm veering away from Pip's topic today, and creating my own topic.  Today is Waitangi Day, a public holiday.  It has been called New Zealand day in the past and then got changed back to Waitangi Day.  I  consider myself reasonably patriotic, but to be honest, this particular holiday tends to pass me by as "just a day off".

But today, seeing it's List time, and Waitangi Day I decided to write the things I love about New Zealand.

*It's green - in that there are lush, lush places to visit, beautiful beaches, snow capped mountains, rivers, forests; you're never far from nature
*You're also never far from a beach
*We don't really have traffic, except in Auckland
*The rugby team is pretty good.  And they dress in black
*You can be sporty... or not
*We have some pretty cool musicians/bands - too many to list but I must mention the next on the list as it began my love of "newzildmuzic"
*The Dunedin Sound
*It never takes long to travel anywhere
*Kumara (the vegetable, not the place, although the races at the place are legendary)
*L&P (preferrably with bourbon as a mixer)
*The Kaikoura Coast
*Our sense of humour
*Our can-do attitude 
*Zambesi & Karen Walker
*Whittakers Chocolate
*Wellywood
*Cargill's Castle
*Central Pinot Noir (and if you like your whites, Marlborough Sav)
*We laugh at ourselves... and our cricketers.  Actually it might be more of a cringe at the cricketers.
*Speights
*The Pier at Governor's Bay
*Nor'westers
and, of course, because I live there, earthquakes and all, 
*CHRISTCHURCH

I'm not saying my place is better than your place - just what I love about it.  I lived in Dublin and loved it there - the view of Killiney beach as you come out of the tunnel from Dalkey on the DART rivals the Kaikoura Coast - on a much smaller scale.  Spain has beautiful food, Paris has the Eiffel Tower. Ireland has Bulmers, and a WICKED sense of humour so there are lots of things I love about lots of places... but today, it's about being ...

A kiwi :  A small flightless bird surviving against extinction...and about 4.4 million people.