NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand is a country in the south-western Pacific Ocean consisting of

two large islands (called the North Island and South Island) and many much
smaller islands. New Zealand is called Aotearoa in Māori, which translates as
the Land of the Long White Cloud.
It is notable for its geographic isolation, being separated from Australia to
the northwest by the Tasman Sea, some 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) across.
Its closest neighbours to the north are New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga.
The population of New Zealand is mostly of European descent, with Māori
being the largest minority. Non-Māori Polynesian and Asian peoples are also
significant minorities, especially in the cities.
Elizabeth II is the Queen of New Zealand and is represented in the country
by a non-political Governor-General; the Queen 'reigns but does not rule', so
she has no real political influence. Political power is held by the Prime
Minister, who is leader of the Government in the democratically-elected
Parliament of New Zealand. The Realm of New Zealand also includes the Cook
Islands and Niue, which are entirely self-governing, Tokelau, and the Ross
Dependency (New Zealand's territorial claim in Antarctica).
 HISTORY

New Zealand is one of the most recently settled major land masses.
Polynesian settlers arrived in their waka some time between the 13th century
and the 15th century to establish the indigenous Māori culture. Settlement of
the Chatham Islands to the east of the New Zealand mainland produced the
Moriori people, but it is disputed whether they moved there from New Zealand
or elsewhere in Polynesia. Most of New Zealand was divided into tribal
territories called rohe, resources within which were controlled by an iwi
('nation'). Māori adapted to eating the local marine resources, flora and fauna
for food, hunting the giant flightless moa (which soon became extinct), and ate
the Polynesian Rat and kumara (sweet potato), which they introduced to the
country.
The first Europeans known to have reached New Zealand were led by Abel
Janszoon Tasman, who sailed up the west coasts of the South and North Islands
in 1642. He named it Staten Landt, believing it to be part of the land Jacob Le
Maire had discovered in 1616 off the coast of Chile. Staten Landt appeared on
Tasman's first maps of New Zealand, but this was changed by Dutch
cartographers to Nova Zeelandia, after the Dutch province of Zeeland, some
time after Hendrik Brouwer proved the supposedly South American land to be
an island in 1643. The Latin Nova Zeelandia became Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch.
Lieutenant James Cook subsequently called the archipelago New Zealand,
although the Māori names he recorded for the North and South Islands (as
Aehei No Mouwe and Tovy Poenammu respectively) were rejected, and the
main three islands became known as North, Middle and South, with the Middle
Island being later called the South Island, and the earlier South Island
becoming Stewart Island. Cook began extensive surveys of the islands in 1769,
leading to European whaling expeditions and eventually significant European
colonisation. From as early as the 1780s, Māori had encounters with European
sealers and whalers. Acquisition of muskets by those iwi in close contact with
European visitors destabilised the existing balance of power between Māori
tribes and there was a temporary but intense period of bloody inter-tribal
warfare, known as the Musket Wars, which ceased only when all iwi were so
armed.
Concern about the exploitation of Māori by Europeans, Church Missionary
Society lobbying and French interest in the region led the British to annex New
Zealand by Royal Proclamation in January 1840. To legitimise the British
annexation, Lieutenant Governor William Hobson had been dispatched in 1839;
he hurriedly negotiated the Treaty of Waitangi with northern iwi on his arrival.
The Treaty was signed in February, and in recent years it has come to be seen
as the founding document of New Zealand. The Māori translation of the treaty
promised the Māori tribes "tino rangatiratanga" would be preserved in return
for ceding kawanatanga, which the English version translates as "chieftainship"
and "sovereignty"; the real meanings are now disputed. Disputes over land
sales and sovereignty caused the New Zealand land wars, which took place
between 1845 and 1872. In 1975 the Treaty of Waitangi Act established the
Waitangi Tribunal, charged with hearing claims of Crown violations of the
Treaty of Waitangi. Some Māori tribes and the Moriori never signed the treaty.
New Zealand was initially administered as a part of the colony of New
South Wales, and it became a separate colony in 1841. The first capital was
Okiato or old Russell in the Bay of Islands but it soon moved to Auckland.
European settlement progressed more rapidly than anyone anticipated, and
settlers soon outnumbered Māori. Self-government was granted to the settler
population in 1852. There were political concerns following the discovery of
gold in Central Otago in 1861 that the South Island would form a separate
colony, so in 1865 the capital was moved to the more central city of Wellington.
New Zealand was involved in a Constitutional Convention in March 1891 in
Sydney, New South Wales, along with the Australian colonies. This was to
consider a potential constitution for the proposed federation between all the
Australasian colonies. New Zealand lost interest in joining Australia in a
federation following this convention, though the Australian Constitution still
includes provision for New Zealand to be included.
In 1893 New Zealand became the first nation to grant full voting rights to
women.
New Zealand became an independent dominion on 26 September 1907, by
Royal Proclamation. Full independence was granted by the United Kingdom
Parliament with the Statute of Westminster in 1931; it was taken up upon the
Statute's adoption by the New Zealand Parliament in 1947. Since then New
Zealand has been a sovereign constitutional monarchy within the
Commonwealth of Nations. Compare Declaration of the Independence of New
Zealand.

I - New Zealand Land Wars:

The term New Zealand Wars, once called the Māori Wars, or sometimes
The Land Wars, refers to a series of conflicts that took place in New Zealand
between 1845 and 1872. The wars were fought over disputed land being sold to
the settling population of, by the various tribes, and so involved both the native
Māori, and the new European settlers, known as the Pākehā, who were assisted
by thousands of experienced British or Imperial troops. During the conflict, 16
British servicemen were awarded the Victoria Cross.
 The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840,
stated that the individual Māori tribes
should have undisturbed possession of
their lands, forests, fisheries and other
taonga (treasures). Some early colonial
land-sale deals had a dubious basis, to say
the least, and the parties involved
sometimes hurried them through before the
signing of the treaty. To avoid such
situations happening again, the newly-
constituted British colonial authorities
decreed that Māori could sell land only to
the Government. However, many settlers
did not appreciate that Māori owned land
communally and that permission to settle
on land did not always imply sale of that
land. Under pressure from settlers the om at the Auckland War Memorial
Colonial Government gradually ignored Museum commemorates those who
the provisions of the Treaty of Waitangi died, both European and Maori, in the
New Zealand Wars. "Kia mate toa"
and permitted settlers to settle in areas that can be translated as "fight unto death"
had uncertain ownership. The Māori began or "be strong in death", and is the
resisting the alienation of their homelands motto of the Otago and Southland
Regiment of the New Zealand Army.
to the British settlers: the whole process
sowed the seeds of war.

1. The conflicts:
The first skirmish of the New Zealand Wars was the 1843 Wairau Affray at
the north end of the South Island. It was an isolated incident caused by the
Nelson settlers trying to seize land they did not own, an extra-legal vigilante
action that resulted in 22 of them being killed.
The Flagstaff War took place in the far north of New Zealand, around the
Bay of Islands, in March 1845 and January 1846. This was about mana—tribal
prestige—and customs duties. It was really a war between rival Māori chiefs
with the British fighting on one side for the prestige of the British Empire.
This was followed almost immediately by the Hutt Valley Campaign, March
to August 1846, and the Wanganui Campaign, April to July 1847, in the south-
west of the North Island. Both of these conflicts were about the encroachment
of the European settlers onto Māori land.
In the first three wars the Māori fought the British to a standstill each time.
They had no wish to beat the British or to drive them from New Zealand. From
the engagements emerged an understanding: English law prevailed in the
townships and settlements, and Māori law and customs elsewhere. There
followed a period of relative peace and economic cooperation from 1848 to
1860.
During this time European settlement accelerated and in about 1859 the
number of Pākehā came to equal the number of Māori, at around 60,000 each.
By now Pākehā had largely forgotten the painful lessons of the earlier conflicts.
They tried to use military might to push through a very dubious land sale that
one of their own courts later repudiated. The result was the First Taranaki War.
Once again the British military machine found itself more than evenly matched
by Māori, and after 12 months both sides were happy to settle for a draw.
However this was clearly just a preliminary. Pākehā were not prepared to
countenance Māori controlling and ruling most of the North Island. War broke
out again in 1863 with the Invasion of the Waikato. The Waikato War, including
the Tauranga Campaign, was the biggest of all the New Zealand Wars. The
outcome of this war was the major confiscation of Māori land, which quickly
provoked the Second Taranaki War. By the mid 1860s the conflict had forced
the closing of all the native schools.
The period from the second half of 1864 until early 1868 was relatively
quiet. Possibly the most notorious incident during this time was the murder of
the missionary Carl Volkner. There were also two serious intra-tribal conflicts,
civil wars in Māori tribes, between adherents and non-adherents of the Pai
Marire or Hau Hau sect—a vehemently anti-Pākehā religious group which was
intent upon destabilizing the developing cooperation between the Māori and
Pākehā. These are sometimes known as the East Cape War, but that label
oversimplifies a complicated series of conflicts.
The last major conflicts were Te Kooti's War and Titokowaru's War. These
were fought at the same time but were not related to each other and should be
considered as separate conflicts.
This virtually ended the major, violent conflicts between the new colonial
government and the original occupants of the land.
There were subsequently other conflicts and incidents that were a part of the
overall conflict, but are not usually seen in the context of the New Zealand
Wars. The invasion of Parihaka in 1880 was certainly one of these. There was
an incident in the 1890s that became known as the Dog Tax War. Another was
the arrest of Rua Kenana in 1916. It is even possible that events at Bastion
Point in the 1970s should be considered as part of the same scenario.
The legacy of the New Zealand Wars continues, but these days the battles
are mostly fought in courtrooms and around the negotiation table. A number of
major historical treaty claims have been settled since the 1980s, generally with
a formal apology by the government, the exchange of money and return of
Crown-owned land - see: Waitangi Tribunal, Maori Land Court, Waitangi
Treaty Claims and Grievances.
[edit]
The protagonists
In 1859 the Europeans in New Zealand reached numerical parity with
Māori, at about 60,000 each. However neither population was stable. The
Māori population was declining so fast that some people saw their extinction as
a distinct possibility. Meanwhile immigrant ships were arriving from Britain on
an almost weekly basis. As early as 1841 one Māori asked if the whole British
tribe was moving to New Zealand.
There were other inequalities. The imperial troops were supplied and paid
for by Britain and not by the fledging colony. So Māori were fighting against
the economic base of industrial Britain. On the other hand, Māori had an
agrarian economy - their warriors were also their farmers and food gatherers.
As such they were limited to periods of only two or three months campaigning
each year before they had to return to their home base. They developed a
system of rotating shifts for the longer conflicts but were never able to deploy
their entire force.
The Invasion of the Waikato was by far, the largest conflict. The Colonial
side mustered some 18,000 men, with a peak deployment of possibly 14,000.
Opposing them were 4,000-5,000 Māori, of whom only about half were
actively involved at any one time.
None of the wars were simple two-sided conflicts. To some degree there
were four sides to each war.
There were always Māori on both sides of the conflict— fighting for and
against the British. In the Flagstaff War the Māori allies were wholly
independent of British command: Tamati Waka Nene was at war with Hone
Heke. Indeed, the only really serious engagement of the war, the Battle of
Waimate Pa, where the two forces met and fought with determination, did not
involve the British at all.
By the 1870s, in Te Kooti's War, there were Māori fighting as part of the
Colonial Forces. Ngati Porou formed their own regiment. In the latter stages —
the hunt for Te Kooti through the Urewera Ranges — some incidents were once
again Māori fighting Māori. Usually, though, Māori fought as allies, not as
subordinates. When their interests diverged from Pākehā interests they tended
to go their own way.
Māori were fighting Pākehā. They too can be divided into two groups. One
was the British imperial forces — the combined forces of the British Empire
including Australians going overseas to war for the first time. The other was
formed of the various militia formed from the settlers, answerable to the New
Zealand Government, not to London. (These units eventually evolved into the
New Zealand Army). The first war was fought by imperial forces, probably
assisted informally by a few settlers. The Taranaki War involved organized
units of settler militia. The British Government was increasingly reluctant to
become involved in New Zealand Wars. To get its support for the Invasion of
the Waikato, Governor George Grey had to present a false picture of the
seriousness of the situation to the Colonial Office in London. What became
known as the Second Taranaki War was basically the reaction of the Māori to
the wholesale confiscation of their land by the colonial government who
originally used imperial troops for this, but the commander, General Duncan
Cameron, resigned in protest. Shortly after this the last British troops were
withdrawn from the country.
There were a few Pākehā who fought for the Māori; not many, but there
always were some arrivals in New Zealand who identified completely with the
Māori. They were know as Pākehā Māori, meaning strangers who have become
Māori. Perhaps the most notorious was Kimball Bent, who acted as
Titokowaru's armourer and later became a noted tohunga (priest).
It is also important to note the existence of a significant anti-war movement
among Pākehā. Led by the Anglican Church Missionary Society and a number
of prominent humanitarians, this group opposed government aggression and the
confiscation of land. Members included Bishop George Augustus Selwyn,
Archdeacon Octavius Hadfield, Sir William Martin and other public figures.
Most active during the first Taranaki War, the group divided over the
government's invasion of the Waikato and response to the Kingitanga.
Eventually some chose to support the government, a decision they immediately
regretted as the Maori backlash placed missionary lives in danger. Selwyn, in
particular, suffered from his association with the invasion and had to leave the
country in disgrace. Some missionaries later tried to prevent wholesale
confiscation of Maori land, but were ignored by a government blinded by
greed.
A group or category that is seldom mentioned or considered in the histories
is the half-castes, the people of mixed Māori and Pākehā descent, of which
there would have been several thousand in New Zealand at the time of the
Wars. That is probably because then (as now) they did not constitute an
identifiable, separate, group. They saw themselves as either Māori or Pākehā
and chose their sides according to other criteria.

2. Strategy and tactics:

The British Army were professional soldiers who had experienced fighting
in various parts of the Empire, many from India and Afghanistan. They were
led by officers who were themselves trained by men who fought at Waterloo.
The Māori fighters were warriors from many generations of warrior—survivors
of the Musket Wars, 20 years of bitter inter-tribal fighting. It has to be said that
one of the reasons for the First New Zealand War was curiosity by the Māori
warriors to see what kind of fighters these Pākehā soldiers were.
Both sides found their opponent's way of waging war totally
incomprehensible. The British set out to fight a European-style war, one that
had worked for them almost everywhere else in the world. When you find an
enemy strongpoint or town you attack it. Your enemy feels obliged to defend
the strongpoint. Either there is a battle, or you besiege and then capture the
strongpoint. Theoretically you win and the enemy loses. Conversely Māori
fought for mana and economic advantage, originally slaves and goods or
control of lands, and for the challenge of a good battle.
The first British action of the Flagstaff War was the capture and destruction
of Pomare's Pa near Kororareka. This was a substantial Māori settlement so it
seemed like a British victory, but all the Māori warriors escaped with their arms
so they did not see it as defeat.
The British then set out to do the same to Kawiti's Pa at Puketapu. But this
was not a residential settlement, it was a purpose-built strong point with only
one objective; to invite attack by the British. It was several kilometres inland,
across very difficult country—steep gullies, dense, bush clad hills and thick,
sticky mud. Getting there was a major expedition. The British troops were
already exhausted when they arrived in front of the pa. The next day they tried
a frontal attack and discovered that the bush and gullies they were advancing
through and across were full of hostile warriors. Some of the British troops
reached the palisade and discovered that attacking thick wooden walls with
muskets was not effective. After several hours of costly but indecisive
skirmishing, the British withdrew. Fortunately for them, their Māori allies were
able to feed them and they were not attacked by their Māori enemies on the
retreat back to the coast.
The attack on Puketapu Pa was typical of Māori-British warfare. Māori
would build a fortified pa, sometimes provocatively close to a British fort or
redoubt, and the British would feel they had to attack it. Their aim was always
to bring the Māori to battle where they knew they could inflict a decisive
defeat. In European warfare besieging an enemy fortress usually provoked a
battle. However the Māori also knew that they would probably lose heavily in
open conflict—indeed they did on the few times that it happened. Generally
they were successful in avoiding it.
A Māori pa was not the same as a European fortress, but it took the British
years to appreciate the difference—perhaps not until after the First World War.
The word “pa” meant a fortified Māori village or community. They were
always built with a view to defence, but primarily they were residential.
Puketapu Pa and then Ohaeawai Pa were the first of the so-called “modern pa”.
They were built to engage enemies armed with muskets and cannon. A strong
wooden palisade was fronted with woven flax leaves (Phormium tenax) whose
tough, stringy foliage took a lot of penetrating. The palisade was probably lifted
a few centimetres from the ground so that muskets could be fired from
underneath it rather than over the top. Sometimes there were apparent gaps in
the pallisade, which led to killing traps. There were trenches and rifle pits to
protect the occupants and, later, very effective bomb shelters. They were
usually built so that they were almost impossible to surround completely, but
usually presented at least one exposed face to invite attack from that direction.
They were cheap and easily built—the L-Pa at Waitara was built by 80 men
overnight—and they were completely expendable. Time and again the British
would mount an elaborate, often lengthy, expedition to besiege an annoying pa,
which would absorb their bombardment and possibly one or two attacks and
then be abandoned by the Māori. Shortly afterwards a new pa would appear in
another inaccessible site. Pa like this were built in their dozens particularly
during the First Taranaki War, where they eventually formed a cordon
surrounding New Plymouth.
For a long time the modern pa effectively neutralised the overwhelming
disparity in numbers and armaments. At Ohaeawai Pa in 1845, at Rangiriri in
1864 and again at Gate Pa in 1864 the British and Colonial Forces discovered
that frontal attacks on a defended pa proved both ineffective and extremely
costly. At Gate Pa during the Tauranga Campaign in 1864 Māori withstood a
day-long bombardment in their bomb shelters. One authority calculated that
Gate Pa absorbed in one day a greater weight of explosives per square metre
than did the German trenches in the week-long bombardment leading up to the
Battle of the Somme. The palisade being destroyed, the British troops rushed
the pa whereupon the Māori fired on them from hidden trenches, killing 38 and
injuring many more in the most costly battle for the Pākehā of the New Zealand
Wars. The troops retired and the Maori then abandoned the pa.
British troops and later the colonial forces never captured a completed and
defended pa, but they did learn how to neutralise the problem. Although cheap
and easy to build, a modern pa did require a significant input of labour and
resources. By the wholesale destruction of the Māori economic base in the area
around the pa, causing the destruction of tribal society, they were sometimes
able to render them unaffordable. This was the reasoning behind the bush-
scouring expeditions of Chute and McDonnell in the Second Taranaki War.
However, the biggest problem for Māori was that their society was ill-
adapted to supporting a sustained campaign. The Māori warrior was a civilian
part-time fighter who could not afford to be away from home for too long. The
British force consisted of professional soldiers supported by an economic
system capable of sustaining them in the field almost indefinitely. While the
British found it difficult to defeat the Māori in battle, they were able to outlast
them in war.
The two final New Zealand Wars, those of Te Kooti and Titokowaru,
present an interesting contrast. Titokowaru used the pa system to such
devastating effect that, at one stage the New Zealand Government thought they
had lost the war - see Titokowaru's War. Te Kooti, on the other hand,
functioned well as guerilla leader but showed little or no skill in fighting from a
fixed position. He had ill-built pa, inadequately supplied, and he held on to
them for too long. Te Kooti's War ended due to his defeat at Nga Tapa and Te
Porere.
 LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND EXTERNAL TERRITORIES

A map of New Zealand showing the major

cities and towns
The early European settlers divided New
Zealand into provinces. These were abolished
in 1876 so that government could be
centralised, for financial reasons. As a result,
New Zealand has no separately represented
subnational entities such as provinces, states or
territories, apart from its local government. The
spirit of the provinces however still lives on,
and there is fierce rivalry exhibited in sporting
and cultural events. Since 1876, local
government has administered the various
regions of New Zealand. In 1989, the
government completely reorganised local
government, implementing the current two-tier
structure of regional councils and territorial
authorities.
Today New Zealand has 12 regional
councils for the administration of
environmental and transport matters and 74 territorial authorities that
administer roading, sewerage, building consents, and other local matters. The
territorial authorities are 16 city councils, 57 district councils, and the Chatham
Islands County Council. Four of the territorial councils (one city and three
districts) and the Chatham Islands County Council also perform the functions
of a regional council and thus are known as unitary authorities. Territorial
authority districts are not subdivisions of regional council districts, and a few of
them straddle regional council boundaries.
Regions are (asterisks denote unitary authorities): Northland, Auckland,
Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu-
Wanganui, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Tasman, West Coast, Canterbury,
Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands.
As a major South Pacific nation, New Zealand has a close working
relationship with many Pacific Island nations, and continues a political
association with the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau. New Zealand operates
Scott Base in its Antarctic territory, the Ross Dependency. Other countries also
use Christchurch to support their Antarctic bases and the city is sometimes
known as the "Gateway to Antarctica".
 GEOGRAPHY

A satellite image of New

Zealand. Lake Taupo and
Mount Ruapehu are visible
in the centre of the North
Island. The Southern Alps
and the rain shadow they
create are clearly visible in
the South Island
New Zealand comprises
two main islands (called the
North and South Islands in
English, Te-Ika-a-Maui and
Te Wai Pounamu in Māori)
and a number of smaller
islands. The total land area
of New Zealand, 268,680
square kilometres (103,738
sq mi), is a little less than
that of Japan and a little
more than the United
Kingdom. The country
extends more than
1,600 kilometres
(1,000 miles) along its main, north-north-east axis. The most significant of the
smaller inhabited islands of New Zealand include Stewart Island/Rakiura;
Waiheke Island, in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf; Great Barrier Island, east of the
Hauraki Gulf; and the Chatham Islands, named Rekohu by Moriori. The
country has extensive marine resources, with the fifth-largest Exclusive
Economic Zone in the world, covering over four million square kilometres (1.5
million sq mi), more than 15 times its land area.
The South Island is the largest land mass, and is divided along its length by
the Southern Alps, the highest peak of which is Aoraki/Mount Cook,
3,754 metres (12,316 ft). There are 18 peaks of more than 3,000 metres
(9,800 ft) in the South Island. The North Island is less mountainous than the
South, but is marked by volcanism. The tallest North Island mountain, Mount
Ruapehu (2,797 m / 9,176 ft), is an active cone volcano. The dramatic and
varied landscape of New Zealand has made it a popular location for the
production of television programmes and films, including the Lord of the Rings
trilogy.
 The climate throughout the country is mild,
mostly cool temperate to warm temperate, with
temperatures rarely falling below 0°C (32°F) or
rising above 30°C (86°F). Conditions vary from wet
and cold on the West Coast of the South Island to dry
and continental in the Mackenzie Basin of inland
Canterbury and subtropical in Northland. Of the
main cities, Christchurch is the driest, receiving only Aoraki/Mount Cook is the
tallest mountain in New
some 640 mm (25 in) of rain per year. Auckland, the Zealand
wettest, receives a little less than three times that
amount.

CULTURE

Contemporary Pākehā New Zealand

has a diverse contemporary culture with
influences from English, Scottish, Irish,
and Māori cultures, along with those of
other European cultures and - more
recently - Polynesian (including Samoan,
Tongan, Niuean, Cook Islands Māori,
Tahitian, and Hawai'ian) and southern
and southeast Asian (Indian, Chinese,
Korean, Cambodian, and Japanese) Twilight bagpipe band practice, Napier
cultures. There were many people from
Scotland amongst the early British settlers and elements of their culture persist;
New Zealand is said to have more pipebands than Scotland. Cultural links
between New Zealand and the UK are maintained by a common language,
sustained migration from the UK and the fact that many young New Zealanders
spend time in the UK on their "overseas experience" (OE).
Pre-European contact Māori culture had no metal tools, relying on stone and
wood. Māori culture survives as Māori continue to support and develop their
culture on their own terms and conditions - much as any other living and
thriving culture does in the world.
Use of the Māori language (Te Reo Māori) as a living, community language
remained only in a few remote areas in the post-war years, but is currently
undergoing a renaissance, thanks in part to Māori language medium schools
and a Māori television channel after being set up from recommendations set
down by the Waitangi Tribunal. Māori Television is the only nationwide
television channel in New Zealand to have the majority of its prime time
content delivered in Māori ( sometimes with sub-titles in English). Māori
Television is also the only television channel that tries to generate new content
in Māori and subtitles English programmes in Māori. None of the other
television channels present a substantial number of Māori programmes, or
subtitle English language programmes in Māori, despite the fact that it is an
official language equal to English.
New Zealand's landscape has appeared in a number of television
programmes and films. In particular, the television series Hercules: The
Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess were filmed around
Auckland, and the film Heavenly Creatures in Christchurch. The television
series The Tribe is set and filmed in New Zealand. New Zealand director Peter
Jackson shot the epic The Lord of the Rings film trilogy in various locations
around the country, taking advantage of the spectacular and relatively unspoiled
landscapes, and Mount Taranaki was used as a stand-in for Mount Fuji in The
Last Samurai. The latest of such major international films to be released are
King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
I – The three "R's":
The three "R's" of New Zealand culture are Rugby, Racing and beeR. This
cultural image probably has its origins in colonial agricultural New Zealand,
when hard farm work such as harvesting, shearing and droving took place in
hot summer conditions.
The large number of soldiers who left New Zealand to fight in the First and
Second World Wars and their subsequent socialising have contributed to this
image. Commander of 2nd New Zealand Division, General Bernard Freyberg,
famously stated that all his troops wanted for happiness was the three Fs -
Feeding, Fighting and "procreation".
Although less obvious today, in the past team sports, particularly Rugby
union, gambling on horse races, and sharing a beer after a hard day's work with
some good friends or work mates have been significant images of New Zealand
life. This predominantly working-class male cultural image has previously been
so strong that it has overshadowed other, perhaps higher, cultural aspects of
New Zealand society.
Sporting and outdoor activities still play a significant part in the recreation
of New Zealanders. Participation in a sport, rather than mere spectating, is
considered a worthy pursuit. Team sports and sporting abilities are generally
held in high regard, with top-performing players often becoming celebrities.
However, New Zealanders can often be scathing when national sports teams
and athletes lose. Anecdotal evidence suggests that domestic violence may
increase when a NZ team has suffered a loss.

II – Kiwi:
 1. The word:
Kiwi (usually capitalised) has been applied to and adopted by New
Zealanders as a nickname for themselves and as an adjective for their culture. It
originates from kiwi (usually uncapitalised), the Māori word for several species
of a flightless bird endemic to New Zealand. The plural form for New
Zealanders is always Kiwis. The plural forms for the birds are the anglicised
kiwis or, following the Māori language, kiwi without an s.
Kiwi (bird) logos are often associated with New Zealand military forces and
New Zealand goods. The association probably originated during WWI when
the ANZACS of Australia and New Zealand introduced Kiwi shoe polish to the
allied trenches. It was widely used by British and American armies during that
war.
The New Zealand dollar is often called the Kiwi dollar (or just the Kiwi)
and the bird's image appears on both the 20 cent and one dollar coins.
Non-New Zealanders sometimes use the word Kiwi to refer to the kiwifruit,
also known as the Chinese Gooseberry. New Zealanders generally use the full
term to refer to the fruit.

2. Kiwiana:
Items and icons from New Zealand's cultural heritage are often called
Kiwiana. The word "Kiwiana" originated in 1956. It was registered as a
trademark in 1980, but the originator did not complete the registration which
left the name to become available for general use in New Zealand.
Well-known kiwiana include:
• All Blacks — national Rugby Union team.
• Black singlet — worn by many farmers, shearers as well as
representative athletes.
• Buzzy Bee — child's toy.
• Chocolate fish — pretty self evident, really.
• Claytons — originally a non alcoholic spirit, advertised as The drink
you have when you're not having a drink, that did not gain market
acceptance; now refers to any form of inferior substitute. This term is
primarily used among those generations old enough to remember the
original drink.
• Gumboots, calf length rubber boots, (designed to be puddle and cow-
pat proof, not for fetishists).
• Kiwi — native bird; its stylised image or shape frequently appears on
things associated with New Zealand.
• Kiwifruit — fruit from a vine originating in China but selectively
bred by New Zealand horticulturalists to obtain egg-sized fruit with
 green or gold flesh. In New Zealand it was originally called "Chinese
gooseberry".
• L&P — Lemon & Paeroa, a popular soft drink.
• Paua — the polished shell of the native paua (abalone) shellfish,
turned into jewellery and souvenirs. Once considered kitsch, it is
starting to regain its popularity.
• Pavlova - a light and fluffy meringue dessert named after the ballet
dancer, Anna Pavlova
• Silver fern — native plant; its stylised image or shape is displayed by
many of the national sports teams.
• Hei-tiki — Māori neck pendant. Tourist variety in green plastic are
the definitively tasteless depths of kiwiana.
• Footrot Flats — popular cartoon strip by Murray Ball.
• Jandals — beach footwear with a bit of sole but very little else.
• Vegemite - a dark and salty spread made from yeast extract by Kraft
Foods - similar to Marmite.
There are Kiwiana sections in many New Zealand museums, and some are
dedicated to showing Kiwiana only.

III – Attitudes:
The remoteness of many parts of New Zealand and the distance of the
country from much of the developed world meant that things that were easily
obtainable in other parts of the world were often not readily available locally.
New Zealand has only recently experienced economic development outside
farming, so traditionally, Kiwis are jacks-of-all-trades to some extent, willing to
roll up their sleeves and have a go. Most highly industrialised countries
produce experts trained in narrow fields of specialisation, but New Zealand
professionals are often generalists as well. This reputation often makes New
Zealanders uniquely valued employees in overseas organisations.
This has given rise to the attitudes "She'll be right, mate" as well as "Kiwi
ingenuity".

1. She'll be right, mate

This is an attitude that the situation, repairs, or whatever has been done is
adequate or sufficient for what is needed. This is often perceived as
carelessness, especially when a failure occurs.

2. Kiwi ingenuity
Kiwi ingenuity is a "can-do" attitude that any problem or situation can be
solved, despite apparently insurmountable odds, and the meagrest of resources.
While this attitude occasionally leads to spectacular failure if inadequately
prepared, it has also helped motivate many world-first innovations. Examples
of these include Richard Pearse's aircraft flights, some nine months earlier than
the Wright brothers (but unfortunately rather uncontrolled), the invention of
aerial topdressing, Bill Hamilton's jetboat propulsion, the Rotary Cow Shed,
John Britten's V-1000 Superbike, Bob Semple's "Tank" and the Taranaki gate.
This attitude is a matter of pride and national identity, summed up in the saying
"If anybody can a Kiwi can". Another closely related expression is the "No. 8
wire" attitude, meaning that anything can be fixed with the most make-shift and
basic materials. Australians and Americans have similar expressions involving
coat hangers and duct tape.

3. Conformism
While New Zealand, like Australia, prides itself as being more egalitarian
than Britain, there is a degree of inverse snobbery known as the 'Tall Poppy
Syndrome', in which people who are seen as (over) ambitious and having ideas
above their station are cut down to size. This is also known as the 'Great Kiwi
Clobbering Machine', and has prompted many of the country's best and
brightest to emigrate.
Kiwis typically undersell their achievements and abilities — not many
would label themselves an 'expert', even when others might use this title for
them. This and their typically laid-back attitude contrast with the more assertive
approach typical of Americans, who often appear brash and overbearing to New
Zealanders.
A lack of diversity and intelligent analysis in local media leads to some New
Zealanders feeling alienated and under-represented. This has led to a strong
sub-culture of satire, sarcasm and withdrawal from the mainstream.
Although this sub-culture is not peculiar to youth, until recently New
Zealand had the highest youth suicide rate in the OECD. (It is sometimes
suggested that this may be due the seasonal affective disorder blamed for
similarly high rates in Scandinavia. This is based on the common perception
that New Zealand is very southern, whereas in fact the whole country is closer
to the equator that any part of England or Holland).

4. Anti-intellectualism
New Zealanders are practical people and generally dislike intellectual
pretension. Academics are not highly valued in New Zealand culture, and
people who get their hands dirty and muck in are appreciated more. An insult
directed to people seen as too theoretical is "intellectual wanker."
 5. Attribution
Because New Zealanders often have to relocate to achieve worldwide fame
and fortune, New Zealanders are keen to claim famous people as being New
Zealanders, however short their residency in New Zealand might have been.
While people born in New Zealand are certainly identified as New Zealanders,
those who attended a New Zealand school or resided in New Zealand also
qualify, irrespective of national origin. This sometimes leads to famous people
and innovations being identified as coming from both New Zealand and
another country — such as the pop groups Crowded House and Split Enz, the
Pavlova dessert, the race horse Phar Lap and the actors Sam Neill and Russell
Crowe, all of whom have been claimed both by Aussies and by Kiwis as theirs.
However, New Zealanders are generally quick to disown controversial or
unpopular figures such as Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
Because New Zealand loses much of its talent to other countries, anything
from 'Overseas' is seen as holding more cultural capital than the local
equivalent, regardless of its quality. This means that New Zealanders are often
lured to the performances of "international acts". This is exacerbated by New
Zealand's isolation and small population causing it to be skipped by the
international tours of all but the most commercially successful musicians and
performers.
The flipside to this phenomenon is that famous people from overseas can
claim an affinity with New Zealand with relatively little resistance from the
locals. The quick way to the heart of the New Zealand audience is to visit
repeatedly within a short space of time. This technique has been used to good
effect by semi-popular musicians such as Michael Franti, Ben Harper and Jack
Johnson, and also by Lyndon B. Johnson to convince New Zealand to send
troops to Vietnam.

6. Social conservatism and social progressiveness

While New Zealand has pioneered social reforms, including votes for
women, the welfare state, and respecting indigenous culture, its society can also
be conservative in outlook. Until the late 1960s pubs would close at 6pm, (a
restriction introduced in World War 1), while until 1980 shops were closed all
weekend. Both restrictions were considered attempts to preserve family life, but
as the country became more urbanised and people's leisure activities more
consumer-oriented, people found the restrictions stifling. Criticism centred on
the observation that other countries had more liberal opening hours, and
overseas tourists were uncatered for on weekends. In 1986, all restrictions on
shopping hours were repealed, but it wasn't until 1999 that alcohol could be
sold to the general public on Sundays.
 The current government has pursued a programme of liberal legislation. In
their current term of office, prostitution was decriminalised, the legal drinking
age was lowered from 20 to 18, and in December 2004 civil union laws were
passed, and then fully implemented on 26 April 2005. The reforms give legal
recognition to lesbian and gay relationships, as well as providing heterosexual
couples with an alternative to formal marriage. New Zealand also has one of
the world's most liberal attitudes to the migration of gay couples.

7. Macho culture
New Zealand's history has been dominated by physical labour. This led to a
macho culture which discouraged discussion and emphasised 'getting in and
doing it.' Such attitudes have spilled into most aspects of New Zealand culture,
with theoretical or spiritual pursuits taking up less of the nation's energy than
driving cars and playing rugby. Even where New Zealanders have excelled
intellectually, there has often been a strong mechanical or physical component
to their pursuits (e.g. engineering or rocket science).
While New Zealand men often take pride in being 'strong, silent types', this
attitude may have a downside in contributing to New Zealand having one of the
highest suicide rates among young males in the industrialised world. It could
also be an example of semiotic mythology and thus exaggerated out of
proportion.

8. Regionalism and parochialism

While small in comparison to Australia or the US, there are regional
differences in New Zealand, either between the North Island and South Island,
or increasingly, between Auckland and the rest of the country. Auckland is the
largest city, and dominates New Zealand economically. The New Zealand
Herald, despite its name, is the daily newspaper of Auckland and the
surrounding region, not the national newspaper. Aucklanders (sometimes
known as Jafas — Just Another F***ing Aucklander) dismiss anywhere 'south
of the Bombay Hills', as backward, in much the same way as Londoners
dismiss anywhere 'North of Watford', while people from the rest of New
Zealand regard Aucklanders as self-centred, brash and crass, sharing many of
the characteristics of Sydneysiders in Australia (Auckland, with its harbours,
has been described as a 'Clayton's [i.e. ersatz] Sydney'). The popular saying
"New Zealand stops at the Bombay Hills" is thus used equally no matter which
side of the hills the speaker happens to live on or be referring to. The most
identifiable form of provincial rivalry is rugby's National Provincial
Championship (NPC), where the chief provincial rivalries are that of Otago and
Canterbury, and Auckland and Wellington.
 9. Anti-government attitudes
Following the experiences of the 1980s (1981 Springbok tour,
Rogernomics) and 1990s (Ruthanasia, "User-pays") there is a profound distrust
of politicians in New Zealand. A national survey of 'most trusted occupations'
ranked politicians the least trustworthy, and New Zealanders do tend to monitor
the credibility and performance of their elected officials, usually with a focus
on what they do wrong rather than making sure they do well. Despite New
Zealanders' lack of trust in politicians New Zealand is rated the second least
corrupt nation in the world (Transparency International, 2004) . Public distrust
of politicians also manifested itself clearly in two recent referenda, on
'Proportional Representation' and on 'Extending the Parliamentary Term'. In
both cases the general public seemed to establish in their minds what the
politicians wanted and then voted almost 90 per cent against it. The national
media and blogosphere often presents harsh criticism of elected figures.

10. Apathy
In contrast to the above, many people are apathetic about local government
issues, with turnout as low as 10% for local body election in 2004. Turnout for
non-compulsory Central Government elections is normally above 80%.

11. "Fair go"

The attitude of "everybody deserves a fair go" seems to originate from the
anti-class bias of 19th Century immigrants from the United Kingdom. This
egalitarian ethic is the motivation behind much of the social liberalism and
welfare legislation mentioned above.

IV – Arts:
Due to the small population base and a lack of arts funding sources, many
artists have struggled to sustain themselves economically, even though they
may achieve popular success. For this reason many of New Zealand's best
artists go overseas to further their careers, especially to Australia, but also to
Europe or America. Arts funding is provided through a specific arts based
government department, Creative New Zealand.
New Zealand, like many countries, imports much of its cultural material
from overseas, particularly from Britain and the United States. Most successful
Hollywood films screen on New Zealand cinema screens and many British and
American television programmes are shown on New Zealand Television. It is
somewhat ironic that some of these programmes are now made in New Zealand
but reflect an overseas culture.
The film industry is becoming one of the country's major export enterprises,
with several major motion pictures being filmed on New Zealand locations
recently, including the highly acclaimed film adaptation of Tolkien's "The Lord
of the Rings" directed by the Kiwi Peter Jackson.
There are museums in many towns and cities that preserve the country's
heritage. The country's national museum is Te Papa ('Our Place'), in Wellington.
The New Zealand Historic Places Trust and the Ministry of Culture and
Heritage are national bodies that assist with such heritage preservation.

V – Food:
Ironically it is not generally understood in New Zealand that it has a unique
food culture. It is commonly assumed in New Zealand that it shares with or has
inherited from most other English speaking countries and there is nothing
peculiarly New Zealand in its food culture. If pushed the average New
Zealander would look to Kiwiana (chocolate fish, buzz bars, Lemon & Paeroa,
pavlova) as examples of typical New Zealand food. However, it is possible to
identify some long standing cultural preferences in New Zealand food.
Ingredients have a defining part to play in any cuisine. New Zealand has in
abundance the following ingredients: butter, milk, cheese, beef, lamb, hogget,
chicken, shellfish, seafood, farmed salmon, potatoes, New Zealand yam (oca),
kumara, vegetables, cereal, honey.
Ingredients that are less common or more exotic: veal, game, fresh-water
fish, wild mushrooms, rice.

1. Historical factors
New Zealand has inherited the cultural norms of both the Maori and the
settler populations. It is very difficult to visit a home in New Zealand and not
be fed, and it can be surprising to non-New Zealanders how readily and
casually they will be invited to eat in the homes of friends and even people they
have just met.
There is a strong tradition of bringing food and drink when invited to
someone's home for dinner. And while not so common now the phrase "Ladies
a plate" (the New Zealand version of pot luck dinner) in invitations to
communal events is universally understood. Communal eating is not considered
unusual, or an occasion. Hosts will not necessarily put out "the best china and
cutlery", and guests will usually be expected to behave like a member of the
extended family (including volunteering to do the cleaning up).
New Zealand colonial immigration peaked in period 1870-1890. This
coincided with the development of the wide-spread use of highly refined sugar,
flour and raising agents in European cuisine. Immigrants brought with them
highly fashionable (the health food of the time) new recipes for cakes, biscuits,
slices and pastries. With the abundance of dairy products, particularly butter, in
New Zealand there developed a wide demand for recipes. This demand was
satisfied through women's organisations and producer marketing (The Edmonds
Cookbook, a cultural institution of its own) and profoundly influencing the
New Zealand palate.
One can see this if it is contrasted with the British tradition, with a much
greater tradition and emphasis on steamed puddings, particularly those based
on suet. British recipes for cake even from the early twentieth century tended
toward the greater use of margarine which was of a much more consistently
high quality than the more expensive butter in Britain at the time.
Traditional cakes in New Zealand which are absent in Britain include
afghan biscuits, lamingtons (which the author has seen and eaten in Croatia),
louise cake, russian slice, and hokey pokey biscuits. Another interesting
example is the Belgium biscuit, renamed from Bavarian biscuit at the outbreak
of World War I. This sweet is rasperry jam sandwiched between two spiced
cookies and iced and as such represents the New World cousin of lebkuchen.
The baking tradition has also generated two articles in the cultural tug-of-war
across the Tasman Sea: the Anzac biscuit and the pavlova. See Relationship
between New Zealand and Australia.

2. Dairy Fat
The New Zealand passion for dairy food also made ice-cream important to
New Zealanders. Some the oldest domestic food legislation proscribed the use
of anything other than milk fat in the production, stipulating the minimum fat
content for anything to be sold as ice cream. Arguably the explosion of café
coffee in the late 1980s and early 1990s was spearheaded in New Zealand by
the dairy-rich Cappucino and Café Latte (short black and flat white are
specifically New Zealand coffee descriptions).

3. 1990s to Present
Mention needs to be made of the flowering of New Zealand cuisine in the
last twenty years and the influence of immigrants, especially from Asia on the
ingredients and the way it is cooked. See Globalisation.
Finally there are some totemic foods which profoundly reinforce the New
Zealander's sense of place. Bluff Oysters (and its season); Asparagus;
Berryfruit at Christmas; Hawkes Bay Peaches; Whitebait (particularly on the
West Coast); Kina; Crayfish and Kaikoura; Central Otago apricots; Canterbury
lamb; Auckland snapper; Akaroa cod; pohutukawa honey; bush honey-dew;
Marlborough Green lipped mussels; Hangi, the BBQ and cooking in the open
air.
VI - New Zealand cuisine:
New Zealand cuisine is characterised by its freshness and diversity.
Diversity is owed to its relative youth, in world terms, which brings a
willingness to experiment with food. Freshness is owed to its surrounding
ocean and fertile lands. Its distinctiveness is more in the way New Zealanders
eat - generally preferring to be as relaxed and unaffected as possible.
New Zealand’s cuisine has been described as Pacific Rim, drawing
inspiration from Europe, Asia, Polynesia and its indigenous people, the Maori.
For dishes that have a distinctly New Zealand style, there’s lamb, pork and
cervena (venison), salmon, crayfish (lobster), Bluff oysters, paua (abalone),
mussels, scallops, pipis and tuatua (both are types of New Zealand shellfish);
kumara (sweet potato), kiwifruit, tamarillo , feijoa, Hokey Pokey Ice Cream
and pavlova, the national dessert.
Perhaps even better known than New Zealand lamb, mussels and other
foods are the country’s wines. There are 10 major wine-producing areas in New
Zealand, with Marlborough famed for its sauvignon blanc, Gisborne for its
chardonnay, and Central Otago and Martinborough building a reputation for
pinot noir and pinot gris. Hawke’s Bay is known for its bold cabernets and
Auckland’s Waiheke Island is home to one of the top 20 cabernet blends in the
world. Marlborough and Hawke's Bay are New Zealand’s two premium wine-
growing regions. See New Zealand wine.
Owing to its colonial origin (shared with Australia), New Zealand cuisine is
traditionally simple fare such as "meat and three veg", espoused by the
bestselling Edmonds Cookbook. Tea is the main meal of the day, when Kiwi
families gather, and share their evening together. With the Kiwi penchant for
travel, and multicultural social trends, traditional eating habits are changing.

* Casual Kiwi cuisine

The New Zealand summer sees many eat outdoors, often in a barbecue
setting. Kiwi barbecues - featuring New Zealand beef, lamb and seafood - are a
big part of the culture, and typify the laid-back nature of the New Zealand
people.
A Maori specialty is the hangi (pronounced hung-ee), a pit in which meats
or fish are cooked with vegetables. A deep hole is dug in the ground, lined with
red-hot stones and covered with vegetation. The food is then placed on top. The
whole oven is sprinkled with water and sealed with more vegetation. The hole
is then filled with earth and left to steam for several hours. Traditionally, men
dig and prepare the hole, and women prepare the food to go in it. All members
of an extended family (whanau) help out for such a feast. The occasion is
relaxed, friendly and fun, with people often eating the meal under a marquee.
 New Zealand cuisine experience is incomplete without enjoying traditional
fish and chips served wrapped in paper.
New Zealand dishes include:
• Fish and Chips
• Colonial Goose:
Colonial Goose is the name for a surprisingly effective preparation of
roast leg of lamb.
Early colonial pioneers in New Zealand had sheep aplenty, but goose
was relatively scarce. To prepare dishes similar to those they had back
home in the old country the pioneers were very inventive. Colonial Goose
is now a recognised classic, with some restaurants featuring it as a main
attraction at midwinter festivities (June 21 in NZ). It involves the careful
boning out a leg of lamb, stuffing it with honey and dried apricots, and then
marinating it in a red wine based marinade which even gives it the
appearance of goose when cooked.
You need a large leg of lamb. If you don’t know how to bone it out, ask
your butcher to do it, stressing that you need to be able to stuff it.
For the stuffing
• 30g butter
• 1 large tablespoon clear honey
• 125g dried apricots, finely diced
• 1 medium sized onion, finely diced
• 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
• quarter teaspoon of salt
• quarter teaspoon of dried thyme
• freshly ground black pepper.
• 1 beaten egg
Melt the butter and honey over low heat, add the other ingredients and
combine well. Force the stuffing into the cavity in the meat, and sew it up
with fine string. Place the leg into a plastic bag (which sits in a large bowl),
and add the marinade mixture.
For the marinade
• 250g sliced carrots
• two large onions, sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 or 4 crushed parsley stalks
• not quite full cup of red wine such as claret
The meat is best prepared just after breakfast, so it can then be regularly
turned over in the marinade throughout the day. Cook in oven at 180C for
two hours but check on progress at 90 minutes. If the meat looks like over
browning, it can be covered by foil. Remove the string before carving.
 Strain the marinade and use three or four tablespoons of the liquor to make
gravy.

Desserts:
• Pavlova:
Pavlova is a light and
fluffy meringue dessert
named after the ballet
dancer, Anna Pavlova.
The origin of pavlova is
uncertain, with Australians
and New Zealanders both
claiming the recipe as their
own. Keith Money, a
biographer of Anna
Pavlova, wrote that a chef
at a hotel in Wellington,
New Zealand, created the
dish when Pavlova visited A pavlova bought from a Foodtown in New
there in 1926 on her world Zealand. This example has been decorated
with strawberries, wine gums and cream.
tour. Professor Helen
Leach of Otago University in New Zealand found a pavlova recipe in a
1933 Rangiora Mothers' Union cookery book, including the correct name of
the dish, the correct ingredients, and the correct cooking method. Professor
Leach also has a copy of a pavlova recipe from a 1929 rural New Zealand
magazine. Australians say the pavlova is based on a cake baked by Bert
Sachse at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth on 3 October 1935, but Sachse's
descendants believe that he may have come up with the recipe earlier, since
Anna Pavlova visited Australia in 1926 and 1929 and died in 1931.
Pavlova is made by beating egg whites and salt to a very stiff
consistency before folding in caster sugar, vanilla, and vinegar, and slow-
baking the mixture to create the meringue. This makes the outside of the
pavlova a crisp crunchy shell, while the interior remains soft and moist.
Pavlova is traditionally decorated with fresh fruit and whipped cream,
notably strawberries, peach slices, chocolate chips, passionfruit, and/or
kiwifruit. Another common topping in Australia is grated Peppermint Crisp,
a chocolate bar with hard peppermint flavouring. Raspberry is a popular
topping in the United Kingdom, with the tartness of raspberries contrasting
with the sweetness of sugar. Factory-made pavlovas can be purchased at
supermarkets and decorated as desired, but rarely achieve home-baked
quality.
Leftover decorated pavlova can be stored in the fridge overnight, but
will absorb moisture from the air and lose its crispness. Undecorated
pavlova can safely be left overnight in the oven in which it was baked, to be
decorated in the morning.

• Lamingtons:
Lamingtons are a type of sponge cake (or more traditionally, butter
cake) squares, coated in a layer of flavoured gelatin (or traditionally
chocolate icing or strawberry jam), then desiccated coconut. They are
sometimes served as two halves with a layer of cream between them, and
are commonly found in Australian and New Zealand bakeries. The
strawberry variety is more common in New Zealand, while sightings of a
lemon variety have occurred in Australia.
The gelatin is a thin mixture, into which squares of sponge (one
cookbook states 4 cm per side) are dipped, and the gelatin is absorbed into
the outermost layers of the sponge where it sets. (Similarly, the strawberry
jam or chocolate icing is absorbed into the sponge.) The squares are then
dipped into the coconut and left to dry.

* Name
Like many recipes common to both countries, there is dispute about the
origin of the lamington's recipe and name.
Lamingtons are most likely named after Charles Baillie, 2nd Baron
Lamington, who served as Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901.
However, the precise reasoning behind this is not known, and stories vary.
According to one account, the dessert resembled the homburg hats favoured
by Lord Lamington. Another tells of a banquet in Cloncurry during which
the governor accidentally dropped a block of sponge cake into a dish of
gravy, and then threw it over his shoulder, causing it to land in a bowl of
desiccated coconut or peanut butter. A diner thought of replacing the gravy
with chocolate and thusly created the lamington as we know it today.
Ironically, Lord Lamington was known to have hated the dessert that
had been named in his honour, once referring to them as "those bloody
poofy woolly biscuits".

• Anzac biscuits:
Anzac biscuits are a snack food most
commonly made primarily from rolled oats,
coconut, and golden syrup. Basically they are a
re-named version of the time-honoured "Rolled
oats biscuit".
Many myths have grown around the Anzac
biscuit. It has been reported that they were
made by Australian and New Zealand women for the Australian and New
Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) soldiers of World War I and were reputedly
first called "Soldiers' Biscuits" and then "Anzac Biscuits" after the Gallipoli
landing. The recipe was reportedly created to ensure the biscuits would
keep well during naval transportation to loved ones who were fighting
abroad. However, those were shaped like rock cakes and were made of
entirely different ingredients.
Research carried out by Professor Helen Leach, a culinary
anthropologist at Otago University in New Zealand, revealed that the first
time the name "Anzac" appeared in the name for a biscuit in a recipe book
was not until 1921. That occurred in the renaming of the "Oatmeal biscuit"
recipe to "Anzac crispies", in the ninth edition of the St Andrew's Cookery
Book. Subsequent editions renamed it as "Anzac biscuit".
Exactly the same recipe was included in contemporary recipe books as
"Rolled Oats Biscuits", (and none of them included coconut which did not
appear until 1927). The Oatmeal or Rolled Oats biscuits were developed in
the Scottish-influenced city of Dunedin as a variation of Scottish oat cakes.
Today the biscuits are manufactured commercially for retail sale.
Because of their military connection with the ANZACs and ANZAC Day,
the biscuits are often used as a fundraising item for the RSA and the RSL
veterans organisations. Biscuits made using the traditional recipe are also
carried by trampers (hikers) as a food of last resort; their tough constitution
and good keeping properties enabling them to survive many days of rough
travel.
The term ANZAC is protected under Australian law and therefore the
word should not be used without permission from the RSL, and its misuse
can be legally enforced, particularly for commercial purposes. There is a
general exemption granted for Anzac biscuits, as long as they remain
basically true to the original recipe and are sold and referred to as Anzac
biscuits and never as cookies.
 HOLIDAYS IN NEW ZEALAND

I - Statutory holidays:
These holidays are legislated by several Acts of Parliament, particularly the
Holidays Act 2003.
Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day are always commemorated on the exact
date, as they commemorate specific historical events. Apart from Good Friday
the other New Zealand Statutory Holidays have been Mondayised.
For example: If 1 January or 25 December is a Saturday or Sunday, then the
following Monday is the statutory holiday for New Year's Day or Christmas
Day. If 2 January or 26 December is a Saturday, then the Day after New Year's
Day or Boxing Day is celebrated on the next Monday. If either of these days
occurs on a Sunday, then the holiday occurs on the following Tuesday, as the
Monday will have been used for New Year or Christmas.
This situation has been complicated by the most recent incarnation of the
Holidays Act. The holiday is Mondayised only if the employee would not
usually work on weekends. For example an office worker who works only
Monday to Friday would get to the Statutory holidays on the Monday (or
Tuesday for days that fell on Sundays). But an employee who usually worked
Saturdays would not get the Monday holiday as they did not work on the
Saturday.
Date Holiday
1
January 1 New Year's Day
2
January 2 Day after New Year's Day
February 6 Waitangi Day
The Friday before Easter Sunday Good Friday
The first Sunday after the first full
Easter Sunday
moon following the March Equinox
The day after Easter Sunday Easter Monday
April 25 ANZAC Day
The first Monday in June Queen's Birthday
The fourth Monday in October Labour Day
1
December 25 Christmas Day
December 262 Boxing Day
(1) or the following Monday if it falls on a weekend
(2) or the following Monday or Tuesday if it falls on a Saturday or Sunday
II - Provincial anniversary days:
Additionally, the Holidays Act 1981 specifies each locality observing a
Provincial Anniversary Day to celebrate the founding days or landing days of
the first colonists of the various colonial provinces. However the exact dates
are not legislated for. The regions covered are set by provincial district (as they
stood when abolished in 1876), plus Southland, the Chatham Islands, South
Canterbury and Northland. The actual observance days can vary even within
each province and is due to local custom, convenience or the proximity of
seasonal events or other holidays. This may differ from the official observance
day, and may be several weeks from the official day.

Provincial
Includes Actual Day Observance Day
District
Invercargill, Bluff, Varies – determined by
Southland Milford Sound, January 17 local custom and tourist
Fiordland season.
Wellington,
Wellington Monday nearest to the
Manawatu, January 22
Province actual day
Wanganui
Waikato, King
Country,
Monday nearest to the
Auckland Coromandel, Bay of January 29
actual day
Plenty,
Gisborne/East Coast
Monday nearest to the
Northland Whangarei January 29
actual day
Monday nearest to the
Nelson Nelson, Buller February 1
actual day
Monday nearest to the
Otago Dunedin March 23
actual day
Second Monday in March –
Taranaki New Plymouth March 31
to avoid Easter
Fourth Monday in
South Canterbury September 25
September – Dominion Day
Hawke's Bay Napier, Hastings November 1 Friday before Labour Day
First Monday after Labour
Marlborough Picton November 1
Day
Chatham Islands November 30 Monday nearest to the
 actual day
Monday nearest to the
Westport,
Westland December 1 actual day (Greymouth)
Greymouth
Varies (outside Greymouth)
Christchurch Show Day
(Northern Canterbury)
Christchurch Show Day
(Central Canterbury)
Chrishtchurch, Second Friday after the first
Canterbury Ashburton, Banks December 16 Tuesday in November
Peninsula (Christchurch City) – To
coincide with the
Agricultural and Pastoral
Show and avoid a holiday
just a week before
Christmas.

III - Annual leave and non-working days:

In addition to the above holidays many New Zealand workers have three or
four weeks' vacation, often taken in the summer Christmas – New Year period.
(As New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere, the summer months are from
December to February, and the best summer weather often occurs during
January and February.) In many industries this coincides with a Christmas –
New Year shutdown for maintenance. With only 3 working days between
Christmas and New Year, many workers take this time off, as they can have a
10-day summer break for only 3 days' leave. Many retail outlets also hold sales
at this time to stimulate business while others close down due to low demand
for services. The days from 25 December to 15 January are not considered to be
working days for official government purposes, although the public counters of
most government departments do open weekdays during this period, though
often only a limited service may be available.
From 1 April 2007, the minimum annual leave is four weeks.

IV - School holidays:
New Zealand schools have a 4-term year, of about 10 weeks each and with 2
or 3 weeks' holidays between terms. Although standard term dates are set by the
Ministry of Education each year, schools can vary these to account for local
holidays and school closures due to weather. The first term generally
commences in late January and finishes so that Easter is celebrated within the
holidays between terms 1 and 2. The holiday between terms 2 and 3 is
generally known as the midwinter break and occurs in July, while that between
terms 3 and 4 occurs in late September and early October. Term 4 ends in mid
December, generally a week or two before Christmas, though for many senior
students this term ends after their final NCEA examinations in early December.
Primary and Intermediate schools
Term 1: Tuesday, 7 February to Thursday 13 April (96 half-days)
Term 2: Wendnesday, 26 April to Friday, 30 June (94 half-days)
Term 3: Monday, 17 July to Friday, 22 September (100 half-days)
Term 4: Monday, 9 October to Wednesday 20 December (104 half-
days)*
*or to a day in December which ensures that the school has been open
for instruction for 394 half-days in 2006
Secondary and composite schools
Term 1: Tuesday, 7 February to Thursday 13 April (96 half-days)
Term 2: Monday, 1 May to Friday 30 June (88 half-days)
Term 3: Monday, 17 July to Friday 22 September (100 half-days)
Term 4: Monday, 9 October to Thursday 14 December (96 half-days)*
*or to a day in December which ensures that the school has been open
for instruction for 380 half-days in 2006.
 SPORTS

New Zealand's most popular sports are rugby union, cricket, netball, lawn
bowling, soccer (perhaps surprisingly, the most popular football code in terms
of participation in NZ) and rugby league. Also popular are golf, tennis, cycling
and a variety of water sports, particularly surfing, sailing, whitewater kayaking,
surf lifesaving skills and rowing. In the latter, New Zealand enjoyed an
extraordinary magic 45 minutes when winning four successive gold medals at
the 2005 world championships. Snow sports such as skiing and snowboarding
are also popular. Equestrian sportsmen and sportswomen make their mark in
the world, with Mark Todd being chosen international "Horseman of the
Century", and many juniors at pony club level.

* Olympic Games:
The country is internationally recognised for performing extremely well on
a medals-to-population ratio at Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games.
See, for example, New Zealand Olympic medallists and New Zealand at the
2004 Summer Olympics.

* Rugby union
Rugby union is closely linked to New Zealand's national identity. The
national rugby team, the All Blacks, has the best winning record of any national
team in the world, including being the inaugural winner of the World Cup, in
1987. The style of name has been followed in naming the national team in
several other sports: for instance, the nation's basketball team is known as the
Tall Blacks. New Zealand is to host the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup. New
Zealand's national sporting colours are not the colours of its flag, but are black
and white (silver). The silver fern is a national emblem worn by New
Zealanders representing their country in sport. The haka—a traditional Māori
challenge—is often performed at sporting events. The All Blacks traditionally
perform a haka before the start of international matches

* Yachting, America's Cup

New Zealand is one of the leading nations in world yachting, especially
open water long distance or around the world races. Round-the-world
yachtsman Sir Peter Blake was a national hero. In inshore yachting, Auckland
hosted the last two America's Cup regattas (2000 and 2003). In 2000, Team
New Zealand successfully defended the trophy they had won in 1995 in San
Diego, which made them the only team ouside the United States to successfully
defend a challenge, but in 2003 they lost to a team headed by Ernesto Bertarelli
of Switzerland, whose Alinghi syndicate was skippered by Russell Coutts, the
former skipper of Team New Zealand.
Team New Zealand will compete for the America's Cup at the next regatta
in Valencia in 2007. The team manager is Grant Dalton.

NEW ZEALAND NATURE

The animals of New Zealand have a particularly interesting history because,

before the arrival of humans, probably less than 1,300 years ago, the country
was completely free of mammals, except those that could swim there (seals, sea
lions, and, off-shore, whales) or fly there (bats). This meant that all the
ecological niches occupied by mammals elsewhere were occupied by either
insects or birds, leading to an unusually large number of flightless birds,
including the Kiwi, the Moa, and the Kakapo. There are also about 60 species
of lizard (30 each of gecko and skink).
Humans first arrived via the Pacific islands, bringing with them the
Polynesian Rat (Kiore) and the domesticated dog. Europeans later brought pigs,
ferrets, stoats, mice, rats, dogs, cats, sheep, cattle, and many other mammals.
Of these, the rats, ferrets, cats, stoats and dogs have all seriously impacted on
the bird and lizard life, driving many to extinction. Possums were introduced
from Australia and deer from Europe as game animals, both seriously damaging
the forest habitat of many birds.
In recent years, efforts have been made to remove possums, rats, ferrets, and
other mammals from many offshore islands, large and small, in an effort to
return these places to something more closely resembling their original state.
An estimated 30 tons of dead possums were removed from Kapiti Island, for
example. Similarly, efforts are being made to control such species in selected
locations on the mainland, such as the Karori wildlife reserve in Wellington
City, from which about a ton of dead possums was removed after the
installation of a mammal-proof fence.

I - Biodiversity of New Zealand:

The biodiversity of New Zealand, a large Pacific archipelago, is one of the

most unusual on Earth, due to its long isolation from other continental
landmasses. Its affinities are derived in part from Gondwana, from which it
separated 82 MYA, some modest affinities with New Caledonia and Lord
Howe Island, both of which are part of the same continental plate as New
Zealand and in part from Australia. More recently a component has been
introduced by humans. New Zealand's biodiversity exhibits high levels of
endemism, both in its flora and fauna. The islands historically have no native
mammals except for bats, the main component of the fauna being insects and
birds. Its flora is dominated by Gondwanan plants, comprising historically of
forests, most famously the giant kauri.

1. Evolution of New Zealand's biodiversity:

The break up of the supercontinent of Gondwana left the resulting
continents and microcontinents with shared biological affinities. New Zealand,
along with New Caledonia began to move away from Antarctic Gondwana 100
MYA, the break being complete by 82 MYA. It has been moving northwards
since then, changing both in relief and climate. At some points it has been
mostly underwater, with as little as 18% of the present surface area being above
the water. Of the original biodiversity that it carried with it from Gondwana
several groups remain: most predominantly plants, such as the podocarps and
the Southern beeches, but also a distinctive insect fauna, New Zealand's
unusual frogs and the tuatara, as well as some of New Zealand's birds.
The two sources of New Zealand's biodiversity following separation from
Gondwana have been speciation and air- or sea-borne immigration. Most of
these immigrants have arrived from Australia, and have provided the majority
of New Zealand's birds, bats and some plant species (carried on the wind or
inside the guts of birds). Some of these immigrants arrived long enough ago
that their affinities to their Australian ancestors are uncertain; for example, the
affinities of the unusual Short-tailed Bat were unknown until fossils from the
Miocene were found in Australia. It has been suggested that the unusual
adzebills is related to the Kagu of New Caledonia. The link between the two
island groups also includes affinities between skink and gecko families.

2. Elements of New Zealand's Biodiversity:

a. Floral biodiversity:
The history, climate and geology of New Zealand has
created a great deal of diversity in New Zealand's
vegetation types. The main two types of forest have been
dominated by podocarps and southern beech. Podocarps
(Podocarpaceae), an ancient evergreen gymnosperm
family of trees, have changed little in the last 190 million
years. Forests dominated by podocarps form a closed
canopy with an understory of hardwoods and shrubs. The
forests of southern beeches, from the genus Nothofagus,
comprise a less diverse habitat, with the beeches of four
species dominating The Kauri of North Island were the
the canopy and tallest trees in New Zealand, but
allowing a single were extensively logged and are
much less common today.
understory. In the north of New Zealand the podocarp forests were dominated
by the ancient giant kauri. These trees are amongst the largest in the world,
holding the record for the greatest timber volume of any tree. The value of this
was not lost on early European settlers, and most of these trees were felled.
The remaining vegetation types in New Zealand are grassland of grass and
tussock, usually associated withe the subalpine areas, and the low shrublands
between grasslands and forests. These shrublands are dominated by daisies,
which can become woody and 3m high.

b. Faunal diversity:
No mammals, other than bats and marine mammals, reached New Zealand
before humans did. The Short-tailed Bat (from the monotypic family
Mystacinidae), having arrived in the late Oligocene, has had plenty of time to
evolve, and has begun to fill the role of a small terrestrial mammal, flying out
from roosts at night but frequently foraging on the ground. Some plants have
evolved with the bats and are fertilised on the ground by the bats. The Long-
tailed Bat (Chalinolobus tuberculatus) is relatively common.
Birds comprise the most important part of New Zealand's vertebrate fauna.
It is uncertain if many birds in New Zealand are descended from Gondwanan
stock, as DNA evidence suggests that even the ratites (the kiwis and the moa)
arrived after the split from Antarctica. Recent studies suggest that New Zealand
wrens are Gondwanan descendants. DNA studies seem to indicate that the
wrens are the most ancient of all passerines, splitting from the ancestral
passerine stock at the time New Zealand become an isolated land mass. In the
absence of mammals, birds diversified into the
niches usually filled by mammals in other
ecosystems.
The Moa, of which there were 10 species,
were large browsers, which were in turn the
prey species of a giant eagle, the Harpagornis
or Haast's Eagle. Both moa and eagles became
extinct shortly after the arrival of humans on
New Zealand sometime around 1300 CE. It
appears that human hunters exterminated the
moa populations, which deprived the
Harpagornis of their primary food source,
leading to the extinction of that species, as
well. New Zealand's emblematic Kiwi fills the
The extinct Huia was a
member of the endemic
role of a small forager of the leaf-litter, and the
family Callaeidae enigmatic adzebill was a universal omnivore.
The wattlebirds, Callaeidae, are a family
endemic to New Zealand, but many other New Zealand birds show clear
affinities to Australia, including the New Zealand Pigeon, the New Zealand
Falcon, as well as various parrots, rails, waders, owls, and seabirds, albeit often
with a New Zealand twist. Of the 245 species of birds from the greater New
Zealand (the main islands along with the offshore islands, also including
Norfolk Island), 174 were endemic, roughly 71%. Of these, about 32% of the
genera were endemic.
No agamas, iguanas, land turtles or
snakes ever reached New Zealand. The
fossil record shows one crocodile,
possibly a mekosuchine crocodile, in the
Miocene, but otherwise the only reptiles
to reach New Zealand were skinks and
geckos, along with the living fossil, the
tuatara. The tuatara, reaching 60 cm, are
New Zealand's largest reptile. Frogs,
The tuatara is a unique component which because of their intolerance for
of New Zealand's biodiversity and saltwater must have been descended from
the only surviving species in the ancestors that broke off from Gondwana,
order Sphenodontia. are the exception to the rule that
amphibians are never found on oceanic
islands. New Zealand's few wholly freshwater fishes derive from marine
ancestors.
New Zealand's invertebrate community displays strong Gondwanan
affinities, and has also diversified strongly, if unevenly. There are over a
thousand species of snail, and many species of insect have become large and in
many cases flightless, especially grasshoppers and beetles. There are, however,
less than 12 species of ant. The most famous of New Zealand's insects, the
wetas, are ground-living relatives of the crickets that often reach enormous
proportions.
3. Endemism:
New Zealand has a high number of endemic species:
80% of all vascular plants
70% of all native terrestrial and freshwater birds
All bats
All native amphibians
All reptiles
90% of freshwater fish
Of New Zealand's estimated 20,000 fungi species, only about 4,500 are
known. New Zealand also has an endemic cetacean, the Hector's dolphin. Some
orders and families are completely endemic to New Zealand.
 4. New Zealand's biodiversity and humans:
The arrival of humans in New Zealand has
presented a challenge for the native species that has
caused the extinction of many species. This due
predominantly to the species of New Zealand having
evolved in the absence of mammalian predators, be
they human or otherwise (a situation known as
ecological naivety), since they have never evolved or
have lost the responses needed to deal with the The Common Brushtail
threats. As humans arrived they brought with them, Possum is one of the 33
mammals introduced to
intentionally or otherwise, a host of other attendant New Zealand by humans
species, starting with the Polynesian Rat, but now
including stoats, weasels, Black Rats, Norway Rats, Brushtailed Possums, feral
cats and dogs, as well as herbivores such as deer and tahr (a wild goat species
from the Himalayas), which detrimentally affect native vegetation.
The date of the first arrival of the Māori in New Zealand is given as around
1300 AD, but some recent evidence suggests that some Polynesian travellers
arrived earlier, as Polynesian Rats seemed to have arrived in 500 AD. Their
arrival set off a first wave of extinctions, eliminating smaller defenseless
ground nesting birds. A second wave of extinctions was triggered by the arrival
of the Māori, who hunted many of the larger species, such as the moa, adzebill
and several large ducks, for food. The Harpagornis presumably went extinct
because of the loss of its food source. A third wave of extinction began with the
arrival of European settlers, who brought with them numerous new mammal
species, particularly the predatory domestic cat, and initiated more habitat
modification. In all, over 50% of New Zealand's bird species are considered
extinct, along with a species of bat and several frogs, a freshwater fish (the
New Zealand grayling, Prototroctes oxyrhynchus), skinks and geckos; this is
second only to Hawaii in terms of proportion of species lost.
One interesting phenomenon following the
extinction of New Zealand's native fauna is the natural
colonisation that has occurred from Australia since the
arrival of humans. In the case of the Silvereye, which
colonised New Zealand in the 19th century, there was
never a relative of the invader in New Zealand's original
fauna, and they are restricted to newer man made
niches. In the case of the Black Swan, (which was
originally thought to have been introduced but is now The Silvereye is one of
several species of
suspected to have self introduced itself as well) it was birds that have
the re-occupation of part of its former range (the extinct introduced themselves
New Zealand Swan is now believed to be a subspecies to New Zealand in the
wake of humans
of the Black Swan). The arrival of the Pukeko and the Swamp Harrier is more
interesting, as they mirror the arrival of the same two species in the past, before
they evolved into the Takahe and the Eyles's Harrier. Once these specialised
birds declined and (in the case of the harrier) went extinct their niches were
available and colonisation could occur again.
Today New Zealand's species are amongst the most threatened in the world.
The New Zealand government, through the Department of Conservation, works
aggressively to protect what remains of New Zealand's biological heritage. It
has pioneered the use of offshore reserves, cleared of introduced species, as
safe places for New Zealand's threatened species.

II - New Zealand Sea Lion:

The New Zealand Sea Lion
(Phocarctos hookeri) or "Hooker's
Sea Lion" is a species of sea lion that
breeds around the coast of the South
Island of New Zealand and Stewart
Island/Rakiura, to some extent, and
to a greater extent around much
smaller islands further south, notably
the Auckland Islands. As one of the
larger New Zealand animals, it has been a protected species since the 1890s.
There was thought to be a population of around 15,000 in the mid-1990s.
This may have declined somewhat since an outbreak of disease in 1998 caused
the deaths of 20% of adult females and 50% of pups that year. Estimates (based
on pup-counts) are about 13,000 for 2004.
A judgment of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand issued on 7 April 2004,
with the reasons issued separately on 13 July 2004 (CA39/04), overturned a
restrictive decision by the Minister of Fisheries, which had been based on
advice from the Ministry of Fisheries; the Court allowed squid fishers a bycatch
of up to 124 sea lions in the 2004 season, as against the 62 specified by the
Minister. As the species is considered to be far from "endangered", the Court
considered that the Minister's imposition of the lower figure (one of the lowest
ever imposed in the 20-year history of such restrictions) was going beyond
what the law required.
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