UK foreign secretary is visiting New Zealand for two days as Britain looks to strengthen its ties with its former colony in preparation for Brexit

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, joked on his visit to New Zealand on Monday that a traditional Māori greeting could be misinterpreted as a head butt in other countries.

Johnson is visiting the South Pacific nation for two days as Britain looks to strengthen its ties with its former colony amid a broader reshaping of Britain’s global relationships as it prepares to leave the European Union. Topics on the agenda include trade, foreign policy and international security.

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He visited the South Island tourist town of Kaikoura, which was struck by a magnitude-7.8 earthquake in November that killed two people.

Johnson thanked townsfolk for looking after tourists, including 200 Britons, who were stranded in the town after the quake and for teaching him a Māori greeting called a hongi, in which people press noses together.

“I think it’s a beautiful form of introduction, though it might be misinterpreted in a pub in Glasgow,” Johnson joked, in a reference to a head butt.

Nathan Guy (@NathanGuyOtaki) Pleasure to show Boris Johnson around Kaikoura this morning. He thanked the community for looking after British tourists after the quake. pic.twitter.com/KWthaApDOg

Johnson said it was his first visit to New Zealand.

“This is the most mind-blowingly, mind-numbingly beautiful country that I have ever seen,” he said of New Zealand, adding it was the only landscape he thinks could do justice to the imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of “he Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, which were filmed in New Zealand.

Johnson was described by the New Zealand media as the eccentric “flamboyant, blonde tousled-haired former mayor of London”.

Johnson is due to travel to Australia on Tuesday.

Associated Press contributed to this report