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A still from the Rugby World Cup promo - Source: ONE News
Kiwis would rather win the Rugby World Cup than cut down crime and violence, according to a new book which aims to find "the real New Zealand".
Justin Brown says his 12th book aims to put some of the country's most popular myths through a 21st-century reality check, as well as setting out to find more about the "average" Kiwi.
Brown told TV ONE's Breakfast he decided to write the book when he turned 36 and a half and realised he was the "average age".
"I became the age of the average Kiwi and I wanted to find out all this stuff we've been told as Kiwis - is any of it true?"
He has determined the "rugby, racing and beer" description of typical working-class male Kiwis should now be "rugby, Lotto and sauvignon blancs and chardonnay".
"Lotto has kind of taken over from racing."
He says he trawled the internet and spoke to anyone he could in doing his research.
He says something he discovered that "freaked him out" was that Michael Joseph Savage was Australian and didn't move to New Zealand until he was 35.
"It's not like Scott Dixon who moved here when he was six."
He also believes he has nailed down what "she'll be right" actually means.
"She'll be right is actually a guarantee, it's like a 'I'm confident I can back this trailer over this cliff and everything will be all right."
"It's not like a haphazard, 'oh don't worry about it'."
He says he discovered the most popular thing bought in New Zealand supermarkets was 1.5 litre bottles of Coke. That was followed by a can of baked beans, and number three was a 2.25 litre bottle of Coke.
The idea of New Zealand being a "land of sheep" also comes under attack in the book.
"There are twice as many possums as sheep in New Zealand and yet we never have possum-shagging jokes, do we?"
He says sheep used to number 80 million, but now there are only about 30 million.
