A Pair from Middle Earth

Tolkien's Middle Earth has been realized in the flesh of grass and rocks and mountains and canyons in the Southern nation of New Zealand, but anyone familiar with the Peter Jackson trilogy knows that information.

Today I bring two flags from the Down Under's cousin.

One is the symbol of the All Blacks, the name given to the national teams from New Zealand, and it'll look weird here wit the black background:

The Silver Fern. I'm not totally clear how the silver fern, or here, what looks like a white fern, became the symbol for all New Zealand international sports teams, but it is. If you ever see a silver or white fern on a black field, rest assured you're looking at something associated with kiwis (the affectionate demonym for a New Zealanders).

Here's the next, one I came across a while back randomly and snatched it up:

This is called the Maori flag, the flag for the indigenous Australnesian peoples who inhabit the islands of New Zealand. I think it looks pretty cool. (Also, it may look cool with the black background.)