New Zealand 23

Listen to New Zealand 23, a 39-year-old man from Hastings, New Zealand. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 39

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/11/1985

PLACE OF BIRTH: Palmerston North, New Zealand

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: New Zealand European/Pākehā

OCCUPATION: kayak guide

EDUCATION: various training

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The speaker lived in Minnesota, United States, for a year as an adult. Other than that, he has lived in New Zealand his entire life. Born in Palmerston North, he then lived from ages 4 to 17 in Hastings, which is in the Hawke’s Bay region of New Zealand. He then moved to Timaru, on the South Island, and lived there from ages 19-20. Since then, he has lived primarily in Te Anau, a small town near Milford Sound.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: David Nevell

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 06/08/2025

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Uh, so I was born in Palmerston North, which is kind of in the lower middle part of the North Island, and that’s, uh, in New Zealand, it’s probably considered a normal-sized town — probably, I don’t know, must be 50,000 people thereabouts. And then when I was four, we moved over to the east coast, which is a couple hours out to the east, slightly north, and that’s where I basically grew up from age four until adulthood. And that is in a town called Hastings. Hawks Bay is like a large area with lots of smaller towns in it, so the two main towns are Napier and Hastings, which, you know, Hastings is a bit smaller, must be 40,000, and Napier is down the road a bit, 50, 60,000.

So I live out in Te Anau. I have spent time living in here. This is a tiny little place. It’s super cool when you’re 20, 23. Uh, it’s super fun, really international, lots of people, communal living, super cool, but it’s not really a real town. I live out in Te Anau, which is, uh, a small town. It’s probably like 3,000 people, thereabouts. And it’s just the perfect-sized town for me. I love it. It’s really cool. Like it’s right where I feel, the national park, you got the lake, you got the national park, uh, and it’s a good-sized town. It’s like small enough to be a small town, but it’s big enough to be big enough to have community; you can have kids, send them to school. You know, there’s clubs and the various, you know — there’s enough social scene for it to be, not just a depressing little farming town.

TRANSCRIBED BY: David Nevell

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 09/08/2025

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

The archive provides:

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