africanspur
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I don't think it is really that controversial a claim is it? I mean, there's no land link to any country, it needs at least 4 hours by plane (I believe) to hit the next country of any note (you're covering the overwhelming majority of Europe with that flight span) and the UK for instance gets about the same international visitors per month usually as NZ does in a year (France gets significantly more even than the UK). With Europe especially, you have lots of people who live in one country and commute daily to work in another. In some cases, different people living in 1 country may be cross-border commuting across multiple bordering countries on a daily basis. The continent is connected and compact enough that a weekend away or even day trip in another country is eminently doable for many inhabitants of the continent.I always find this a weird claim.
"One of the most isolated countries in the world".
Sure we are an Island nation and a 10 hour flight from the USA and of course longer for Europe. We are however highly connected with the world during normal times.
It is kind of similar to Australia really. When I was working there, I barely gave much of a thought to travelling abroad to be honest, other than NZ/various pacific islands. The length of almost any flight means I'd need a significant amount of leave to consider a trip abroad. Though Aussies seem to bloody love Bali.
I can see why you'd get frustrated by the phrase as I guess it kind of implies that NZ is this backwater which doesn't interact which is obviously not the case. And perhaps you feel it also detracts from the incredible work Ardern and NZ in general have done during this crisis.
The fundamental point of course is that NZ used this advantage to get a grip on it (so far, I hope it persists) and should be lauded for doing so. It would have been very easy to squander it.
Edit: Just to give another example: coming back from Brisbane for the last time (where I was working), my connecting flight was in Singapore, an 8 hour flight (and the shorter leg). With an 8 hour flight from London (or Paris etc), you are hitting 4 different continents.
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