Conspiracy to keep New Zealand off world maps: Rhys Darby, Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Ardern and Rhys Derby teamed up to get to the bottom of a rather large conspiracy. Photo / Rhys Darby / Facebook

Kiwi comedian Rhys Darby has teamed up with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to get to the bottom of why New Zealand is disappearing on world maps.

In a video posted to Facebook, Darby said there was a "big conspiracy going down", and he needed Ardern's help to return Aotearoa to the world's map books.

"New Zealand, where the bloody hell are ya?"

"New Zealand is being left off world maps, around the world. This is a major conspiracy," he tells Ardern in the video.

The comedian conducted an extensive investigation into the conspiracy, finding that New Zealand has been left off many maps, including the game of Risk, Vancouver International Village, Central Park Zoo, Spanish in-flight magazines and Starbucks, among others.

Darby says the conspiracy against New Zealand is "bigger than the moon landing and Loch Ness combined".

Where has New Zealand disappeared to? Photo / Rhys Darby / Facebook

Questioning who is behind the plot to remove New Zealand from the map, Darby told Ardern he believes New Zealand has been taken off the map because "Australia want our tourists, England want to get rid of the All Blacks, and the wine industry can't beat our pinot or sav".

The video, named Get New Zealand on the Map, was posted to social media around 10am on Wednesday, has received more than 10,000 views already.

Fans took to Darby's video, with many agreeing that New Zealand gets left off maps all the time.

"This is something I have noticed since I married my Kiwi husband, it's true!!!" one person wrote.

Another added: "It started with the Chatham Islands (they're missing from most NZ maps) and now it's NZ - maybe the conspirators don't like NZ being first in the world to see the sun?"

Jacinda Ardern and Rhys Derby teamed up to get to the bottom of a rather large conspiracy. Photo / Rhys Darby / Facebook

While Darby and Ardern have poked fun at New Zealand's mysterious disappearance on world maps, many New Zealanders are sick of our absence on maps.

The sub-Reddit "Maps without NZ" has more than 40,000 readers and includes submissions of the many maps of the world that fail to include Aotearoa.

#mapswithoutnz in Lisbon. :'( pic.twitter.com/IRz9MMzCB3

— Steve Dennis (@subcide) May 30, 2017

#mapswithoutNZ #NZousted pic.twitter.com/piMGeinGBo

— Tafao campbell (@ZQN1986) June 5, 2017

Meanwhile, at the Nuclear Security Summit, New Zealand has ceased to exist. #ProphecyOrPrediction ? pic.twitter.com/aVpWkS3fDH

— Rt. Hon Las Vegas Plague Badger (@SontaranPR) March 25, 2014

The BBC went out to the streets in London to show some of those maps to people and test whether they could figure out which country was missing.

The good news is that a lot of people spotted the empty space where New Zealand should be.

"I think I would complain as well," one of the people said.

Others, however, understood the lapse. "Oh, but it's so tiny, nobody notices it," someone said.

New Zealand is not alone in being forgotten, in 2004, Wales found itself glossed over on the front cover of a EU statistics book.