NZ color palate

I was in New Zealand recently (mainly tramping but also working) and someone showed me a New Zealand picture book that an Australian publisher had criticised for being too dark. At Borders the next day looking around the New Zealand picture book section I realized that New Zealanders like a lot of black in their illustrations. It's a much darker color palate than the Australian. We tend to go for bright, light and saturated colors. This is a broad and rash generalization but I think there is truth in it. New Zealanders are the All Blacks and they like to wear a lot of black, so maybe it is not surprising.

Coming from drought ridden Australia, I was amazed at how wet New Zealand was, and green.