There’s a conspiracy brewing about one country’s lack of appearance on world maps… and it’s entirely legitimate.
When shopping at an Ikea in Washington D.C, a Reddit user by the name of Jibbles666 noticed a mistake on one of the furniture store’s items. A map of the world was being sold, bar New Zealand.
The error is made all the more dumbfounding considering the Swedish home furnishings chain recently announced they will be opening their first store in New Zealand, in Auckland.
"Wonder if they’re going to sell these maps in the new Auckland store," the top comment reads.
The post was made in the #MapsWithoutNZ subreddit thread, which is dedicated to gathering all the world maps that have omitted New Zealand.
Here are some other maps shared in the group....
The common mistake has even caught the attention of New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden, who along with comedian Rhys Darby made a video last year, entitled, #GetNZonthemap.
Darby hypothesised at the time, "Australia wants our tourists, England want to get rid of the All Blacks, and the wine industry, they can't beat our Pinot or Sav!"...which all sound like potential reasons.
Ikea responded to the error in a statement to BBC, saying: "Ikea is responsible for securing correct and compliant motifs on all our products.
"We can see that the process has failed regarding the product BJÖRKSTA world map - we regret this mistake and apologise. We will take the necessary actions and the product is now being phased out from our stores."