@mix.desktop this is awesome!!!! :-O masterfully done. Keep adding more layers!

@crowsnest lol. I'm losing track of how many layers deep we are in the joke

They both sound a bit like hazing ... but I think hazing is usually embarrassing you in front of a group. This is more like many little one-on-one trust building exercises, where you break trust to demonstrate trust and intent towards familiarity (if you're not on the internet).

Lying to visitors feels pretty neutral as long as there's not harm done. Lying to immigrants.... doesn't sound cool, but somehow Americans feel more fair game? I think lying to Americans on the internet might have come from the naive questions you can get from distant English speakers (so probably Americans) which are (with repetition) mildly irritating? "Can't you just order it on Amazon?", "So it's not winter there right now?". You can have the same boring conversation, or you can spice it up. People are expecting exotic, they can have it. But make it as mundane as it is ridiculous to be able to keep it going for longer.
If there was a power-move component it would probably be the "Tall Poppy" / "be humble" thing - as in American culture can sometime be "I'm awesome, look at me and my achievements", and kiwis are really put off by this. Here the way you gain reputation is by being so rad others sing your praise. Parts of this will be Maori culture, parts of it will be the size of New Zealand (all these dynamics don't work the same in a place more than 10x as big)