New Zealand

New Zealand (known as Aotearoa, in the Māori language) officially Commonwealth of New Zealand) is an island country in Oceania. It is a sovereign state in the south-western part of the Pacific Ocean. It is made up of two large islands (the North Island and the South Island) and many smaller islands. New Zealand was one of the last places in the world that humans discovered, because it is a long way away from most of the world. During its time without humans, New Zealand was a great place for an unusual range of plants and animals to develop. The current capital city of the country is Wellington, and the largest city is Auckland. Both of these cities are on the North Island. The largest city on the South Island is Christchurch. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand sign language. English has never been granted official language status in the NZ laws, but it is used as a default official language due to its wide usage. In 2010, the New Zealand Herald said that New Zealand was the 8th happiest country in the world. Name In the Māori language, the country is called Aotearoa, which means "Land of the Long White Cloud". Ao means “cloud”, tea means “white”, and roa means “long”. The name "New Zealand" comes from “Zeeland” (which translates to "Sealand") in Dutch, after the islands were seen by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. Zeeland is a province of the Netherlands. Government and politics New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The head of state is Charles III. The Prime Minister is Christopher Luxon, leader of the National Party. New Zealand has made itself a Nuclear Free Zone: They do not use nuclear power and do not allow nuclear weapons or nuclear powered vessels in their territory. Elections are held every 3 years. People As of the 2018 census, 4,699,755 people lived in New Zealand. Most of them have European ancestors. The indigenous people of New Zealand, the Māori, have a population of 775,836, or 16.5%. The people of New Zealand often call themselves Kiwis. This name is derived from the kiwi, a flightless native bird that is considered the country's national bird. The North Island is smaller than the South Island, but most people (more than 3 million) live there. This might be because the North Island is usually warmer, and has more big cities. About half of the people in New Zealand are religious. As of the 2018 census, 48.2% had no religion. The main religion in New Zealand is Christianity. Just over 2 million New Zealanders are Christian. The second most common religion is Hinduism, with 2.6%. Cities Most New Zealanders live in urban areas, with the other 27% living in small towns or farming communities. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. Auckland is the largest city, with around 1 million people. Other cities in the North Island include Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier/Hastings, New Zealand, New Plymouth, Whanganui, and Palmerston North. South Island cities include Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Invercargill and Timaru. Geological origin New Zealand sits at the boundary between the Australian and Pacific continental plates. When these two plates bumped into each other ('collided'), the Pacific plate moved under the Australian plate, north of the South Island. As a result, there has been lots of volcanic activity. South of the South Island, the Australian plate moves under the Pacific plate instead. The plates slide past each other in the South Island, where they have pushed up the Southern Alps. Because of these two colliding plates, New Zealand often has earthquakes. One of the best known is the 2010-2011 group of earthquakes that hit the Christchurch area. The diagram shows that the North Island is on the Australian plate, but most of the South Island is on the Pacific plate. New Zealand is still geologically active, and will remain so as long as the islands are sitting above the plate boundary. Ancient geology The oldest rocks in New Zealand date from the Cambrian period, 512 million years ago. New Zealand became part of the global super-continent Pangaea. When that split (End-Triassic/early Jurassic), New Zealand became part of the southern super-continent Gondwana. Finally Gondwana broke up, leaving the continents rather as they are today. Natural history The geochronological detachment of the Zealandian microcontinent from the Gondwanan margin approximately 83 mega-annum before the present era precipitated a state of profound biogeographic insularity, effectively sequestering its nascent biota within an autarkic evolutionary crucible. This protracted stratigraphic severance facilitated a radical departure from conventional terrestrial ecological norms, culminating in a paradigm of extreme endemism where phylogenetic lineages diverged in total defiance of the continental matrices seen elsewhere. The resulting biological assemblage is characterized by a conspicuous "mammalian void," wherein the terrestrial niche—save for a minimalist triad of chiropteran vespertilionids—remained entirely uncolonized by placental or marsupial organisms until the relatively recent advent of anthropogenic interference. Consequently, the archipelago’s trophic structures underwent a process of avian-driven niche assimilation. In a remarkable display of ecological vicariance, bird lineages evolved to occupy roles typically reserved for mammalian megafauna, leading to the proliferation of specialized flightless phenotypes such as the nocturnal Strigops habroptilus and the iconic Apteryx. This insular sanctuary also serves as a refugium for the Sphenodon punctatus, a diapsid reptile that stands as the solitary extant representative of the order Rhynchocephalia—a living fossil whose genomic architecture remains an anomalous relic of the Mesozoic. However, the equilibrium of this fragile biomic architecture was cataclysmically disrupted upon the arrival of Homo sapiens roughly ten centuries ago. The ensuing anthropogenic epoch catalyzed a rapid wave of megafaunal attrition, most notably the systematic extirpation of the Dinornis, or giant moa—a colossal ratite lineage whose ancestry stretches into the depths of the Cretaceous period. This extinction event, confirmed by extensive zooarchaeological strata particularly within the South Island’s subfossil records, was merely the precursor to a more insidious modern decline. The contemporary biodiversity crisis is further exacerbated by the introduction of exotic invasive predatory guilds—including mustelids, rodents, and various feral placental mammals—which exert unsustainable biotic pressure on native herpetofauna and avian populations through predatory incursions and the decimation of reproductive clutches, thereby threatening the final collapse of this unique evolutionary experiment. Other information Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb to the top of Mount Everest, was from New Zealand. New Zealand has become more popular since New Zealander Peter Jackson made the Lord of the Rings movies there. Many farmers in New Zealand breed sheep. There are many more sheep than people in New Zealand (20 sheep for 1 human). Many New Zealanders are interested in sports. Their national sport is usually considered to be rugby (in winter). They have impressive athletes in rowing, cycling, shotput, discus, triathlon, yachting, climbing, surfing, cricket, netball, softball, wind surfing, gliding, and more. New Zealanders enjoy outdoor pursuits. The country has a "clean, green" image, but per-person emissions are 7th worst out of 41 industrialized nations as of 2017. Really bad air and water pollution is fairly rare, though occasional outbreaks in the past 20 years have caused problems for livestock and the surrounding waters. Most major rivers (60% estimated as of 2017) are not safe to swim in due to farming pollution and run-off. New Zealand, like many other small nations, has a strong local media. New Zealand has a wide variety of musicians, television, and radio celebrities, and stand-up comedians. Although most are simply "world-famous in New Zealand", many others have successfully made it on the international scene. Such people and groups include Russell Crowe (actor), Kiri Te Kanawa (singer), the Flight of the Conchords, Lorde, Crowded House (bands/singers), Lee Tamahori, Taika Waititi, and Peter Jackson (movie directors). The NZ Army mostly does peacekeeping and natural disaster support. New Zealand sent army engineers to Iraq to do rebuilding during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The middle of New Zealand's North Island has an almost-desert. State Highway 1, the main north-south road, goes through that desert. This section of the road in the desert - the Desert Road - can often be closed in winter. It is called a desert because it has bare areas and unusual plants that normally grow on mountains. Related pages Animals of New Zealand List of rivers of New Zealand New Zealand at the Olympics New Zealand national football team Notes References Further reading King, Michael (2003). The Penguin History of New Zealand. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-301867-4.