How Sam Neill embodied the difference between Aussies and Kiwis (bro)

July 15, 2026 — 7:30pm

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Not particularly meaning to eavesdrop at the restaurant of a luxury lodge on idyllic Waiheke Island, only 45 minutes by ferry from Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, I can’t help but overhear the conversation beside me.

“The Australians aren’t like us,” a New Zealand houseguest informs a holidaying French couple planning to travel to Australia. “They’re more like the Americans.”

It’s not the first time I’ve heard such a comment from a Kiwi in their own country, a place that after countless visits as an (Australian-born) travel writer and editor I’ve come to love and admire. I’ve also been led to conclude that the close relationship between our two nations is considerably more complex than it would appear or has been portrayed.

Once, after a sheep station tour (yes, really) outside the city of Napier on the South Island, the owner of the property fully within my earshot told a group of Americans that “the Australians aren’t like us”, though I noted he prudently omitted the aforementioned “they’re more like the Americans” assertion.

On both occasions, I was more intrigued than offended; I’d argue that the nature of Australians falls somewhere between the Americans and the Canadians rather than being “like the Americans”, with the Kiwis being more like the Canadians than even the........

© The Age