New Zealand was first discovered by the dutchman Abel Tasman in 1642. He also discovered the island south of Australia which today carries his name. He called the island Van Diemens Land after the governor in Batavia on Java. Tasmans expedition started from Dutch East India .He called New Zealand Staten Lands at that time the name of South America.
Later explorers discovered that it was not a continent. Dutch cartographers called the land Zeelandia Nova after the dutch province of Zeeland. This is the origin of the name. It has nothing to do with the danish island Zeeland.The native Maori's call the land Aotearoa which means the land with the long white cloud.
The island Tasmania and the Tasman Sea was named after Abel Tasman. On the north end of the South Island is a national park called Abel Tasman National Park.
In 1768 Captain Cook sailed out from Britain with the good ship Endavour, and in 1769 he rediscovered New Zealand. He sailed around the coast, and made a famous map of the two islands. He landed several times on different spots and he secured the land as a british colony. The strait between the two islands are named Cook Strait after him. The highest mountain is named Mount Cook.The height is 3754 m. For comparison, the heigts of Mount Blanc is 4808 m and Mount Everest 8848 m. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Summits
Kiwi
The Kiwi bird is the national bird of NZ. It is a small Ostrich like bird with a long straight beak. It has the size of a turkey. The eggs and the chicks are an easy prey for rats, and predators of the marten family. Wild cats and dogs can also take them. Their natural habitat are the bottom of the rain forest where they are active during the night. It is so endangered that it had to be protected. Many places it is raised in Kiwi houses. The next step is to place them on isolated islands where their enemies has been exterminated. Finally it is the hope that they can be released to nature.
The inhabitants of New Zealand call themselves Kiwi's
The Kiwi fruit is not native to New Zealand. It originates from China. And the original name is Chinese Gooseberry. It was early imported to NZ. In the early fifties a large scale production started in the hope of export to overseas markets. There was one problem. It was during the cold war, and a name related to China was impossible on the American market. The name Kiwi fruit was suggested and it caught on. It has been the name of the fruit ever since.
Return