Something about Kiwis

In the ESL chatroom, where I spend a fair amount of time, I use the nickname *Kiwi John*, and this frequently causes some odd or even facetious remarks about the nature of Kiwis. Many ask if I'm a fruit, and few (but a significant few) guess that I'm in New Zealand. So here are a few interpretations of *Kiwi*, together with the right answer.

There are actually 5 definitions of Kiwi, and although one of them is very obscure it won't stop me from mentioning it...

To cut to the chase, The first use of *Kiwi* is to name the flightless bird unique to New Zealand. Also called Apteryx, the Kiwi covers several species of various sizes, from bantam hen size up to good-sized chicken. In the wild the Kiwi lives in forest and bushland, and hunts at night for grubs and insects under the surface. That's why it has such a long beak, which is unique in having nostrils at the tip - no other bird has this. Kiwis are endangered, and facing extinction.

The second use of *Kiwi* is as a nickname for a New Zealander, probably because the Kiwi emblem was used to distinguish NZ troops in the past. This is the real reason why I use the nickname *Kiwi John*, even though I'm not actually a native New Zealander.

Then we have the fruit. The confusion here comes because the rest of the world calls a *Kiwi* what we properly call a *Kiwi-fruit*! Long ago New Zealand began commercial cultivation of the Chinese Gooseberry, and the name was coined partly because of the similarity to a kiwi (brown and fuzzy), and also because it now came from New Zealand.

Fourth definition is a famous brand of shoe polish, seen around the world.

And finally the obscure one - an American nuclear reactor/rocket motor project, about which we shall say nothing, being nuclear-free and all that.

After all that, let me explain the photo: taken on a rare opportunity at the Auckland Museum, it shows Kiwi John the person with a Kiwi bird. (The bird is the brown one, and it's stuffed)