Original sentence: However, there are complaints in New Zealand that there is a brain drain to Australia.Unlike Canadians and Americans, who share a land border, New Zealand and Australia are more than 1,600km (1000 miles) apart, comparable with the distance from England to Africa
Edited sentence: A typical flight between the two countries takes around three hours.However the closest points of the "mainlands" are more than 1,600km (1000 miles) apart, comparable with the distance from England to Africa.However, there are complaints in New Zealand that Australia is poaching the country's best and brightest, with police forces, schools and hospitals in Australia headhunting or recruiting aggressively across the Tasman.Many of them are more likely to have visited Europe, and this is especially true of Australians.Many only realise how much the two nationalities have in common when they go to Europe to work and travel, although some New Zealanders are almost horrified at the idea that they have anything in common with Australians.Perhaps on a map of the world the two countries look close together.Unlike Canadians and Americans, who share a land border that they can cross without passports (until 2007), the geographical separation between New Zealand and Australia means that many have never visited the other's country.When groups of young Kiwis and Aussies congregate together in European camping grounds, etc, it can be difficult to say which are which.When the Australian actress Cate Blanchett told US talkshow host David Letterman that her time on location in New Zealand filming The Lord of the Rings was her first visit to the country, he was genuinely surprised, while she was equally puzzled by his reaction