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Explore New Zealand's Diverse Culture
Author: L. LaGuardia
The diverse culture of New
Zealand carries much tradition and
history built on the customs of the indigenous people known as
the Maori. Legend holds that the Maori traveled by canoe from
their mythical ancestral island of Hawaiki over 1,000 years ago.
These Polynesian settlers traveled in open boats (or in canoes)
that are not too different from the traditional crafts found in
Polynesia today.
New Zealand
is a country comprised of two large islands and many
smaller islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and is noted
for its geographic isolation. The Tasman Sea separates Australia
to the northwest; to north are Fiji and Tonga. The total area of
New Zealand is 268670 sq. km, which is slightly less than Japan
but a little more than the United Kingdom. The country has
extensive marine resources and the fifth largest Exclusive
Economic Zone in the world. Meaning New Zealand can claim over
four million km2 or more than 15 times its land area for
exploration and use of marine resources.
The climate is mild, mostly cool temperate to warm temperate,
with temperatures rarely falling below 0°C (32°F) or
rising
above 30°C (86°F). The South Island is the largest mass,
mountainous, wet and cold. It is divided length-wise by the
Southern Alps. The North Island, dry and continental, is marked
by volcanism. The tallest mountain on the North Island Mount
Ruapehu (9,176-ft) is an active cone volcano. Although the
island landscapes are impressive, they became a lot more popular
when the production the Lord of the Rings trilogy called them
home.
New Zealand has a population of about 4.1
million people mostly
of European descent with Maori being the largest minority.
Non-Maori Polynesian and Asian peoples are also significant
minorities, especially in the nation's cities. Officially,
Elizabeth II is the Queen of New Zealand and is represented in
the country by a non-political governor-general; however, the
Queen has no real political influence. Political power is held
by the Prime Minister (currently Helen Clark) who is leader of
the Government in the democratically elected Parliament of New
Zealand.
Since 1984 the government has be restructuring the economy to
lean more towards an industrialized free market and less of an
agrarian economy that was dependant on the British market.
Leading agricultural exports include meat, dairy products,
forest products, fruit and vegetables, fish, and wool.
The culture, contemporary and diverse, has influences from
British, Irish, and Maori cultures. New Zealand is one of the
most recently settled major landmasses. Polynesian settlers
arrived in their waka some time between 800 and 600 years ago to
establish the indigenous Maori culture. Among the British
settlers, many people were from Scotland giving New Zealand more
bagpipe bands than in Scotland!
What exactly is a Kiwi? A Kiwi to a New Zealander is not the
green fuzzy fruit most Americans relate to. It is in truth a
flightless nocturnal native bird with a long beak with nostrils
on the end. Most important however, it is the national bird of
New Zealand. Over the years, Kiwi has been applied to and
adopted by New Zealanders as a nickname for themselves and as an
adjective for their culture.
About the author:
For more information
on New
Zealand please
visit the site at
http://www.new-zealand-vacations.info/
.
This article may be
freely reprinted as long as this resource
box and url links
remain intact.
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