KEY POINTS:
If visiting Australians are getting fed up with jokes at their expense, they aren't showing it.
In fact, they seem to revel in it.
"I love it. It's great. We give as good as we get," says New South Welshman Robert Schofield.
"If we badger you about losing the rugby, then we'll lose the cricket. It's a two-way street."
Mr Schofield reckons he actually started the banter off "with a sheep joke" when he and his partner May Rapley arrived in New Zealand for their 19-day tour last month.
"Australians have very thick skin," says Ms Rapley. "You don't have to worry about us."
A tongue-in-cheek debate about transtasman relations has spread across both countries since Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism boss Ian Bougen this week suggested New Zealanders ease off teasing Australian tourists.
"While one comment is pretty innocuous, if every second Kiwi makes a comment about the cricket or the rugby, it will start to grate on them," Mr Bougen said.
His comments came on the eve of a tourism promotion to Australians, saying the South Island's best tourist spots had been "painted green and gold just for you".
Since his comments in the Herald, Mr Bougen has been swamped with media interest. Australians seemed fascinated by the "be nice to Aussies" concept.
The Herald spoke to Australian tourists to gauge how much stick they had been getting in New Zealand, and whether it has been over the top.
They all said the ribbing was only an occasional thing, and they welcomed the chance to return it in kind.
Mr Schofield said he understood the jokes could be taken the wrong way "by somebody who doesn't have a sense of humour. And that could be Australian or New Zealand. I feel there would be a percentage of both cultures that would not appreciate that humour."
Howie and Christine Farrar, from Melbourne, said any jokes from their Kiwi coach drivers were always brief and in good heart. "And then they will end up with 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie', in return."
Derek Amos, from Queensland's Sunshine Coast, enjoyed mentioning the New Zealand cricket loss to Bangladesh to his Kiwi coach driver.
Pat Sharp, 59, from Ballarat, Victoria, said Australians did not get offended easily.
"We can laugh at ourselves and we don't take life too seriously. In the streets sometimes [New Zealanders] will pick up our accents and I'll say, 'We're the ones that talk right, and you talk funny."'
Canterbury University professor Peter Hempenstall, who has studied the history of relations between Australia and New Zealand, said poking fun at each other was natural, as in family relationships.
"That's exactly the way siblings deal with one another. I don't think that's ever going to change. There is an asymmetry in the relationship in that New Zealanders fear domination by the Australians in a way the Australians don't."
Yet there was a danger that the remarks could go too far.
"It can be unproductive because it continues to raise barriers to some creative ideas ... to try to connect the two countries closer together."
Kiwi jokes (as told by Aussies)
Why can't Kiwi blokes take their girlfriends to the rugby?
They eat all the grass.
Why aren't there any Kiwis on Star Trek?
They don't work in the future either.
What do you call a Kiwi sheep dog?
A pimp.
Why do Kiwis end up marrying women?
Sheep can't cook.
Aussie jokes (as told by Kiwis)
How do you make an Aussie laugh on Monday morning?
Tell him a joke on Friday night.
What does an Aussie use for contraception?
His personality.
What do you call an Aussie with half a brain?
Gifted.
What's the difference between a petri dish and Australia?
After a while the petri dish will grow its own culture.
