What it means
Means a place way out in the middle of nowhere in New Zealand, proper back-country stuff where the road goes gravel, the houses vanish, and your phone taps out. People use wop-wops for remote rural spots, especially when they're talking about farms, baches, long drives, or getting stuck miles from town.
Usage examples
"We’re heading to Dave’s bach in the wop-wops this weekend, so stock up in town now, there’s no reception and one dairy for miles."
"We are heading to the bach in the wop-wops past Whakatane for the weekend, no signal, no bakery, no nothing, just fishing and a battery radio that picks up two stations."
"The new venue for the wedding is out in the wop-wops near Marlborough, the cousins from Auckland are renting a minivan because no taxi will go that far at midnight."
"We took one wrong turn outside Taupō and ended up proper in the wop-wops with sheep, gravel, and absolutely no bars."
"Her new flatmate grew up in the wop-wops, so a forty-minute drive to get chips doesn’t even register as far to him."
Where it comes from
Sits firmly in New Zealand English, possibly born from a Maori expression, possibly from an onomatopoeic invention of early settlers heading bush. Either way, the wop-wops have meant deep countryside for at least a hundred years, from the back roads of the King Country to the gravel paths up to anyone family bach by the lake.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
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