Kiwifruit didn't start in New Zealand. The plant originally grew in China, where it was called 'yang tao' or sometimes 'Chinese gooseberry'. In 1904 a school teacher from New Zealand brought some seeds back from a trip, and the plant turned out to love the New Zealand climate.
For years it was sold around the world as the 'Chinese gooseberry', but the name confused people - it isn't a gooseberry, and most shoppers didn't know what it was. In the 1950s a New Zealand fruit company renamed it 'kiwifruit' after the country's famous bird. The new name stuck.
Today, New Zealand is one of the biggest kiwifruit growers in the world. The vines are grown in long rows, tied up to wires so the fruit hangs down like green eggs. Each vine can produce thousands of fruit a year.
Slice a kiwifruit in half and you can see why some people call them 'the prettiest fruit': a circle of black seeds in a ring of pale green, like a tiny green sun. They are also extremely good for you - one kiwifruit has more vitamin C than an orange.