This word has two known meanings - a green fruit with a hairy skin and a cute bird that cannot fly. 
But in New Zealand you can hear the European part of the population addressing each other this way, using this word as a self-name. They say this to each other and talk about local residents in general, without being offended at all when they are called that. 
For New Zealanders, kiwi is, first and foremost, a bird. It is cute, brown in color, up to 50 cm in length and weighs from 1 to 4 kg. Moreover, the kiwi is endemic, that is, it is not found anywhere else, and scientists have long debated whether it is a bird at all. A furry thing that cannot fly and, unlike birds all over the world, it does not have a keel, and females have two ovaries. But everything was decided by the wings, even if they were rudimentary - 4 cm appendages pressed to the body. Kiwis simply have no enemies and over time they have lost the ability to fly, but they run quite fast. 
But Europeans brought stoats and cats to the islands and the kiwi’s happiness came to an end. Of the millions of birds, only 70 thousand remain in protected reserves.
New Zealanders love their strange kiwi and this good-natured creature has become a symbol of the archipelago. And when a local farmer brought actinidia from China, bred cultivated fruits and began selling them to Europe as an exotic fruit, they began to be called kiwi for their resemblance to a bird. 
The origins of the New Zealanders' nickname go back to the First World War. At that time, Austria and New Zealand were colonies of Great Britain. The warring metropolis called all its subjects to the fronts of the First World War. The army included soldiers from various parts of the vast empire, who had not previously communicated with each other. The disciplines, traditions and dialects of English were very different. And to distinguish each other they began to use nicknames. 
Residents of the metropolis called him Tommy. Australians began to be called Ozzy. This did not suit them; they preferred Diggers. And the New Zealand soldiers had a kiwi bird on the sleeves of their uniforms, and that’s what the troops began to call them. 
Kiwi, Tommy and Ozzy joked with each other. Tommies were considered narrow-chested - weak city dwellers. But Ozzie and Kiwi positioned themselves as descendants of immigrants who were accustomed to physical activity and independence. And this front-line nickname greatly influenced the self-perception of New Zealanders. 
At the outbreak of the First World War, the islands had a population of approximately one million. 100 thousand ended up at the front, 18 thousand died and at different times from one sixth to one fifth of New Zealand men took part in the battles of the First World War.
New Zealanders are peace-loving people and they had a real shock, especially in the battles in Egypt and the Dardanelles. And so, national self-awareness happened. The criticism was directed not at the enemy, but at Tommy - the generals, the command, the government. New Zealanders began to think about independence and perceive themselves as a separate people. 
The nickname Kiwi has become a sign of self-determination and today New Zealanders treat it with humor.
They consider themselves similar to kiwis - they love to sleep, often live in secluded places at a great distance from each other, are independent and very peaceful.
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