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‘Aotearoa’ (our traditional Maori name, meaning ‘land of the long white cloud’) is in the South Pacific and consists of several islands – the 2 main being the North & South Islands. The country is approximately the same size as England and is about 1,600 kms (1,000 miles) southeast of Australia; Auckland, in the North Island, is a 2 hour flight away from Sydney, Australia.
While a temperate climate in general, there are considerable regional variations. The north of the north island can be described as subtropical while in the south, winter frosts are common and snow and below zero temperatures are not uncommon. Christmas time is summer and June, July and August are our winter months.
In 2003, for the first time, the population reached the 4 million mark. Wellington, in the lower North Island (with a population of 451,000) is the capital and Auckland (with over a quarter of the country’s population at over 1 million and the largest Polynesian population of any city of the world) is just north of the mid North Island. Christchurch and Dunedin are the 2 largest cities in the South Island, having populations of 358,000 and 113,000 respectively.
A small open pastoral economy, exports account for around 30% of GDP and close to half of that is commodity based. An exporter of frozen mutton from the 1880’s, New Zealand is still one of the world’s main exporters of wool, cheese, butter and meat. Forestry products retain a vital role in the economy; newer enterprises such as wine making continue to expand. Tourism is a significant and growing industry thanks to incredibly varied and beautiful scenery – fabulous coastlines, beaches, harbours, volcanoes, lakes, alpine snowfields, fiords, glaciers, plains & native bush.
Exciting and innovative, we have burgeoning movie and related fields industries. Best known are surely the Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, Narnia chronicles, Whale Rider and The World’s Fastest Indian. We also have various internationally acclaimed software design and development companies, who’ve pioneered the likes of the America’s Cup software race tracking programmes.
Our relative isolation has bred an ingenious ‘do it yourself’ mentality and practicality, often providing a sharp edge over competitive designers in such areas as motorbike design (John Britton) and boating design (Bruce Farr).
Just a few of the most accomplished New Zealanders are Richard Pearse (early 20th Century airplane, helicopter and powered cycle inventor), Jean Batten (record-breaking aviator of the 30’s) and Burt Munro (see ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’ ). Our most famous scientist is certainly Ernest Rutherford, who split the atom. Among our best known writers are Katherine Mansfield, James K Baxter, Janet Frame, Margaret Mahy, Witi Ihimaera and Elizabeth Knox.
New Zealanders are overwhelmingly outdoors and sports orientated – famous for conquering Everest (Sir Edmund Hilary), sailing (Sir Peter Blake’s team winning the Americas Cup), rowing, cycling, rugby (the All Blacks), Bungy jumping (pioneered by A.J. Hackett)…well, we tackle pretty much everything.
The ‘kiwi’ is a native, flightless and endangered bird. It is from this precious native that New Zealanders have come to be known as ‘kiwis’ (and so too our famous ‘kiwi’ fruit). Another well known NZ emblem is the ‘silver fern’, which is a fine example of some of the glorious native bush that once almost entirely covered the country.
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