Now when I think of New Zealand, really only 1 word seems to come to mind: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu [Geography Now! theme] Hey everyone, I'm your host, Barbs. New Zealand is one of those places where a few people have made a powerful image for themselves.
It's one of the last places on Earth to be discovered and inhabited by humans, and when they arrived, it was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. Mostly because there were these massive, 12 feet tall bird monsters. We'll get into that in a bit, but first.
. . ♪♪ New Zealand is not only a key player in the ocean nations, but a geographic anomaly.
As in, half the time when you look at artwork or decorations or newscasts or even educational books, New Zealand is forgotten from the map. Kiwis even joke about it. Even their government website "404 Page Not Found" website pokes fun at it.
Anyway, New Zealand, or Aotearoa, is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, about 1,200 miles (or 2,000 kilometers) off the coast of Australia and about 600 miles (or 1,000 kilometers) from the nearest major islands of Fiji, Tonga, and New Caledonia, meaning technically, France is their closest neighbor. The country is made up of 2 main large islands, aptly named the North Island, or Te-Ika a-Maui, which makes up about 42% of the landmass yet holds about ¾ of the population, and the larger yet less populated South Island, or Te Waipou-Namu, at about 56% of the land mass. The remaining 2-ish% of the land mass is made up of hundreds of interior and outlying islands, 33 main ones that are either around the main 2 islands like the largest one, Stewart Island just south of South Island, Then you have the outlying island chains, like the northernmost Kermadec Islands, the easternmost Chatham Islands, and the Subantarctic southernmost point, the Campbell Islands.
The country is a unitary state divided into 16 councils; 11 regional councils and 5 unitary regional councils. The Chatham Islands act as their own special territorial authority. The second largest city, Wellington, is the capital, the southernmost capital in the world.
However, Auckland up north is the largest city, which holds about a third of the entire population of the country with the largest and busiest airport, Auckland International. Otherwise, Christchurch on South Island is the third largest city and holds the second busiest airport, Christchurch International. But wait, that's not all!
The sovereignty claim extends even further and then you get the 3 New Zealand Realm territories and free association island nations. These are Tokelau, the Cook Islands, and Niue. Tokelau is considered a non-self-governing dependent territory.
It also has a territorial dispute with American Samoa over Swains Island. Whereas the Cook Islands and Niue are labeled as self-governing states in free association with New Zealand. Finally, you have the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealand's claim to Antarctica, which of course under the Antarctic Treaty does not actually fall under their sovereignty, but you know.
A lot of people like to say they have something they can't. Whoo! For a nation that doesn't even show up half the time on maps, there's a lot going on here!
But wait! If New Zealand is just an island in the middle of the Pacific, which continent is New Zealand a part of? Ah, good question.
That is a question that has kind of stumped cartographers for centuries. In the simplest sense, categorically New Zealand is part of the broader region known as Oceania, which is basically just Australia plus everything else in Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Technically, Australia and New Zealand together are called Australasia.
However, it's weird because New Zealand doesn't lie on the same continental shelf as Australia. This has led to the consideration of New Zealand belonging to a newer sub-region known as Zealandia, classified by some dude in the 90s as either a continental fragment or a "microcontinent" made up of a submerged continental crust shelf that expands all the way from New Caledonia to an empty spot in the ocean just south of the Campbell Islands. 93% of Zealandia is submerged, with New Zealand being the largest protruding segment.
Either way, however, you want to categorize it, New Zealand is kind of strange. Wait! Go back to the self-governing island thing.
Do they belong to New Zealand or are they full countries? Good question. It's kind of like this: NEW ZEALAND: Okay guys, look, the British just kind of put you under my jurisdiction, so I guess that means you're all New Zealand citizens, okay?
COOK ISLANDS: Yeah, but we all have our own languages and customs and want to write a constitution for ourselves with free association status. We're basically countries in our own right but under your overarching sovereignty, I guess. NIUE: Like your military can come in for defense, but otherwise we got everything else covered.
TOKELAU: I mean, guys, I have less than 2,000 people on less than 5 square miles of land on 3 islands. I think I'll just become a dependent territory state. NZ: All right, fair enough.
Two "kind of" countries with loose ties and 1 dependent territory country with stronger ties. Got it. TK: Plus, hey, I became the first completely solar-powered nation in the world.
NZ: Not exactly fully functional "sovereign nation state" by definition but yeah, good for you! Some places of interest in New Zealand might include: the world's steepest street at a gradient of 38°, the National Museum, Auckland Sky Tower (you can actually jump off of it), the Rotorua geysers in traditional Māori village, Rainbow's End and Splash Planet, the International Antarctic Center, Hobbiton, so many wine fields like the ones in Marlborough, Ninety Mile Beach (which is actually only 56 miles), Waitomo caves with glowworms, Frying Pan Lake, and the Meraki spherical boulders. And honestly, I could go on and on with all the natural wonders of this country, but that would take like 50 videos and we gotta cram as much as we can in this one.
So let's just talk about all the natural stuff of New Zealand. Shall we? ♪♪ Now, New Zealand is an outdoors country, world-renowned for its mind-blowingly wonderful landscape, displayed in a number of films and movies.
Fun fact: "The Lord of the Rings" gave them so much publicity and tourism money that they even have a Minister of the Rings in their Parliament. Oh, do they now? You wrote the script for the episode and I'm just reading off the teleprompter, so I figured you would know that.
I did! First of all: The country is located in the Ring of Fire on the convergence of the Pacific and Australian plates that creates the mountainous Southern Alps of the southern island. Here you can find the tallest peak, Mt.
Cook, or Aoraki, at over 12,000 feet (or 3,700 meters), whereas across the Cook Strait, the smaller Kaweka range can be found in the North Island. This, in return, makes the country subject to earthquakes and volcanic activity. There are about 83 known volcanoes of all types, and the largest active one being Ruapehu on North Island.
Otherwise, you can see other volcanic wonders like the dormant Banks Peninsula on South Island, and the eerily perfect circular Mt. Taranaki on the west side of North Island. Just a skip away you can find the largest lake, Lake Taupo, in the Taupo Caldera, one of the largest super volcanoes on Earth.
From there, the lake is drained by the longest river of the country, the Waikato. Now, New Zealand is interesting because due to its shape, there is no part of the country that is more than about 80 miles or so from the ocean. The flatter valleys on the sides of the mountains are where most people live and produce crops and livestock.
Skip a little further west and you get the least inhabited and difficult to access but most breathtaking part of New Zealand, the fjordland. Steep cliffs plunging into the Tasman Sea, with Milford Sound being the most popular spot and the only one accessible by road. New Zealand ranks as one of the topmost landform diverse countries on Earth, having everything from alpine forests, glaciers, geothermal geysers - they even have a small desert in the middle of North Island, and on some of the coasts you have tropical beaches with magnetic black sand containing magnetite.
Seriously, I still have some. Check it out. This is from Piha Beach in North Island.
Whoa, it sticks on! Now the one thing about New Zealand that set it apart upon discovery is that other than 2 species of bat, the entire island had no mammals prior to human encounter. Now this is usually the part where Noah comes in, but he had a scheduling conflict and couldn't be here today, so therefore, I-sum-mon-random-Hannah!
[ethereal humming] Hannah, take it away. The country is a bird haven, with over 200 species, over half endemic to New Zealand. And, the funny thing, many of which are flightless.
It's like the flightless bird capital of the world. Species such as the kakapo, the world's only flightless nocturnal parrot, and they have more species of penguin than anywhere else on the planet. At one point a long time ago, they used to have the moa, a 12-foot tall monster, until it was hunted by the native Māori to extinction.
Then you have the national animal, the famous kiwi, a flightless bird which comes in 5 forms on both islands, known for their hair-like feathers, long beaks with nostrils, making them some of the only few bird species that can smell. Otherwise, with flying birds, you have the kea, the world's only Alpine parrot, and if you see one, they are curious creatures, unafraid of humans, that love to chew on shiny objects or rubber. Seriously, those guys tried to steal my stuff one time.
Outside of the bird world, you can find reptiles like the tuatara, which has a third parietal eye on the top of its head, or the giant weta, the heaviest insect on earth. Eugh! Resource-wise, the country is known for its huge dairy farming and livestock industry.
Jade, or greenstone, is a precious stone mined and sold here, as well as often carved into jewelry or traditional Māori tools and ornaments. Besides all that though, much of the country makes money through tourism, specifically outdoor tourism, specifically Queensland on South Island. This place offers everything from skydiving, paragliding, and zorbing, which, by the way, the Kiwis invented.
And speaking of Kiwi inventions, food! Kiwis are without a doubt seafood folk. Native species like gurnard, hoki, hake, hapuku, paua, and crayfish are made into numerous dishes: cooked, raw, smoked, steamed, battered and fried with chips.
If that's not your thing, some non-fishy Kiwi dishes might include things like: roast lamb, savory meat pies, hokey pokey ice cream, Kiwi-style burger, manuka honey, kumara, L&P drink, pavlova cake, and one of the most traditional Māori dishes, hangi. And speaking of cultural tradition, we go to. .
. ♪♪ Thank you, Hannah. Feel free to follow her on Instagram.
No problem. [whooshing sound] Yeah, that's a thing now. Now, this is gonna be the best part of the episode because the people of New Zealand, known as Kiwis, are the biggest treasure you'll find.
First of all, the country has about 5 million people and often ranks as one of the top 3 ease of business index countries in the world, with the least corruption. At somewhere around 74%, the country is made up primarily of peoples of European descent, mostly of English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry. About 15% of the country is native Māori, 7% Pacific Islander, and the rest are mostly Asian of various countries like China, Korea, and Japan.
Yes, by the way, it's pronounced "moe-ri. " Not "may-ori," "mow-ri". .
. . They use the New Zealand dollar as their currency, they use the type I plug outlet, and they drive on the left side of the road.
Now we all know that English is the most widely spoken language in the country with a distinct Kiwi dialect. To outsiders it sounds just like the Australian one, but they swear it's different. They have some distinct Kiwi words.
Here's my Kiwi buddy, Jared, explaining: Nonetheless, there are actually 2 other official languages of New Zealand: Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, making New Zealand the first country to adopt signing as an official language, even though only half of 1% knows it. Now, let's talk about culture and the whole Māori thing. The Māori traditionally come from about 100 or so iwi, or tribes or peoples spread throughout both islands, most in the north part of the country, the largest being the Ngā Puhi at over 100,000 people.
Their culture is a huge, integral factor that plays into what it means to be Kiwi. I mean instead of "hello," you'll often hear the Māori word "kia ora" as a greeting. Most schools teach the Māori language in elementary years and there are immersion schools as well.
In addition, they have a few television channels and radio stations that speak almost entirely in Māori. Today, the majority of native speakers are found in the North Island, most heavily concentrated in the Northland and Gisborne and Bay of Plenty regions. And speaking of Māori, we cannot do this episode without talking about the haka.
Almost everyone on the island knows 1 form of the traditional war dance performed by both men and women, known for its aggressive movements, loud chanting, and intimidating facial expressions. Very often it's performed at sporting events. The haka is not only used at games or as a means to intimidate, though.
It can be used in a variety of situations, ranging from birthday parties, funerals, even weddings, where the people celebrate the union of two people happily and everyone takes part in it, whether you are ethnically Māori or non-Māori. It's a tradition that really unites everyone on the island, regardless of race. Pretty cool, right?
And now, let's talk about tattoos and, actually, let's have another co-host do this. Uh, let's see, which options do I have? Who can I select?
Let's see, Hannah already did one. . .
Ah, why not Ken? [high-pitched electronic noises] All right, Ken take it away. You might occasionally come across someone with kiri-tuhi, or skin art, or ta moko, which are face tattoos.
There's so much information that goes into this, but basically Māori tradition did not have a specific written script. Instead, they use a documented information and history through a series of wood carvings and tattoos. No two are alike, as each person's tattoos told a specific story of who they were.
Generally, the left side is reserved for the father's lineage and the right side the mother's. The patterns can describe everything from tribe, rank, work, expertise, athletic accomplishments, and so on. In other news, Kiwis are pretty athletic.
You cannot talk about New Zealand without mentioning rugby. They are 3-time World Cup championship winners and often, when they don't win, they place in the top 3. Thank you, Ken!
Feel free to follow him on Instagram. [high-pitched electronic noise] And now it's time to talk about history. In the quickest way I can summarize it: bird island, no humans, Māori come in from Polynesia maybe sometime around the 1200s, Māori Pa settlements established, moa bird is hunted to extinction, tribal battles for land, Abel Tasman becomes the first European to come in contact, they kind of forget about it until the British come in by like 100 years later for a while they just kind of traded with the Māori, inter-tribal wars with the new weapons that they acquired by the Europeans, missionaries, British colony, New Zealand Wars, Treaty of Waitangi (controversy with mistranslation), self-government within the British Empire, women's suffrage, massive immigration wave, World War I, they play a role in Pacific warfare against German-occupied Samoa, World War II, they play a role again in the Pacific but this time against the Japanese in Papua New Guinea, Statute of Westminster Adoption Act, Muldoon years, 1980 reforms, 1990s and early 2000s, business really starts to boom, Hone Hika, Hone Heke, Te Puea Herangi, Maui Pomare, Potato Te Wherowhero, Ernest Rutherford, Kate Sheppard, Sir Āpirana Ngata, Sir Edmund Hillary, Sir Peter Jackson, Jacinda Ardern, Russell Crowe, Jonah Lomu, Sir Colin Meads, Dame Whina Cooper, Flight of the Conchords Bruce McLaren, Katherine Mansfield, Lorde, oh, and the meme page Dolan Dark, I was told?
Yeah, quite a few cool Kiwis out there, which brings us to our next segment, the Kiwi crew. . .
their friends. . .
the friendzone. ♪♪ Alright, diplomatically speaking, New Zealand, for lack of a better term, is basically like Australia's Canada. They get along with nearly everyone and unless if it's a rugby match, it's hard to harbor any animosity towards them.
And even if it is a rugby match, it's like, "Okay you guys can win. Just do that haka thing again. " First of all, as part of numerous international organizations, New Zealand has harnessed an international network of alliances since its inception.
For one, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile have had close links as members of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. These 5 nations kind of act as like the southern gateways to Antarctica, and they hold a high level of responsibility when it comes to monitoring the south seas. China has an interesting, kind of good but kind of controversial relationship with New Zealand.
Not only have Chinese immigrants been living in New Zealand since the 19th century, but in 2008 a bold move with a free trade agreement was established, and today they are the second largest import and export partner. The problem is the housing market. Many Chinese investors have bought out property in metropolitan areas that remain unused and empty, for the purpose of real estate appreciation.
This has left many Kiwis unable to live in the houses in their own country. This has frustrated many of them for a long time, leaving them to ask the government for reforms in foreign investment policy. As a former British colony, they've always been closely linked to the UK, and UK citizens, often Scottish, choose to migrate and live in New Zealand.
Problem is. . .
distance. New Zealand is one of the furthest members in the Commonwealth from the UK and over time, the UK relations waned as the UK paid more attention to the EU. Nonetheless, they've grown up, don't need to hold Mommy's hand anymore, and they can handle their own affairs.
Then we get to the quadfecta, the USA, Canada, and Australia. There is somewhat of an unspoken, unbreakable bond between these 4. New Zealand has fought alongside the US in almost every major global event from the 20th century and on.
There was a slight hiccup in the ANZUS security treaty in the 80s in which they decided to initiate a nuclear-free zone in their territorial waters. Nonetheless, relations are still strong and they are considered one of the closest allies. Canada and New Zealand are very close, though.
They both think very similarly and are both Commonwealth nations with the same Queen as their technical head of state. Both share similar views on a variety of issues, both are the smaller versions of a bigger neighbor that gets all the attention, business, trade, and tourism is strong between them, and in a way they kind of love each other for all these reasons. When it comes to their best friend, however, as much as they love to poke fun, mock, ridicule, and spit on each other, they cannot deny that Australia is the closest.
Australia even has a clause in its constitution that allows New Zealand to become a part of their country if they should ever want to for whatever reason, although New Zealand is like, "Thanks, but no. " Australia is not only the largest trading and business partner, but also has the closest history and culture. The two have a unique Trans-Tasman agreement that states that citizens of each country can migrate and have automatic residency.
The two go hand-in-hand. However, when Australia isn't looking, Canada kind of slips in and they kind of go off on secret dates. In conclusion, as humanity's last major expedition, you can imagine how the first settlers must have felt when they approached on this unknown world of glaciers, volcanoes, glowing caves, geysers, and giant 12 foot tall bird monsters.
You don't need Lord of the Rings. New Zealand already is a real-life fantasy. Stay tuned, Nicaragua is coming up next!
