A little about Aotearoa (New Zealand)

Sunset on the Tasman Sea

New Zealand was discovered by the Polynesians who have come to be known as the Maori, was the last of the major islands in the world to be settled. It was settled sometime between 700 and 2000 years ago, both islands were settled around this time, the Maori word for the north island is Aotearoa, Maori for ‘the long white cloud’ but the word has been adopted for the whole of New Zealand. Another name for the north island is Te Ika-a-Maui, or ‘the fish of Maui’, the south island is known as Te waka-a-Maui or ‘the canoe of Maui’. There is a Maori story for the naming and the creation of New Zealand, but it will have to wait until another time.

The story goes, the first European to discover New Zealand was Abel Tasman in 1642. When from the safety of his boat, he saw a rough looking group of ‘natives’ with facial tattoos performing a Haka, a Maori war dance which involves a lot of stomping, chest slapping and ends with bulging eyes and tongues stuck-out, and he decided to keep on moving without setting foot on land… He did however name the islands Nova Zeelandia in honour of the Dutch province of Zeeland He was followed by Captain James Cook who was the first to step foot on land and still has its tallest mountain named after him as well as many other sites around the country.

Auckland is the largest city, Wellington is the capital and the southernmost capital in the world, and both are on the north island. The two islands together have close to the same area as Colorado with a population of about 4 million people. Most of the population lives on the north island in one of the two major cities, and is composed of Europeans, people from the Polynesian islands, Asians, Maori and a few others from here and there. Major cities on the south island are Christchurch and Queenstown. Queenstown is considered the extreme sports capital of the world, and gave the world the modern day bungee jump.

New Zealand was the first nation in the world to give the vote to women in 1893 and one of the last British colonies to receive independence from the crown, and when they did in 1948, they did so reluctantly… No bullets flying, no revolution. The government system is based on the British parliamentary system; they have no president, but do have a prime minister, Helen Clark of the Labor party held the position from 1999 until 2008, when she was replaced by John Key of the National party. She is now the administrator of the United Nations Development Program.

New Zealand was the home of the bee keeper Sir Edmund Hillary, the he is better known as the first man to scale Mt. Everest than for his honey. In preparation for his ascent of Mt. Everest he practiced on New Zealand’s highest peak, the previously mentioned Mt. Cook. After scaling Everest he claimed Mt. Cook was the more difficult of the two.

New Zealand is a volcanic island; Auckland itself is founded on four active though dormant volcanoes. I did have to look it up… An active dormant volcano is a volcano that has erupted in historic times but is now quiet. This has no scientific meaning, but does give an idea of what to expect if planning an afternoon picnic in the cone of One Tree Hill, one of Auckland’s four volcanoes. The north island has 22 volcanoes, and its major ski resort is on one of them, as is the now famous Mount Ngauruhoe, used in Peter Jacksons “The Lord of the Rings” as Mt. Doom.

When Captain Cook first stepped on New Zealand shores the only mammal was the bat, the most dangerous animal was the sand fly, there were no snakes and the majority of life on the island was ground dwelling birds. Of course the Europeans brought their own animals to include cats, dogs, deer, horses, cattle and perhaps what New Zealand is most know for, sheep, which outnumber its human inhabitants 20 to 1. Sadly the cats and dogs have been a bit of a problem with the native birds that have no natural defenses, and the rabbits which hand no natural predators quickly became a problem. The solution to which the Europeans decided would be to bring in weasels. As so frequently happens with introducing animals into other environments, things did not go according to plan and the weasels had a far easier time catching the birds than the rabbits which gave New Zealand a rabbit and a weasel problem. Another nuisance introduced by the Europeans was possums… How this happened is anyone’s guess.

This is only the tip of the iceberg of all that is ‘New Zealand’ but it seemed a good start for anyone who is interested in learning a little more about the little islands in the south Pacific.