New Zealand is a very long way away, the end of the line, as şt was for the migrating Polynesians called Maoris, or the now flightless national bird, the kiwi. A country in such a position ought to be rather special. New Zealand is. It has some of the most magnificient and dramatic natural features in the world. In the South Island, the Alpine peaks of Mount Cook and its neighbours (all over 10,000 feet) look like Switzerland, as they point to the sky over snowfield and glaciers glisten on their slopes. Yet, nearby, the towering walls of the fjords are like Norway and in Rotorua a thermal region displays bursting gaysers, bubbling mud pools and hissing boiling lakes.
New Zealand has been discovered and rediscovered – first by the Maoris, a Polynesian people arrived 600 years ago from the Pacific in seven long canoes. They called the land Aoterea – the own language, music and culture. Then in 1642 the white man – called the land New Zealand after his own province in his native Holland. But he did not settle, nor did Captain Cook who came briefly more than 100 years later. Not until 1840 did the British arrive to stay, and they drew up the Treaty of Waitangi to share Britain – the institutions and way of life are British, and everywhere there is an agreeable informal friendliness that makes the visitor welcome.
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