New Zealand offers a highly diverse experience when it comes to culture, tradition, and history through the Maoris, an indigenous people from New Zealand. Legend says that Maoris used to travel by canoe to a mythical land of ancestry called Hawaiki around a thousand years ago. These settlers from Polynesia would travel in open boats called canoes that still look very similar to the boats that can be found in Polynesia today.

New Zealand is isolated on the map and is comprised of various small islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, as well as two larger islands. Separated from Australia to the northwest by the Tasman Sea, the Fiji islands and Tonga can be found in the north. New Zealand is 268670 sq. km big, just a little less than Japan but more than the United Kingdom. New Zealand has a wide variety of marine sources and has the fifth largest Exclusive Economic Zone on earth. This means that this country alone can claim over four million square km, which is fifteen times more than its land area to explore and use its marine resources.

Mostly cool to warm temperate, New Zealand’s climate is quite mild, with its temperature hardly ever falling below 0°C (32°F) or going above 30°C (86°F). The largest mass of New Zealand is the South Island, which is most wet, cold, and mountainous. The Southern Alps separates it length-wise. The North Island, on the other hand, is continental and dry, and is known predominantly for volcanism. Mount Rupehu is the tallest mountain on the North Island at 9,176 feet, and is an active cone volcano to this day. These beautiful island landscapes have always been beautiful and impressive, but since the Lord of the Rings trilogy came out in cinemas, it is even more popular.

Most of New Zealand’s 4.1 million population consists mostly of Europeans, while the Maoris are of the largest minority, along with non-Maori Polynesians and Asians, most of all in New Zealand’s cities. Elizabeth II is officially the Queen of New Zealand; however, she is represented by a non-political governor-general and has no tangible political influence over any matters. The Prime Minister is the one who holds political power and leaves the government in the Parliament of New Zealand, which is democratically elected.

Since 1984, the economy has been under renovation with hopes of becoming more of an industrialized free market than an agrarian economy, which is dependant on the British market. The top agricultural exports that stem from New Zealand are forest products, vegetables and fruits, meat, wool, and fish.

New Zealand’s culture is both contemporary and diverse, with influences from the British, Irish and Maori cultures. It is also one of the most recently settled major landmasses. The settlers from Polynesia arrived hundreds of years ago and establish the indigenous Maori culture, while some of the British settlers came from Scotland.

New Zealand’s national and native bird is the Kiwi, a flightless nocturnal bird. Because of this, New Zealanders have adopted its name as a nickname for their people and as a word to describe their culture.