Rough Guides - The Rough Guide to New Zealand (Travel Guide eBook)

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Contents

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Introduction to

New Zealand

Kiwis the people, not the emblematic flightless bird cant believe their luck at being born in what they call Godzone (Gods own country). Year after year, travellers list New Zealand in the top ten of places theyd like to visit and you rarely meet anyone who has been and didnt love the place. And whats not to like? With craggy coastlines, sweeping beaches, primeval forests, snowcapped mountains and explosive geysers, the scenery is truly majestic. The forests come inhabited by strange birds that have evolved to fill evolutionary niches normally occupied by mammals, while penguins, whales and seals ring the coast. And in a land thats larger than the UK and two-thirds the size of California, there are only around 4.7 million people. Mori have been here for around eight hundred years and retain distinct and fascinating customs overlaid by colonial European and increasingly Asian cultures that together create a vibrant, if understated, urban life.

Given this stunning backdrop its not surprising that there are boundless diversions, ranging from strolls along moody windswept beaches and multi-day tramps over alpine passes to adrenaline-charged adventure activities such as bungy jumping, skiing, sea-kayaking and whitewater rafting. Some visitors treat the country as a large-scale adventure playground, aiming to tackle as many challenges as possible in the time available.

Much of the scenic drama comes from tectonic or volcanic forces, as the people of Canterbury know only too well following the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. The quakes, along with several thousand aftershocks, devastated the city but it is well on the way to recovery.

So many residents have left Christchurch that Wellington now outranks it as the countrys second largest city, both well behind Auckland. Elsewhere, you can travel through stunning countryside without seeing a soul: there are spots so remote that, its reliably contended, no human has yet visited them.

Geologically, New Zealand split away from the super-continent of Gondwana early, developing a unique ecosystem in which birds adapted to fill the role of mammals, many becoming flightless because they had no predators. That all changed about eight hundred years ago with the arrival of Polynesian navigators, when the land they called Aotearoa the land of the long white cloud became the last major landmass to be settled by humans. On disembarking from their canoes, these Mori proceeded to unbalance the fragile ecosystem, dispatching forever the giant ostrich-sized moa, which formed a major part of their diet. The country once again settled into a fragile balance before the arrival of Pakeha white Europeans, predominantly of British origin who swarmed off their square-rigged ships full of colonial zeal in the mid-nineteenth century and altered the land forever.

An uneasy coexistence between Mori and European societies informs the current conflicts over cultural identity, land and resource rights. The 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealands founding document, effectively ceded New Zealand to the British Crown while guaranteeing Mori hegemony over their land and traditional gathering and fishing rights. As time wore on and increasing numbers of settlers demanded ever larger parcels of land from Mori, antipathy surfaced and escalated into hostility. Once Mori were subdued, a policy of partial integration all but destroyed Maoritanga the Mori way of doing things. Mori, however, were left well outside the new European order, where difference was perceived as tantamount to a betrayal of the emergent sense of nationhood. Although elements of this still exist and Presbyterian and Anglican values have proved hard to shake off, the Kiwi psyche has become infused with Mori generosity and hospitality, coupled with a colonial mateyness and the unerring belief that whatever happens, shell be right.

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DRIVING CREEK RAILWAY, COROMANDEL

Fact file

• At latitude 41 south, Wellington is the worlds southernmost capital city and shares the honour of being the most remote with Canberra, over 2000km away.
• At 85 characters, a hill near Porangahau has one of the longest names in the world: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu.
• Kiwis enjoy foreign affirmation: Flight of the Conchords was turned down by domestic television and only became a local success after their HBO hit series.
• New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections (in 1893).
• There are no snakes in New Zealand, and only a few enomous spiders, rarely seen.
• The numerous Mori words that have crept into everyday conversation easily confound visitors: aroha is love; kia kaha means be strong; kia ora can be hi or might signify agreement; and koha is a donation or offering.
• New Zealands eels live to 80 years and only breed once, at the end of their lives and they swim all the way to Tonga to do it.

Only in the last forty years has New Zealand come of age and developed a true national self-confidence, something partly forced on it by Britain severing the colonial apron strings, and by the resurgence of Mori identity. Mori demands have been nurtured by a willingness on the part of most Pakeha to redress the wrongs perpetrated over the last 175 years, as long as it doesnt impinge on their high standard of living or overall feeling of control. More recently, integration has been replaced with a policy of biculturalism the somewhat fraught notion of promoting two cultures alongside each other, but with maximum interaction. This policy has been somewhat weakened by relatively recent and extensive immigration from China, Korea and South Asia.

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QUEENSTOWN

Despite having and achieving much to give them confidence, Kiwis (unlike their Australian neighbours) retain an underlying shyness that borders on an inferiority complex: you may well find yourself interrogated about your opinions on the country almost before youve even left the airport. Balancing this is an extraordinary enthusiasm for