New Zealand is a tiny, rural island at the end of the world, and this feeds very directly into New Zealander's conceptions of themselves as local-orientated, community centered, creative do-it-yourselfers. New Zealand is far away from the infrastructure of the world, which means that there's opportunity to create in a way that just isn't as practical for people from other counties. If something goes wrong, you can't call a handy-man to fix it; New Zealanders know how to do things themselves.
On Saturday, my roomie Federica and I went to Havana Coffee Roasters for a tour and tasting and learned all about the history of coffee in Wellington. It won't surprise anyone to discover that both Havana and the greater Wellington coffee scene plug right into the local, community-orientated, and creative New Zealand story.