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New Zealand natives see you carrying cross around (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tuatara

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'cross around' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.

'new zealand natives see you carrying' is the wordplay.
'new zealand natives' becomes 'tua' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'see you' becomes 'ta-ra' (both can mean goodbye).
'carrying' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, the bottom letters carry others).
'tua'+'tara'='TUATARA'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for tuatara that I've seen is " New Zealand reptile".)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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