Images from the article "Hold up, are New Zealand and Iceland actually the same place?" (o35).

        The author of this blog post, a traveler of over 50 countries, also notes that both countries have serious binge drinking habits as part of their history. In her opinion, both countries have some of the friendliest people in the world, and tourism is a major economic market for both countries. In terms of media, both countries are extremely free. "Broadcasters enjoy one of the world's most liberal media arenas," according to New Zealand's BBC profile (o36). The constitution of Iceland guarantees press freedom. In Iceland's Reporters Without Borders profile, it says that "in June 2010, [Iceland's] parliament unanimously adopted the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), which aims to create a favorable environment for the protection of sources, transparency, media freedom, and independence." (o37). Both countries are pretty liberal in terms of media freedoms.

        In a similar way as much of Iceland's population lives in urban areas (94% - much of which is concentrated at the capital), 86.4% of New Zealand's total population lives in urban area. But in other categories, the countries aren't as similar. Iceland's government is a parliamentary republic, while New Zealand's is a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy. Iceland has a civil law system, while New Zealand has a common law system. In terms of ethnic groups, Iceland is predominantly a homogeneous mixture of descendants of Norse and Celts, whereas New Zealand is 71.2%  European, 14.1% Maori, 11.3% Asian, 7.6% Pacific peoples, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African (indexmundi, o38). This is a much more diverse background. So overall, while these countries do have quite a bit in common, they have their differences as well.

        I chose to compare Iceland and New Zealand because they have so much in common. Geographically, they are on opposite sides of the world: Iceland is in Northern Europe and New Zealand is in Oceania. Both are remote islands, however, with similar landscapes. They share some of the same features: jagged peaks, enormous glaciers, volcanic steam, waterfalls - a big one is geothermal energy. They also both experience earthquakes. Iceland's population of about 350,000 does not even come close to New Zealand's of about 4.5 million (as of 2017). Yet New Zealand is only about double of what Iceland is in terms of physical size.

        One of the reasons I decided to compare Iceland and New Zealand was because of an article that I found titled, "Hold up, are New Zealand and Iceland actually the same place?" (o35). They seem like they're quite similar on the surface: they both attract a lot of tourists, they're both quite expensive to live in/travel to (by virtue of being islands and relying on exports). You can see the Northern Lights from Iceland and the Southern Lights from New Zealand.

Images from the article "Hold up, are New Zealand and Iceland actually the same place?" (o35).

Diver at Lighthouse Reef Atoll © 2016, Belize Tourism Board. This photo is from Belize's national marketing company, Belize Tourism Board. The media bank in their travel trade section has lots of photos of exotic animals and beautiful areal views of the waters. (i30).

These are the logos for each country's major tourism organization. They were taken from the media banks under the travel trade section that each nation's tourism site provides to anyone (but especially people trying to market the country).