You've never heard of New New Zealand Island - NNZI for short - and you've probably never heard of the small Australian town surrounding it. / Supplied by Jeremy Shanks
You've never heard of New New Zealand Island - NNZI for short - and you've probably never heard of the small Australian town surrounding it.
Located in the heart of Eildon in Victoria, Australia, the small island has been claimed by six "bored" Kiwi pioneers for New Zealand.
Spearheaded by Nicholas Fausch, Jeremy Shanks, Liana Clark, Lucy McRae, Tanika Brown, and Jacob Real took on the journey to establish NNZI last weekend.
"Access to the island is a bit dodgy because of these undercurrents, but we braved them and overcame adversity and were able to claim the island," Shanks said.
Now, waving proudly in the wind at the north-north-east side of the island, is the New Zealand flag.
Eildon locals have since praised the efforts of the group, however, an unconfirmed source told them the island is actually called Snake Island.
New New Zealand Island.
"Some older locals are very proud of us because they think it's an Australian flag," Shanks said.
"They're very proud until they realise it's a New Zealand flag, but they don't really mind, they're still happy for us."
NNZI has even sought comment from our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, about whether offshore visitors will need to apply for a visa to get on the island.
The small but humble island remains the sole focus of the group, who are planning future trips back to NNZI in the coming days.
"We're thinking of taking a few deck chairs over, a chilly bin, introducing maybe a few new species. That's far down the line though," Shanks said.
"We're thinking to maybe import a totara or maybe a rimu, and we'll move that onto the island to kind of signify it."
