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Why does New Zealand never appear on world maps in American movies?

This has been bothering me for a while; On most American movies, when they show a world map there is just ocean by Australia where New Zealand is supposed to be. Why? New Zealand is an actual country. And if you check a map, you'll see it is made of three islands and is actually very large and obvious.

Public Comments

1. They don't believe it's a real country.
2. I've never noticed. But islands are often ignored on maps. But New Zealand deserves a little more respect than Tahiti when it comes to map displays.
3. Cos Americans dont bother with small countries. they dont really have anything to do with nz so they dont take notice of the little countries. they just all stuck up owe whu carez
4. Because it's a secret. So may Americans believe that the characters in "Lord of The Rings" (which was filmed in New Zealand) are "real", that the International Tourism Regulatory Board took this action to prevent Kiwiland being over-run by middle-aged American hippies with their VW buses and their pot-smoking and silly impressions of Golem...
5. No one cares about 3 mile long islands.
6. You are watching the wrong movies obviously. In the movie " Where in the world is New Zealand?", a smash hit among the Australians, the opening scene clearly shows a small blemish on the map near the Australian coast. Coincidence? I think not. Glad to hear you watch American movies though. I can't remember the last Kiwi movie I've seen.
7. How many times do I have to tell you, John...we ARE the island.
8. I'm having trouble remembering a movie that showed a map close up enough to tell without World War II being involved. And IIRC there weren't very many battles fought down there. Seriously, I have friends that 10 years ago would have had trouble finding you on a world map, and now they can point out that Hobbiton was filmed at the mine here, and those great mountain warning fires were filmed on South Island along there, they sailed the America's Cup in these waters, etc. New Zealand is experiencing the learning curve among Americans that Australia had 25 years ago.
9. Americans are a bit dumb,
10. The New Zealand secret service is supplying those maps. We are trying to remain a secret country, you know. Can't have anyone who's watching a movie going "whoa! There's a country down there!" After all, we must protect our elves, you know. ;)