Popular trivia guru Shaun Wallace loves New Zealand, although Wellington doesn't seem to have left a strong impression on him. Photo / Supplied
Popular trivia guru Shaun Wallace loves New Zealand, although Wellington doesn't seem to have left a strong impression on him. Photo / Supplied
Kiwis are used to our homeland being left off world maps, but now one of the world's most famous trivia gurus has also mixed up our geography.
When asked which New Zealand city was in the South Island - Hamilton, Wellington or Nelson - The Chase's Shaun Wallace chose Wellington.
In a recent episode of the popular TV show broadcast in New Zealand, Wallace was left stumped over the geographic location of the capital.
At the time of the broadcast, questions were asked in our fine nation on how Wallace could get the answer wrong given he has visited here twice; including late last year when he spent time in Wellington.
A self-professed fan of New Zealand and the All Blacks, it turns out the show where Wallace provided his quiz clanger was actually filmed four years ago.
"Tomorrow's one of the most important games on the rugby calendar - the semi-final between England and New Zealand, and you can obviously see who I'm supporting," he said in a clip posted to social media last year.
Popular trivia guru Shaun Wallace loves New Zealand, although Wellington doesn't seem to have left a strong impression on him. Photo / Supplied
His "warm" affinity for New Zealand started with a chance encounter in Britain with a friend of Brendan Lochead, who organised last year's pub quiz championships in Auckland.
That friend put Lochead and Wallace in touch with each other and led to The Chase trivia king visiting our shores.
The popularity of the Chase around the globe has been huge. In New Zealand, over 400,000 viewers on average watch the show each evening.
Lochead says it's clear "a lot of care and attention goes" into the production of the programme.
"There's two aspects to that show. One is you've got the best minds in Britain going up against everyday people and you're trying to beat them. And there is something about that, you know every man has his day.
"But you look at the calibre of the questions they ask, they're very cleverly written, very creative, and not just another boring quiz question."
Rather than being upset at Wallace's historic wrong answer, maybe we should be thankful.
The Chase star Shaun Wallace, aka The Dark Destroyer, loves New Zealand but does he know where Wellington is? Photo / Dean Purcell
At least New Zealand was rated worthy enough of a trivia question on The Chase, given how our country has a long history of simply being left off world maps altogether.
The issue is so widespread and frequent that it has its own dedicated subreddit, MapsWithoutNZ.
Recent offenders that have come to light include a Peppa Pig map without New Zealand:
The spate of cartographic omissions even led comedian Rhys Darby to team up with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in 2018 for a campaign to #getNZonthemap.
* An earlier version of this year stated that Wallace had got the question wrong after visiting New Zealand.
