Introducing New Zealand

New Zealand offers a microcosm of all the world’s natural environments – active volcanoes, thermal geysers, boiling mud, ancient virgin rainforests and forests of kauri, some of the most awesome trees on earth. There are glaciers descending into rainforests, dolphins to swim with, whalewatching boat trips, or you can fish for trout in clear lakes and streams, walk on remote beaches where there are no other footprints and enjoy more than 18,000 kilometres of coastline with numerous isolated islands where you can anchor your boat.

When cruising spectacular fiords, fur seals and penguins swim and follow the boat. If you are feeling adventurous, there is heli-skiing near boiling craters, white-water and cave rafting, rock and mountain climbing, bungee jumping and skydiving. New Zealand is a unique environment with a dramatic landscape, inimitable culture, friendly people, and has a myriad of adventure activities.

THE FIRST PEOPLE

When Maori explorers arrived from Polynesia approximately 800–1,000 years ago, (although perhaps Moriori were there first) New Zealand was probably the last place on earth to be peopled. It was certainly the site of the world’s most recent violent and destructive volcanic activity. Much of the land today is still untouched by man and some areas may look a little similar to the landscape that greeted those early, fearless and daring sailors who sighted this ‘antipodal terra firma’.

The tale of the daring Maori sailor, Kupe’s discovery of New Zealand, and how his wife, Hine-te-aparangi, named the North Island of Aotearoa, ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’, is woven into the tukutuku panels found inside some of the meeting houses on different maraes. Legends describe how the rascal Maui, half god, and mythical hero, after a huge struggle fished Te Ilka-a-maui, the Great Fish Maui, the Northern Island of Aotearoa from the sea god, Tangaroa.

This tale is almost an analogy for New Zealand’s tortured landscape, which was caused by great volcanic upheavals. The resulting pyrotechnic effects were recorded by Historia Augustus, a Roman document which noted that before 186AD, the sky was ‘seen to burst into flame’. Furthermore, at about the same time the Chinese wrote of a sky that was ‘as red as blood’ for many days. Both examples are interesting evidence that places this youthful land in context with world history and is also a human record of some of the activity that created New Zealand’s spectacular ‘Middle-earth’ terrain.

Maori oral history and the School Journal taught generations of young New Zealanders the tale of how five canoes, Tainui, Aotea, Te Arawa, Tokomaru and Takitimu, arrived on the shores of New Zealand bearing descendants of each tribe. They brought the vegetable kumera, hunting and fire-making skills to a land where the plethora of vegetation allowed the growth of insects like wetas, giant crickets and also provided the habitat for the prehistoric tuatara (which was extinct in other parts of the world 100 million years ago). There was an abundance of food: shellfish, fish, flightless birds (like the three-metre-tall moa, kiwi and takahe), birds that flew but are now extinct (the native duck, many songbirds, giant geese and harriers, and the largest eagle on earth), and the edible fern root. Initially, apart from native bats, there were no mammals or predators to disturb the peace of this paradise which was home to many birds that lacked the ‘flying gene’ and never developed wings, or needed to.

Feathers and wild flax were used to make clothing, and later, as the avian population dwindled, the skins of dogs and rats, initially introduced to supplement food stocks, were also used. As the demise of the birds caused the plentiful food supply to lessen, Maori became more territorial and sought to obtain better land for cropping and to settle on, just as mankind worldwide has done throughout the centuries.

Maori discovered two islands that were quite different in New Zealand. Most welcoming was the warmer climate of the North Island with native forests, the still active and stark volcanic landscapes of Tongariro National Park and Taranaki, the inviting thermal area of Rotorua and Lake Taupo and many wonderful beaches.

In contrast, the magnificent snow-capped Southern Alps dominated the cooler, very wet and extremely rugged South Island, which, although a difficult area for crop cultivation, provided a perfect habitat for the moa, with a bountiful food supply. Here, Maori named the South Island Te Wai Pounamu after their discovery of valuable repositories of pounamu, the highly prized and more commonly named greenstone (jade or nephrite). Difficult to obtain in treacherous transalpine areas, and equally difficult to carve in what was basically a stone-age culture (there was little in the way of metal other than gold), pounamu ornaments or mere (warclubs) were greatly treasured. The mana, or prestige of these items, increased as they were passed on down through generations. Maori carved tiny man-like figures with enlarged heads and symbolic poked-out tongues of great mana, which were revered as tokens of fertility. Other shapes represented the coiled fern shape or spiral, hei matau (fishhook) or taniwha (monster) and marakihau (sea monster). Many of these carvings and figures can be seen today in the artistic and intricate traditional designs of waka (war canoes), whare whakiro (meeting houses), sacred feather boxes and other items.

Moko, facial tattoos that made Maori look very fearsome to their own kind and especially those from foreign lands, represented an individual’s ancestry. As wars were fought, mainly for land, and lost or won, an individual’s mana increased by his daring, war-like manner and prowess in battle.

In 1642, Commander Abel Tasman was the first European to sight and name Niuew Zeeland after Zeeland in Holland. He didn’t stay long, as three of his crew were murdered when he attempted to land in what he called Murderer’s Bay, now known as Golden Bay, near Nelson in the South Island where the golden sand for building construction comes from. Next, between 1769 and 1779, the renowned British explorer Captain James Cook discovered and mapped New Zealand, naming many places like Young Nicks Head in Gisborne after the lad who first sighted land. Banks Peninsula, Christchurch, which Cook thought was an island, was named after the esteemed naturalist Sir Joseph Banks.

The French also left their mark as the French explorer Jean-Francois Marie de Surville was sailing around New Zealand about the same time as Captain Cook, but the two never met, even though they were both off the coast of the North Island at about the same time. In 1838, a French whaler, Jean Langlois negotiated the sale of Banks Peninsula with Maori and later returned with 63 settlers. The British reacted promptly and raised their flag at Akaroa claiming sovereignty under The Treaty of Waitangi. Eventually the French did settle at Akaroa, which still retains a French flavour today.

LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER

Next, itinerant sealers and whalers arrived – mainly for provisions and respite from their endeavours. Sadly, in an effort to secure a living and to satisfy worldwide growing trades in consumer items like fur, whale meat, oil and bone, the hunter/traders rapidly decimated their seagoing prey. Moby Dick, Herman Melville’s engrossing tale of whaling, makes reference to the keenly sought-after preserved Maori heads, which the whalers traded as souvenirs on their travels. They also introduced prostitution, disease and firearms. Unfortunately Maori, especially Northland’s Ngapuhi tribe led by the esteemed warrior Hongi Hika, embraced this new form of weaponry and the subsequent lethal consequences of warfare. The slaughter of the Musket Wars began.

Christianity was introduced by Samuel Marsden in 1814 and the Bible was translated into Maori, the first time that Maori had a written language. During the early nineteenth century, The New Zealand Immigration Company was formed to provide assisted immigration for residents of the British Isles.

Meanwhile the Maori population continued to decline, and lawlessness between all parties prompted the English to despatch James Busby in 1833 as British Resident in an effort to protect the settlers and maintain law and order. Dubbed ‘the man of war without guns’ because of his lack of support and authority, he was succeeded by Captain William Hobson, who persuaded Maori chiefs to relinquish their sovereignty to the British Crown by signing The Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840. The Queen of England, in return, promised to protect and grant Maori people the rights and privileges of English citizens. Unfortunately, the English interpretation of The Treaty was different to Maori understanding. New Zealand’s founding document was to become a major source of conflict between different Maori tribes and government representatives culminating with the Land Wars and the confiscation of huge tracts of Maori land by the government and English troops. Unease simmered causing a dissension that continues today.

BREAKING NEW FRONTIERS ON THE SHEEP'S BACK

The export of live sheep in 1834 was the beginning of a major agricultural trade, which developed trading, primarily in wool. With the advent of refrigerated ships, the meat, butter and cheese industries thrived. In 1882 the first cargo left the South Island heading for European markets. The discovery of gold in Central Otago, South Island in 1861, just ten years after gold had put Australia on the map, led to a huge migration of Chinese, Australians and Europeans.

New Zealand became a self-governing British colony in 1856 and Maori were given the right to vote in 1867. Wellington became the capital in 1876. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, ‘King Dick’ (Richard Seddon) steered New Zealand through a phase of remarkable and sweeping social change, which included minimum wage structures, old-age pensions, the introduction of arbitration courts and children’s health services. This young, developing country, formed by pioneers keen to escape the harsh, archaic and often unjust traditions of class, sought to create a nation where all were treated in an equal and fair way by the law of the land. In a world first, suffragette Kate Sheppard lobbied to give women the vote in 1893, 25 years before the British or the Americans.

Although Europeans remained separate from Maori, who tended to retreat to isolated rural areas, intermarriage was common. By the 1900s, when the outlook was bleak, as their population had fallen to approximately 40,000, Maori developed leaders who negotiated to have a political voice and representation in Parliament. The Young Maori Party lobbied for health services and better education.

Many of the great names recognised by New Zealanders today came from this time of renewal. Apirana Ngata of the Ngati Porou tribe became Minister of Native Affairs. James Carroll, Ngati Kahungunu tribe, Maui Pomare, of Tainui and Peter Buck, Ngati Toa all lobbied the Labour Party which, on achieving power in 1935, legislated for employment equality and increased spending on education, housing and health for Maori.

Although rugby followers everywhere recognised Maori prowess on the field, there was still little interaction between both groups of New Zealanders. In the Boer War and the First World War, New Zealand supported the British and participated, incurring heavy casualties of young men, particularly Maori. One in three New Zealand men aged between 20 and 40 years were killed or wounded in the First World War. Each year New Zealanders remember the bravery of these men on Anzac Day (Australia and New Zealand Armed Corps), April 25th.

By 1947, New Zealand was fully independent and enjoying prosperity as the world economy was rebuilt and prices for agricultural products were high. Her social welfare system was the envy of many countries and New Zealanders benefited from one of the world’s highest per capita incomes. Growth of the fruit and tobacco industries which required labour encouraged immigration.

When the Korean War (1950–1953) started, Australia, New Zealand and America signed the ANZUS defence pact pledging mutual aid in the event of attack. New Zealand also joined the anti-communist SEATO (South- East Asia Treaty Organisation) and, in 1971, joined the South Pacific Forum, a platform for Pacific governments to discuss common problems.

In the late 1960s there was a revival in Maoritanga Maori culture) alongside land disputes and increased radicalism, which led to the rise of black power groups. The Race Relations Act, 1975 and the resurrection of The Treaty of Waitangi in 1994 led to the government promising a one billion dollar payout to settle Maori land claims. The Maoritanga renaissance fostered Maori language, literature and art and the establishment of Te Kohanga Reo (language nest for children).

There is still a deep-seated feeling of unease at the dominance of the European culture which occasionally erupts, especially amongst the young (for example the Maori 1995 occupation of Moutoa Gardens in Wanganui). Generally, aided by legislation, New Zealanders today have a growing awareness of Maori rights and culture and are proud of the essence that flavours this modern and unique country. The time is right for people of different cultures to respect and live alongside each other in harmony.