Been There – New Zealand

After a small delay, Starbucks Been There – New Zealand is joining other city mugs from Aotearoa, which is the Māori name for New Zealand. The common translation is “long white cloud” and refers to the legend where Polynesians who discovered these islands first, thought they were approaching land because of the cloud hovering over it.
The design of the mug mostly features flora and fauna of the country. Due to remoteness and separation from the other world, this region developed a distinct flora with 75% of it being unique. The fauna, on the other hand, is interesting in the sense that the country was mostly free of mammals before the arrival of humans at some time before 1300 AD. Among animals brought here from outside, the rats, ferrets, cats, stoats, and dogs, in particular, have all seriously impacted the New Zealand fauna, driving many species to extinction.
Among the flightless birds of New Zealand, the most interesting is the kiwi, the country’s national symbol and the only known bird with nostrils at the tip of the bill instead of at the base. Another interesting characteristic of these birds is their eggs, one of the largest in proportion to body size (up to 20% of the female’s weight). The association between Kiwi and the country is so strong, that the term Kiwi is widely used as the nickname for New Zealanders.