Indeed, I believe "National Park" in the centre of the North Island was the world's second national park. And Goat Island Marine Reserve was the world's first no-take-zone. The story I've heard of the latter is that we (as a society, globally) didn't even know the scope of the recovery that was possible before Goat Island. And the mere existence of DOC is promising.

And yes, I have relatively (to the previous government) high conservation hopes for the new government. Fingers crossed. (I should give some credit for the Kermadec Islands marine reserve here!)

Just to clarify though, my comment was about public sentiment. My anecdotal experience is that Brits are more concerned about conservation than New Zealanders. Which I was quite surprised to discover. And largely I wanted to commiserate with the parent of my comment.

Like anything your perception is skewed by the circle that you live in. Everyone that I know is very interested in conservation. My family votes national and are farmers and put a lot of effort into managing their stock and planting around their waterways. My friends are all urban and vote green or labor, they also put in a lot of effort into the environment.

Everyone I know recycles, uses eco and environmentally friendly products where they can, etc. People who I know who fish always fish within the allowed limits and quotas. My grandmother told me over Christmas that she was never going to use another plastic bag.

So, in my opinion, the country is very eco minded, but that sample is skewed because it's only my friends and family. I did meet someone at a party a few years ago who said she just threw her rubbish over the fence onto a council reserve because she was too busy and lived a too important life to bother with dealing with it. There are also people who regularly get caught taking too much paua, or catching underage fish, etc. So obviously they're out there, how prevalent people with disregard to the environment are I don't know, as I said I live in my own bubble.

It could be that people in the UK are more environmentally minded than here, but that wasn't my experience when living there. It could be that they're not but the people that you've met in both countries have simply given that impression.

Someone has probably done a study somewhere.

Indeed, we're missing some data. Certainly I'm pretty appreciative of the Tidy Kiwi campaign, and how NZ seems to have embraced that. On a personal scale I think NZ is great about conservation and cleanliness, perhaps better than anywhere I've been. But it feels like conservation is somewhat missing from the national dialogue. And, thinking a little more about it, time might be an important factor here. I've been living outside NZ for a little over four years, and during that time clean rivers has become a central political issue. So perhaps I'm plain wrong now!

Apparently fourth in the world: http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/cen...

(First was Yellowstone and second was Royal National Park in Sydney, don't know about the third).

The Bogd Khan Uul National Park in Mongolia was established in 1778, nearly 100 years before Yellowstone (1872). The fourth and fifth oldest are Banff National Park (1885) and Yoho National Park (1886) in Canada, making Tongariro (1887) the 6th oldest in the world.

> conceited effort

I think you probably meant concerted effort. e.g. That there has been a combined community effort where everyone works together.

Conceited effort means an extremely self-interested effort, which is a plausible meaning, but I suspect it is not what you meant.

Yeah, bloody auto correct. Thanks.