Nek Minnet

When New Year’s Day came around a week and a half ago, the newspapers here did what most dailies do on January 1st. They ran those “Year in Review” pages with lots and lots of pictures. Overall, 2011 was a year of misery for New Zealand. Almost 200 people died in the earthquakes, dozens of buildings were condemned, thousands of houses were condemned, and the quakes didn’t–and don’t–look to be letting up. The photographs reflected that, and with the dust and destruction you could say that, psychologically, 2011 in New Zealand was like 2001 in the US. The New Zealand Herald chose to take a different tack, and their front-page spread said something like, “Pictures of only the positive things, in hope of a better 2012.” The Rugby World Cup win was featured prominently.

In that same paper, tucked into a corner on page four or something, was a list of the Youtube videos most watched by Kiwis in 2011. Number 1 was Rebecca Black’s “Friday” with something like 78 million views in New Zealand. That’s pretty impressive when you remember that 4 1/2 million people live here.

The rest I recognized–except number 2. It was called “Nek Minnet”, and was :09 seconds long. It had nearly 60 million views. Just before New Year’s Even some New Zealand teenagers had told me, “You HAVE to watch it, it’s like, all of New Zealand in 9 seconds. ” When I asked what Nek Minnet meant, they explained, “Next minute,” as in, “I was walking down the street, next minute my friend came up.”

That’s certainly Kiwi English, but regardless, the expression “Nek Minnet” has now taken on the same sort of in-the-know, wink-wink currency in NZ that “Double Rainbow” has in the US. T-shirts have popped up, all cheaply printed, with variations of “Nek Minnet” or “Nek Minute” printed on them.

So, without further ado – New Zealand in 9 seconds:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq36Y-IN6fE