New Zealand lies remotely in the jewel-blue waters of the South Pacific Ocean and forms the southwestern frontier of Polynesia. Compared to its nearest neighbour Australia, it is a tiny speck of a country, with just over five million inhabitants as opposed to Oz’s 26 million. While it might not have size on its side, New Zealand is vast in natural beauty, culture and history – some of which might surprise you.
Click through the gallery to discover the most mind-blowing facts about this fascinating island nation, from a river with human rights to the country’s official wizard…
For most of the past 500 million years, there has been land in the area of what is now New Zealand, which falls on the ‘Ring of Fire’ seismic belt. Part of Zealandia, a mostly underwater continent, New Zealand is made up of two main islands and around 600 smaller islands – its total surface area slightly more than the UK, but slightly less than the American state of Colorado. Zealandia formed from the Gondwana supercontinent some 85 million years ago after a series of volcanic eruptions opened up faults within the bedrock, resulting in Zealandia breaking away into the Pacific.
Thought to have been uninhabited by people until as recently as 750 years ago, New Zealand is considered by archaeologists to be the world’s last major landmass to become populated. While there is no concrete evidence to exactly identify the islands’ first settlers, it is widely accepted that Polynesians first migrated here from eastern Polynesia in the early 13th century. This subsequently birthed the Maori culture – Maori being the Indigenous peoples of New Zealand whose ancestry traces back to the first Polynesian settlers.
In the Maori language (te reo Maori), New Zealand is called Aotearoa, meaning ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’. Aotearoa originates from the legend of Polynesian explorer Kupe and his wife Hine te Aparangi, who saw a long white cloud formation on an ocean voyage and knew land must have lain beneath. Traditionally, the name Aotearoa related only to the North Island of New Zealand, but it has since evolved into the official Maori name for the entire country. These days, many non-Indigenous New Zealanders use its Maori and English names interchangeably.
In December 1642, Dutch East India Company navigator Abel Janszoon Tasman (the man behind the eponymous national park, pictured) was the first European to lay eyes on New Zealand. Some of his men met members of a Maori tribe in the waters off the northwest coast of the South Island; there was a clash and four of Tasman’s crew died. Thereafter Dutch cartographers marked the territory with a line on maps and named it after the maritime province of Zeeland in the southwestern Netherlands – which lies about as far away from New Zealand as you can get on Earth.
Despite the Netherlands being the first European power to annex New Zealand, it was Great Britain that colonised it in 1840, following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the British crown and a group of Maori chiefs. Prior to this, English naval captain James Cook (pictured) had picked up where Abel Tasman left off, successfully circumnavigating and charting the country, and sending word of its suitability for colonisation back home. European settlers had outnumbered Maori by the late 1850s, causing disease, environmental damage, cultural division, disputes over land ownership and warfare.
The road to sovereignty for New Zealand was several stages in the making. After the British Parliament passed the New Zealand Constitution Act in 1852, New Zealand became a self-governing colony instead of a crown colony, but was still at Great Britain’s heel. In 1900, the country opted against entering the Australian federation and remained an independent British colony until 1907, when it became a dominion within the British Empire. New Zealand didn’t gain full independence until 1947, though the British monarch remains Head of State.
The Indigenous tribes of New Zealand had no collective name for themselves until white Europeans (initially sealers, whalers and missionaries) started to settle here in larger numbers after the explorations of Captain Cook. The word Maori originally meant normal, natural or ordinary, but was adopted by the country’s Polynesian community to distinguish themselves from the new settlers, whom they called Pakeha in te reo Maori.
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With the arrival of Europeans in New Zealand came the prevalence of the English language, which began to eclipse te reo Maori as the settler population swelled and the British influence on education grew. After teetering on the edge of extinction around the mid-20th century, the Maori language has seen a resurgence over the past half-decade and was recognised as an official language of New Zealand in 1987. One popularised Maori phrase is kia ora, which can be used both as a greeting or a show of gratitude.
Travel around New Zealand today and you’ll notice many of its cities and natural wonders have dual names, in recognition of the country’s joint European and Maori heritage. New Zealand’s highest mountain (and its namesake national park) – Aoraki/Mount Cook – sums this up perfectly. Named Aoraki (sometimes Aorangi) in Maori, the peak is known among Indigenous peoples as the cloud piercer and is believed by the Ngai Tahu tribe to be their most sacred ancestor. The English name Mount Cook honours the captain who first mapped the country.
We’re used to seeing the All Blacks and the Black Ferns, New Zealand’s national rugby teams, performing the Maori haka passionately before a match. But there are several types of haka ritual, featuring various chants and different movement combinations, involving stomping, rhythmic body slapping, protruding tongues and wide eyes. Traditionally, the male rugby team challenge their rivals with the haka known as Ka Mate, which has become recognised the world over. The haka was performed historically whenever two parties met, either in peace or in battle, and is still used to mark important ceremonies and celebrations today.
Rugby might be the national sport here, but New Zealand falls second only to Scotland as the country with the most golf courses per capita in the world. With around 400 courses spread across the islands, golfers can enjoy a round or two on some of the planet’s most gorgeous greens. Te Arai Links on the North Island, around 90 minutes’ drive from Auckland, offers two of New Zealand’s most scenic pure links courses – one of which only recently opened.
Wellington (Maori: Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara) has been the world’s most southerly capital city since 1865, but hasn’t always been the seat of government in New Zealand. After the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, the country’s first Government House was established in 1840 in what is now known as Old Russell (Okiato), named after Britain’s Secretary of State for its colonies at the time. By 1841, New Zealand’s first resident governor James Hobson had relocated to land known as Tamaki-makau-rau by the Maori, and a second capital was born; Hobson renamed the area Auckland after the Viceroy of India.
Wellington might be the current capital, but Auckland remains New Zealand’s most populous city and its largest port. Nicknamed the city of sails, Auckland is said to have more boat owners per capita than anywhere else in the world. The city’s maritime heritage, influenced by its prime position on the Hauraki Gulf, is marked by both commercial shipping and recreational yachting. The traditional Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta will celebrate its 184th edition in 2024.
Well, it was. Then it wasn’t. Now it is again. Baldwin Street in Dunedin (Otepoti) had held the Guinness World Record for the world’s steepest street for over a decade when its title was snatched away in 2019 by Ffordd Pen Llech, in the Welsh town of Harlech, UK. But in 2020, after the decision was appealed and an extensive formal review completed, Baldwin Street regained its crown. With a gradient of 34.8%, you’ll certainly feel the burn on your way up (and down).
On 19 September 1893, New Zealand became the world’s first self-governing country to allow all women the vote, a right only given to British and American women after the First World War. The image of Kate Sheppard, leader of the country’s suffrage movement, features on the NZ $10 banknote and on some pedestrian crossing lanterns in Wellington. New Zealand achieved another global first between March 2005 and August 2006 when all five of its highest positions of power (Head of State, Governor General, Prime Minister, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief of Justice) were held by women.
You might know that you can visit Hobbiton in New Zealand, but did you know that Middle Earth-themed currency is legal tender here? When Kiwi director Peter Jackson began filming his Lord of the Rings trilogy in 1999, it significantly boosted tourism in the country. So, to commemorate the release of Jackson’s The Hobbit movie adaptation in 2012, a suite of coins was released depicting characters including Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey. Though officially legal tender in New Zealand, the coins are mainly collectors’ items.
The giant weta is the heaviest reported insect in the world, tipping the scales at up to 2.5 ounces (71g) and sometimes outweighing a mouse or a sparrow. In Maori it is called the wetapunga, meaning “god of ugly things”, while its scientific name – deinacrida – means “terrible grasshopper”. It may sound fearsome, but the giant weta is so vulnerable it’s in danger of being lost forever. Where these hefty creepie-crawlies originally lived across Northland, Auckland and Great Barrier Island, they now only survive on Little Barrier Island.
Born and raised in New Zealand, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ernest Rutherford changed history irrevocably with his atomic theory that beckoned in the dawn of the nuclear age. The man that split the atom appears on New Zealand’s $100 note and on his own stamp, as well as having scientific and educational institutions founded in his name. But despite New Zealand’s starring role in early atomic advances, the country has always maintained a staunch anti-nuclear position.
The Wizard, otherwise known as Ian Brackenbury Channell, was most likely the only state-appointed wizard the world has ever seen. The British-born warlock had enthralled the people of Christchurch since the 1970s with public displays of magic and entertainment, eventually being contracted by Christchurch city council to perform “acts of wizardry and other wizard-like services”. Brackenbury Channell was declared the official Wizard of New Zealand by Prime Minister Mike Moore in 1990, before being removed from the council’s payroll in 2021.
Slicing through the North Island, the Whanganui River is the third largest river in New Zealand. It made history in March 2017 after a 140-year battle for the Whanganui iwi (tribe) to have the river recognised as their ancestor finally paid off. The Whanganui River has since possessed the same legal rights as human beings and must be treated as a living thing.
Kiwi mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepali-Indian Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first people to summit Mount Everest in 1953 – a feat which has since become legendary in its enormity. But mountaineering isn’t the only extreme sport that New Zealand has become renowned for. Zorbing originated here in the 1990s, when friends Dwane van der Sluis and Andrew Akers invented a giant inflatable ball capable of holding a human. It was also the first country to commercialise bungee jumping, though its traditional roots actually trace back to Vanuatu.
The world’s longest single-word name of a place relates to a hill on New Zealand’s North Island named after a esteemed warrior from Maori folklore. It is 85 characters long (count them – we dare you!) and roughly translates as “the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as 'landeater,’ played his flute to his loved one.” Not exactly concise, but we like it.
You’d be forgiven for thinking this smouldering thermal spring was in America’s Yellowstone National Park. But it is, in fact, Frying Pan Lake (or Waimangu Cauldron) in New Zealand. Located in a volcanic crater in the Rotorua region, it formed as a result of a series of earthquakes in 1886 that later sparked the country’s biggest volcanic eruption. Frying Pan Lake covers 38,000 square metres (409,028sq ft) and maintains a consistent temperature of 43 to 54°C (110-130°F), making it far too hot to enter.
Ships passing through the treacherous subantarctic waters of New Zealand’s south in the late 19th and early 20th centuries would often run into trouble, with violent seas, freezing temperatures and coastal rocks known to mercilessly wreck vessels and leave castaways stranded. As a result, the New Zealand government began building provision depots on a number of islands in the region until around 1929, stocking them with non-perishable foods, blankets, fishing equipment, tools, medical supplies and weapons, sometimes even boats. Pictured here is the Carnley Harbour castaway depot in the Auckland Islands.
New Zealanders are referred to as Kiwis often as a term of endearment among themselves or by people from other countries. But this isn’t because they eat or grow a lot of fuzzy green fruit! The kiwi is actually a flightless, long-beaked bird indigenous to New Zealand which has become a national symbol treasured by all of the country’s cultures, but especially the Maori. Sadly it is facing an uncertain future; there used to be millions of kiwis roaming these islands, but now only around 68,000 remain. Vital conservation work is ongoing to stablise their numbers, which decline by 2% each year.
Thanks to the country’s absence of mammal predators (apart from humans), flightless birds are some of the most intriguing animals to live in New Zealand. In fact, these islands are home to more species of flightless bird – both extant and extinct – than anywhere else in the world. The kakapo (pictured) is one of the most beguiling; critically endangered, this nocturnal, flightless parrot looks more like a green owl. New Zealand also supports three species of everyone's favourite waddling seabird, the penguin.
Known in te reo Maori as pekapeka, bats are the only land mammals native to New Zealand – every other species was introduced after human occupation began. The two species dwelling here are the long-tailed bat and the lesser short-tailed bat, both of which lie at the centre of conservation efforts in the country. In Maori myth, pekapeka are associated with a night-flying bird, hokioi, said to symbolise impending death or disaster. In other animal news, ophidiophobes looking to visit New Zealand will be relieved to learn that there are no land snakes here.
At its peak, New Zealand had 22 sheep for every one person in the country. That ratio sunk to a record low in 2023, when it was reported that the number of sheep to humans had dropped to below five to one for the first time since records started being kept in the 1850s. It's believed that the dwindling sheep numbers, which have been in steady decline since the 1980s, can be owed to a combination of factors, including farmland being sold for forestry and synthetic materials being favoured over wool.
Hangi is one of New Zealand’s oldest meals and its origins lie in Maori culture. Cooked in underground steam ovens of the same name, hangi can be a mix of fish, pork or lamb with vegetables traditionally wrapped in flax leaves. The bundle is then placed on hot stones in the pit oven for three to four hours to slowly steam. Travellers can sample some of the best hangi in New Zealand at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, a heritage site on the North Island where the country’s founding document was signed.
Much is written about the superlative natural beauty of New Zealand, and one of the best ways to experience it for yourself is by traipsing one of the country’s Great Walks. There are currently 10 of these multi-day hiking routes stitched through the islands; in October 2024, the Tuatapere Hump Ridge Track will become the 11th Great Walk. Two places in New Zealand are also International Dark Sky Reserves – Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, while Wairarapa was only certified in 2023.