To be fair, New Zealand is about 1 AU from everything, so it’s especially difficult for a lot of us non-kiwis to grasp. :) A relative and I were just discussing this the other day: he was convinced Australia was further south than you until I got out my phone, I think because he was confusing New Zealand with New Guinea. I’ve noticed we do tend to heavily associate you with Australia in the States, too, so the Queensland question doesn’t surprise me. Most Americans probably mentally conflate Tasmania and NZ.

To your point, I could probably name most African countries but not place them exactly from memory, particularly in the interior and on the western coast. Niger is hot news in the U.S. right now, and we had a week or so of everyone collectively figuring out not only that it’s distinct from Nigeria but also proper pronunciation, simply because we don’t think about Africa much (which is lame, I agree). Legislators were surprised we had troops in Niger, which should really say a lot.

Geography education is already iffy in a number of places, and I imagine ubiquitous digital maps are going to exacerbate that problem the same way we are already losing the ability to memorize phone numbers. John Oliver has been having fun with this by highlighting the wrong country as a recurring gag on his show.