ABOUT NEW ZEALAND:

New Zealand is famous for having more sheep than people, a nation of rugby mad fans and the home of world famous rugby star Jonah Lomu.

New Zealand lies southeast of Australia in the South Pacific Ocean and comprises of two main islands: North Island and South Island and a number of smaller islands: Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands, Bounty Islands, Campbell Island, Chatham Islands, and Kermadec Islands. In comparison, New Zealand is about the size of Colorado.

Aotearoa - “Land of the Long White Cloud” was the Maori name given to New Zealand by Hine-te-aparangi, wife of Polynesian navigator Kupe.

According to a Maori tradition widely spread among the tribes, around 800 AD, Zealand was discovered by Kupe, who cut up Maui’s fish into the present islands. Kupe did not settle. He returned across the sea. When he reached Hawaiki, the ancestral home of the Maoris, he allegedly gave directions for reaching Tiritiri o te Moana, the Gift of the Sea, an ancient name for New Zealand.

In the even more distant pass the Polynesians had come in their sailing canoes across the Pacific, island by island, from the East Indies. It may be too, that some ancestors of the Polynesians had sailed from South America or rafts, like the Kon Tiki, bringing the sweet potato and other plants.

In 1642 Dutch explorer Abel van Tasman sailed up the west coast of the place he named Nieuw Zeeland, after the Netherlands province of Zeeland.

The first settlers were sealers, then missionaries. The Europeans started arriving in greater numbers in the early 19th century. In 1840, Maori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which ceded sovereignty over New Zealand to the Queen of England and guaranteed Maori possession of their own land.

A series of land wards between1843 and 1872 ended with defeat of the native people. The British colony of New Zealand became an independent dominion in 1907.

New Zealand has a population of close to 4 million people. The main cultural groups are the Pakeha and the Maori. However, New Zealand is also home to many Pacific Island and Asian ethnic groups.

New Zealand offers lively theatre scenes, particularly in the capital- Wellington. In Auckland, tourists can experience the fusion of pacific cultures living in Auckland at the Otara Flee Market, the ASB Secondary Schools Cultural Festival and the three-day Pasifika Festival held at the Western Spring Parks.

Wood, stone, shell and bone carving souvenirs are readily available. Paua shell, greenstone, greywacke and greenwacke pebbles are often fashioned into jewellery that takes its inspiration from the landscape.

New Zealand is a country of rare seismic beauty: glacial mountains, fast-flowing rivers, deep clear lakes, hissing geysers and boiling mud. There are also abundant forest reserves, long deserted beaches and a variety of faunas, such as the kiwi, endemic to its shores.

New Zealand is such a compact place it is easy and affordable to get around.
Accommodation is cheap and varied. New Zealand ice cream, fish ‘n’chips and wines are a ‘must try’.