Godzone

New Zealanders have an ambivalent attitude to God. On one hand we often call our country "Godzone" which is typical Kiwi shorthand for "God's Own Country." I think it was originally called that because it had a temperate climate, fertile soil and no snakes, poisonous insects, or dangerous mammals. It was so safe that even many of our native birds WALK rather than fly . And our National anthem is "God defend New Zealand.' (Written by a Catholic priest!) On the other hand New Zealand and Australia have been called the most secular countries that have ever existed. All other cultures have had a god or gods, even if it was the sun or an idol, and some are secular now but have had a lingering history of religion of some kind. But we have no background of that sort, although many of the earlier settlers were missionaries. I would say most Kiwis are totally uninterested in religion, not anti, just not interested. Which makes our nickname and National Anthem even more surprising.