Note: This post provides background for our report about our 2012 trip to New Zealand.
What is New Zealand?
If you've been to New Zealand, you can skip this part. Otherwise, here is a brief introduction to this fascinating country, with links to places where you can find more information (particularly on the New Zealand Department of Conservation's excellent web site).
Hundreds of million years ago, there was a supercontinent that geographers today call Gondwana. It broke apart to form what we now know as Antarctica, South America, Africa, India and Australia. Prior to the breakup, tectonic forces raised parts of the sea floor adjacent to Gondwana, forming what would become New Zealand.
Over time, the land mass of modern New Zealand became separated from its closest neighbors (today's Australia and West Antarctica), forming the continent of Zealandia, of which 93 per cent is submerged. The above-water portion of this continent, today's New Zealand, is positioned on the boundary of the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates, and has an abundance of volcanic and thermal features, many of them active.
The Māori came here from Polynesia around 1200 A.D., and by the time the first European settlers arrived early in the 19th century, Māori culture was well advanced. As European settlement spread in the subsequent decades, many Māori perished from diseases to which they lacked immunity, and there were disputes over land and other resources that continue to this day. The 1840 Treaty of Waitangi between British and Māori representatives was a major landmark in the exercise of British sovereignty over New Zealand, but the English and Māori versions were later found to have differences on some points.
Today, people of Māori ethnicity make up about 15 per cent of New Zealand's total population of 4.5 million. Their unemployment, alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide rates are higher than in the non-Māori population, and they represent about half the country's prison population. However, there are widespread efforts to ensure that the Māori population receives better educational and employment opportunities, and an opportunity to redress past discrimination. There is also a concerted effort to maintain Māori language and cultural traditions.
The 1852 Constitution gave New Zealanders a significant degree of self-government, and while the country remains a member of the Commonwealth, with a Governor General who acts as the representative of the Crown, for all practical purposes the country has been entirely self-governing since 1947. The current Governor General, Sir Jerry Mateparae, is of Māori descent.
One effect that human settlement had on the natural history of New Zealand was a steep decline in the diversity of native species, especially birds. One large flightless bird species, the moa, was rendered extinct by Māori hunting and habitat destruction prior to European settlement. But when the British came, they sought to remake New Zealand in the image of the lands they had left, and that meant the importation of a number of small mammals, which devastated the bird population (prior to human settlement, bats were New Zealand's only mammal). Settlers also brought new plants with them, some of which crowded out native plants across wide swaths of the country's landscape. Today, many New Zealanders devote themselves to restoring native species, both plant and animal, and the country has a rigorous biosecurity system aimed at keeping out harmful or potentially invasive species.
Additional photos
Our report about our 2012 trip contains more than 100 photos. Those images, plus approximately 200 others, can be seen in the following Picasa photo albums:
Life in New Zealand
New Zealand - Cities and towns
New Zealand - Cows, sheep and sheep dogs
New Zealand - Creatures of land and sea
New Zealand - Fiordland
New Zealand - Flowers, vines and wines
New Zealand - Lakes, rivers, streams and waterfalls
New Zealand - Maori traditions
New Zealand - Mountains, seas and coastline
New Zealand - Planes, trains and ships
New Zealand - Rain forest, ferns and koru
New Zealand - The ring of fire
New Zealand videos
People of New Zealand
What is New Zealand?
If you've been to New Zealand, you can skip this part. Otherwise, here is a brief introduction to this fascinating country, with links to places where you can find more information (particularly on the New Zealand Department of Conservation's excellent web site).
Hundreds of million years ago, there was a supercontinent that geographers today call Gondwana. It broke apart to form what we now know as Antarctica, South America, Africa, India and Australia. Prior to the breakup, tectonic forces raised parts of the sea floor adjacent to Gondwana, forming what would become New Zealand.
Over time, the land mass of modern New Zealand became separated from its closest neighbors (today's Australia and West Antarctica), forming the continent of Zealandia, of which 93 per cent is submerged. The above-water portion of this continent, today's New Zealand, is positioned on the boundary of the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates, and has an abundance of volcanic and thermal features, many of them active.
The Māori came here from Polynesia around 1200 A.D., and by the time the first European settlers arrived early in the 19th century, Māori culture was well advanced. As European settlement spread in the subsequent decades, many Māori perished from diseases to which they lacked immunity, and there were disputes over land and other resources that continue to this day. The 1840 Treaty of Waitangi between British and Māori representatives was a major landmark in the exercise of British sovereignty over New Zealand, but the English and Māori versions were later found to have differences on some points.
Today, people of Māori ethnicity make up about 15 per cent of New Zealand's total population of 4.5 million. Their unemployment, alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide rates are higher than in the non-Māori population, and they represent about half the country's prison population. However, there are widespread efforts to ensure that the Māori population receives better educational and employment opportunities, and an opportunity to redress past discrimination. There is also a concerted effort to maintain Māori language and cultural traditions.
The 1852 Constitution gave New Zealanders a significant degree of self-government, and while the country remains a member of the Commonwealth, with a Governor General who acts as the representative of the Crown, for all practical purposes the country has been entirely self-governing since 1947. The current Governor General, Sir Jerry Mateparae, is of Māori descent.
One effect that human settlement had on the natural history of New Zealand was a steep decline in the diversity of native species, especially birds. One large flightless bird species, the moa, was rendered extinct by Māori hunting and habitat destruction prior to European settlement. But when the British came, they sought to remake New Zealand in the image of the lands they had left, and that meant the importation of a number of small mammals, which devastated the bird population (prior to human settlement, bats were New Zealand's only mammal). Settlers also brought new plants with them, some of which crowded out native plants across wide swaths of the country's landscape. Today, many New Zealanders devote themselves to restoring native species, both plant and animal, and the country has a rigorous biosecurity system aimed at keeping out harmful or potentially invasive species.
Additional photos
Our report about our 2012 trip contains more than 100 photos. Those images, plus approximately 200 others, can be seen in the following Picasa photo albums:
Life in New Zealand
New Zealand - Cities and towns
New Zealand - Cows, sheep and sheep dogs
New Zealand - Creatures of land and sea
New Zealand - Fiordland
New Zealand - Flowers, vines and wines
New Zealand - Lakes, rivers, streams and waterfalls
New Zealand - Maori traditions
New Zealand - Mountains, seas and coastline
New Zealand - Planes, trains and ships
New Zealand - Rain forest, ferns and koru
New Zealand - The ring of fire
New Zealand videos
People of New Zealand
This is such a great post, thanks so much! I noticed the album links are broken (thanks to google and what it did with Picasa). Any change you could post the albums with new links? We are planning a NZ trip and this will be so helpful! Thanks again for the great posts.
ReplyDeleteWriting on any subject is not an easy task, when you write on any subject it is very difficult. Anyone who thinks that he will write something easily on any subject, then his thinking is very wrong, I do not know that perhaps those people will have to put so much mind. Whatever you have written in your post, it has been written very beautifully, you are a person writing a good post, the more you are praised, the less it is.
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