Because we are literally not physically a part of Australia:
In fact, New Zealand is its own continent - Zealandia. Technically, it is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust that subsided after breaking away from Gondwanaland around 80 million years ago:
It takes a minimum of three hours to fly to Australia from New Zealand and that is if you are travelling to the Eastern coast of Australia.
Also, we have to bring passports when we do travel to Australia which is what you do when you travel to another country.
While there are a number of cultural similarities there are also a number of cultural differences that set us apart from one another as well which is in itself justification for a question/answer of its own.
Both nations speak English but the accents are different and there are words and phrases unique to each.
Most of Australia is a giant desert whereas New Zealand is full of hills, mountains, bush and plenty of rain. Our wildlife differs greatly as well. New Zealand native birds, for example, are mostly to almost flightless, we don’t have anything that can kill you (unless you count a wild pig and they aren’t indigenous). We have no snakes whereas Australia has the most deadly ones on the planet, no crocodiles and the only marsupial we have is the possum and that is an Australian import.
New Zealand is often mistaken as being part of Australia - I have heard it said many times, usually by Americans. Maybe it is the similarity in accents or they have a vague idea of where Australia is and just assume New Zealand is either geographically part of or maybe a territory of Australia.
But we aren’t. We are Aotearoa/New Zealand, an independent, beautiful and proud country.
No offence to our friends across the ditch.
Thanks for Reading
Picture Source Wikipedia
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