Geologically the islands that make up New Zealand are relatively new, for the most part thrust up by tectonic movement in the cretaceous period and volcanic activity, which continues to this day. It's present shape emerged after the retreat of permanent ice at the end of the last ice age.
New Zealand is a land of high mountains, active and dormant volcanoes, lakes and short, fast-flowing rivers. Volcanic activity is mostly confined to the North Island, which is generally lower, but hillier, than the South Island. A series of imposing volcanoes, many of them active, dominate the landscape of the central North Island. The South Island's mountainous spine bisects it from north to south, producing markedly different landscapes and climate either side of the main divide, but there are also wide, fertile coastal plains and high plateaux. Glacial lakes are a feature of the South Island high country.
In terms of its native wildlife, New Zealand is incredibly ancient. Its birds and animals have either evolved from ancient forms already present when New Zealand split off the super-continent Gondwana. The split occurred before mammals took over the world and New Zealand's native fauna is restricted to birds, many of them flightless, insects and reptiles. Until the arrival of humans, the only mammals present were two species of small bats, which, like many bird species, at some point flew across the Tasman Sea from Australia.
With over a thousand years of human settlement, New Zealand has a colourful and dramatic history, dominated by the relationship between Maori and Pakeha (European settlers).
Aotearoa loosely translates as ‘land of the long white cloud', harking back to New Zealand's discovery a thousand years ago by intrepid Polynesian voyagers in open, twin-hulled voyaging canoes. After an arduous voyage they saw what appeared to be a long, white cloud on the horizon. Under the cloud lay the mountainous islands of New Zealand.
For the first Maori settlers life was relatively easy: giant flightless birds roamed the forests and coastal plains and huge colonies of sea mammals bred on its shores. But many of the tropical food crops carried by them refused to grow in New Zealand's temperate climate and within a couple of generations the once-abundant giant flightless birds and sea mammals became scarce or disappeared altogether, like the ostrich-sized flightless moa. Maori had to fall back on the few food plants they had nurtured through New Zealand's cool winters: kumara (sweet potato), gourd, and in a few small and favoured northern enclaves, taro and yam, supplemented by what they could gather: fern root, seafood, birds and forest fruits.
Nevertheless Maori culture evolved into a complex tribal society centred on the production and protection of food resources, natural and cultivated.
Dutchman Abel Tasman visited New Zealand in 1642, but his was not a
happy stay, with several of his ship's crew killed by Maori. New
Zealand was then left undisturbed by Europeans until Captain Cook
claimed the islands for Britain in 1769.
Whalers and sealers were regular visitors by the late 18th Century,
many marrying local Maori and staying permanently, but the first
organised settlements didn't begin until the 1840s.
In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi formalised the relationship between the
British crown and the Maori people. Subsequently the pace of European
settlement accelerated with the European population surpassing that of
Maori in 1865.
Since contact with Europeans the Maori population had plunged due to
cultural and spatial dislocation, increased intertribal war, the
alienation of land by Europeans and the ravages of Old World diseases.
A series of wars and land ownership disputes between European
authorities and Maori, the active phase lasting from the mid-1840s to
the 1890s, further eroded Maori strength and morale, the population not
stabilising until the turn of the century.
Meanwhile, European immigrants arrived in a steady stream, changing the
landscape and tenor of the country from wild frontier outpost to
fledgling nation. New Zealand became self-governing in 1852, a British
Dominion in 1907 and fully independent in 1947; she remains a member of
the British Commonwealth of Nations.
In the twentieth century, while most immigrants still hailed from the
British Isles, New Zealand accepted settlers from all over the world.
In the later part of the 20th and into the 21st century, Pacific
nations and Asian countries contributed the greatest number, along with
South Africa and Britain. New Zealand continues to accept immigrants
from the four corners of the world, including refugees.
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