5 Twitter accounts to follow if you want to find out more about New Zealand

New Zealand is a complicated place - much more than Lord of the Rings filming locations or haka dancing warriors. If you’re going there you should really take some time to dig into the culture and history. Here are a few Twitter accounts to get you started on your education…

@nzbyroad

It’s a fact almost universally acknowledged that the best way to see New Zealand is with your own set of wheels. So this Twitter account provides countless stories and photos of adventures you can have travelling around the Long White Cloud. 

@RNZTeAoMaori

RNZ is New Zealand’s public broadcaster, and Te Ao Maori focuses on Maori news. They highlight a side of New Zealand that doesn’t always get seen by tourists, and bits of history which sometimes get skipped over, like the recent Moriori settlement. 

@LukeTipoki

If you’re looking for a less polite, more honest assessment of Maori news and politics, check out rural māori. Describing himself as an ‘uppity native’, he talks about racism worldwide, but especially in Aotearoa. 

@NZHistory

This feed focuses on New Zealand history, using the well known format of ‘Today in History’. It’s filled with historical photographs, beautiful old maps and important milestones for the country. You’ll learn a lot about a whole bunch of different topics. 

@NewZealandWars

Again, for a more complicated look at New Zealand history, see the Difficult Histories: The New Zealand Wars account. It’s part of an academic project to reconsider a crucial part of Kiwi history and is packed full of archaeological and historical photos as well as essays about the complexity of remembering and forgetting.