new zealand

Mittens, the cat, is an icon in New Zealand. Mittens, originally from the suburbs of Auckland but really became a social media star when he, his brother Latte, and their owner, Silvio Bruinsma, moved to the capital city. According to Mittens' Wikipedia page, since moving to the capital city, Mittens' been featured on the 2018 edition of the Wellington Advent Calendar, was given the Key to the City of Wellington and was the subject of an exhibition at the Wellington Museum. 

Quite the accomplishments! Mittens' is so famous, he can proudly join the ranks of New Zealand's other treasures -- Sir Peter Jackson and Sir Richard Taylor. 

Mittens also has a private Facebook group called, "The Wondrous Adventures of Mittens," with over 50k followers all who track Mittens' daily activities around the town. Mittens walks freely around town and the entire town worships him, posing for pictures and calling him "Your Highness."

And now, in 2020, Mittens is in the running to be the New Zealander of the Year! 

We've got our fingers crossed for you, Mittens! 

Story via The Guardian

The kākāpō is a critically endangered flightless bird, of which there are only 147 alive today, but will they be in the mood for sax?

Andrew Taylor (59) a very talented craftsman from New Zealand, decided to use the dead branches at his back yard to create a "stick library" for his dog Bella and the other dogs who frequent the park where they go. Taylor set the box filled with rounded sticks at the park entrance and politely asked the dog owners to make sure the sticks will be returned to the box like the books in a real library. Andrew's daughter Tayla Reece was the one who proudly posted her father's project online. And we're glad she did – it's an adorable idea and one we hope other people will copy in their own local area.

Penguins aren't exactly formidable creatures, are they? Although Emperor penguins can reach up to 4 feet 2 inches, they always seem super friendly and cute. Now imagine a penguin the same height as you. That changes things. Penguins the size of humans... the idea sounds like it comes from science fiction. But it actually just comes from science. It was recently discovered that giant penguins used to exist. We are not kidding. 

In 2018, the Kiwi bird, native to New Zealand, officially moved from the endangered list to "vulnerable." They are incredibly elusive and difficult to capture on film but we gathered a few short gifs, just for you! 

Fun fact about the Kiwi bird, they lay really, really big eggs. We're talking huge, in comparison to the adult Kiwi. And their eggs can weigh up to 1 quarter of an adult kiwi bird's mass! Pretty wild!

Honestly, Mo is a complete mood and then some. This awesome aquarium in New Zealand has been sharing the good and naughty penguins of the month, and the naughty crimes are just way too funny not to share! You can follow along on Facebook or Instagram! Who's your favorite penguin so far?

Billy is a little blue penguin who lives in New Zealand. The tiny 2-month-old flightless penguin was spotting wandering around a beach in Christchurch, just searching for his mother. Thankfully there were some kind humans who were looking out for Billy while she was away. Via: Animal Channel

Or a "Catio" if you will. These awesome people took on a massive project to help improve their cats quality of life by giving them a safe outdoor environment. They posted their project, along with all the steps taken on Imgur. When asked why didn't they just let their cats out, they responded, "We made a personal decision when we got them that we didn't want to expose them to dangers like traffic, other cats and diseases. We also wanted to make sure that we weren't introducing predators into our area that would hunt the native birds. NZ has amazing bird life that our kitties would probably gleefully murder given half the chance." 

Take a Look at the beautiful art works of Paul Walsh from New Zealand 

We've all been there, right? Do you, seal.