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New Zealand Country & Its People

Almost four thousand years ago, in one of history's great migrations, Polynesian seafarers navigated their ocean-going canoes along the Melanesian chain across the great South Pacific into the heart of Polynesia. Three thousand years later, a Polynesian race referred to as the Morioris came in outrigger canoes to a land they named Aotearoa, "the land of the long white cloud". Later during the 14th century, the ethnic group known as the Maori began arriving in great ocean-going canoes. This race evolved into perhaps the most culturally rich stone-age peoples and their descendents continue to live on the islands today. Several hundred years passed, and more ships arrived, this time bringing European explorers in search of the great uncharted southern continent. They named the land they found New Zealand.

On the more populated North Island, the Maoris constructed tremendous terraced hilltop forts encircled by deep moats to protect themselves from fellow cannibals. This fierce tribal warrior culture created many complex art forms including boat carving, woven feather cloaks and intricate tattooing. Body adornment was a high priority for the Maoris as evidence by the exquisite tikis made from native greenstone (nephrite jade). They are also credited with a number of innovative weapons that played an important role in controlling the population of the warring tribes. Interestingly, these tribes did not acknowledge their ancestral links to each other until the arrival of the white European. With little concept of race, the term Maori (which means "normal") was first used to describe themselves when encountering the paheka or white man.

Maori warriors ambushed the first known group of explorers to land in New Zealand in 1642. It was not until 1769, when Captain Cook anchored the Endeavour in Poverty Bay, that white explorers were able to land and make observations. On subsequent voyages, Cook spent a great deal of time charting the waters around New Zealand. The first European settlers, primarily whalers and loggers eager to exploit, began homesteading along the coast of the North Island in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The bad treatment of the Maoris by the white colonials and Christian missionaries led to frequent bloodshed and ritual cannibal feasts. Regarded as the founding document of New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 by over 500 tribal chiefs guaranteeing certain Maori rights within the British colony.

One of the most isolated countries (her nearest neighbor Australia is over 1,500 miles away), New Zealand is blessed with magnificent landscapes, deep fiords, rolling hills and majestic glaciers. From the 2,000 year old kauri forests and thermal pools in the sub-tropical north to the winter wonderland of the Southern Alps, this diverse geographical land is a place where nature rules. Situated with the restless Ring of Fire, the islands of New Zealand separated and began their drift away from Gondwannaland about 100 million years ago long before mammals evolved.

Her unique system of flora developed in isolation without the help of floral pollinators such as bees and butterflies. As a result, flowers did not have to compete with one another by evolving flamboyant colors to attract pollinators. This explains the intense greenness of the landscape. All mammals currently residing on the islands, with the exception of a bat species, arrived on boats with humans. A number of flightless bird species were brought over by the first Melanesian peoples and began to colonize the islands including the kiwi, giant moa, and the serene songbird, the tui, as well as the yellow-eyed penguin on the Otago Peninsula.

Modern New Zealand is filled with friendly people, small rural towns and secluded wilderness retreats, and above all, the timeless, natural splendor of "the land of the long white cloud". .

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