They are actually 3 things.
The Bird (which you left out)
[QUOTE]
Kiwi (pronounced /kiːwiː/) or kiwis are flightless birds native to New Zealand, in the genus Apteryx and family Apterygidae. At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites (which also consist of ostriches, emus, rheas, and cassowaries), and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world.[3] DNA sequence comparisons have yielded the surprising conclusion that kiwi are much more closely related to the extinct Malagasy elephant birds than to the moa with which they shared New Zealand.[4] There are five recognised species, two of which are currently vulnerable, one of which is endangered, and one of which is critically endangered. All species have been negatively affected by historic deforestation but currently the remaining large areas of their forest habitat are well protected in reserves and national parks. At present, the greatest threat to their survival is predation by invasive mammalian predators[/QUOTE]
The Fruit
As the wiki about Kiwifriuit shares and what is common knowledge in New Zealand is that the Kiwifruit is originally from China and was known as Chinese Gooseberry. But to give it more market appeal and since in certain parts of New Zealand the vine really thrives, they changed the name to Kiwifruit. I can see the reasoning from this as since New Zealand is such a lovely place that everyone loves and the product that comes from New Zealand has such a high reputation in the world, it was a brilliant idea.
Last but not least the People.
I would love to thank you for sharing the Wiki leak regarding this as I learned about the history of how it originated and its first use ect. I had never looked into this before and found it very interesting indeed.
I thank god every day for being blessed to been born in the most beautiful country in the world and have a lot of pride in being able to call myself a Kiwi.
