page_title: New Zealand
section_title: Cuisine
hierarchical_section_title: New Zealand / Culture / Cuisine
caption_attribution_description: English: Ingredients using for preparation on the hangi.
context_page_description: New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It comprises two main landmasses—the North Island and the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands, covering a total area of 268,021 square kilometres. New Zealand is about 2,000 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and 1,000 kilometres south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland.
  Owing to their remoteness, the islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable lands to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands, and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands.
context_section_description: The national cuisine has been described as Pacific Rim, incorporating the native Māori cuisine and diverse culinary traditions introduced by settlers and immigrants from Europe, Polynesia and Asia. New Zealand yields produce from land and sea—most crops and livestock, such as maize, potatoes and pigs, were gradually introduced by the early European settlers. Distinctive ingredients or dishes include lamb, salmon, kōura (crayfish), dredge oysters, whitebait, pāua (abalone), mussels, scallops, pipi and tuatua (both are types of New Zealand shellfish), kūmara (sweet potato), kiwifruit, tamarillo and pavlova (considered a national dish). A hāngi is a traditional Māori method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven. After European colonisation, Māori began cooking with pots and ovens and the hāngi was used less frequently, although it is still used for formal occasions such as tangihanga.
caption: Ingredients to be prepared for a hāngi
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