Editorial: Kiwis prefer aroma with a view

Summer must have come early - and no, I'm not referring to the longer evenings with daylight saving.

I'm talking about a press release issued yesterday revealing the results of an online survey asking 1000 Kiwis what ideal smell best represents Aotearoa.

Why does that mean summer's come early?

Because these are the types of stories you'll often read and hear about in the national media in the hot months when a lot of the country's newsmakers are at the bach (or Hawaiian holiday home).

These stories do have their uses, of course. How else would you find out that the majority of the 75 per cent of the New Zealanders who use air-freshening products in their home prefer vanilla scent.

And the key results are somewhat interesting: More than half of respondents chose the smell of sea air from the bach as the scent which most captures the essence of New Zealand.

Who are these people who get to spend so much time at the bach?

In second place was the smell of sheep and dairy farming, which beat out fish & chips and hangi.

No sign of linament in the results, though 4 per cent judged the smell of a wet rugby paddock as our iconic scent.

Rotorua's signature scent makes an appearance in the survey too, coming last in a poll of New Zealand's worst smells.

What rot - our sulphur smell, on the occasions we can enjoy a whiff, is the true smell of home.

At least it came last, well behind rubbish dumps, freezing works and fish markets. (What? No silage?)

The purpose of these surveys is usually to promote one product or another - in this case Ambi-Pur - and to fill the odd space on the national news pages, but you have to admit they can often offer the odd interesting perspective on the New Zealand psyche.

The choice of sea air as the essence of New Zealand, and the result of another part of the survey that shows the smell of mum's cooking was the one thing that reminded people most of home, reveals us as a nation with a rather romantic view of ourselves. And that's a nice idea that's not to be sniffed at.