Jedeiah Stewart* has visited Brisbane and Darwin, but they don't hold a candle to New Zealand, especially as the butter chicken here is very good. She discusses her country for the RNZ series My NZ.
I don't know that much about New Zealand, but I like the food. I've tried different types of food and New Zealand has much better things than other places I've visited, like Darwin and Brisbane and other places I can't remember.
I mostly like the butter chicken. We go to this Indian butter chicken place where Mum and Dad take us for a treat sometimes and it's really yummy.
I like that New Zealand has more people that are like me. I mostly see Islanders and in other places I've been I mostly saw Palagis.
If Jedeiah Stewart was the boss of New Zealand there would be no criminals or bad stuff. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
There's nothing I don't like about New Zealand. Brisbane has a lot of stuff that I like but New Zealand is my home. I would like it to not be a little bit too cold and to be warmer. And I'd like to make things cheaper.
I once had a favourite thing that happened in New Zealand - it was a shop and there was toys everywhere and there were planes flying everywhere and Lego people that were alive. It was similar to Toyco. We went there for a treat because we had to do chores and earn money and we used the money to buy stuff there.
Sometimes our granddad comes and takes us fishing. I say that I want to go with them and I try to be brave because it's at the wharf at this lake and I worry that there might be some sharks that could pull me down off the rocks.
If I was the boss of New Zealand I would play, no one would boss each other around and there would be no criminals and no bad stuff. I'd invent good stuff that might come in handy, like something to take away stains.
Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
2017 in New Zealand is different from the other years, because a lot of things have been invented that weren't in the past. In the olden days there used to be weird, interesting stuff. The bikes are different now. We don't have those types where there's one big wheel and one little wheel anymore.
I think I want to stay here in New Zealand for a long time.
- As told to Veronica Schmidt
* Jedeiah Stewart, 9, lives in Auckland with her Mum, Dad, brother and sister. She was born in New Zealand but has also lived in Australia, where the food just wasn't as good. One day she'd like to visit Tonga, where her mum was born.
Join us each day this week as another New Zealander shares how they see Aotearoa in 2017 - what they prize about the country, what concerns them and what they hope the country’s future will hold.
