DOWN UNDER: New Zealand Sharon Althouse
Aotearoa, Land of the Long White Cloud
N
ew Zealand is a beautiful country with some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere in the world, from its magnificent sandy white beaches on the east coast to the black sandy beaches on the west, rolling green hills, southern alps, and the stunning fjords of the Milford Sound.
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The Waitomo (glow worm) Caves are a must to view. You can see them from the comfort of a boat or you can blackwater raft in them. New Zealand people are commonly known all over the world as Kiwis. That is also the name of the national bird, a nocturnal flightless fluffy rounded bird that lives deep in the woods and at local zoos.
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There are open borders between New Zealand and Australia. If Kiwis wish to move to Australia or vice versa, they simply get on a plane and move there.
Rotorua, in the middle of the North Island, is very popular for its Maori culture and geothermal activity—hot, bubbling mud pools and boiling geysers. Many hotels and motels offer natural hot-water spas. In a single day you can swim in crystal clear blue oceans, hike into rainforests, and ski or walk on a glacier.
Kiwis are friendly, fun-loving, laidback people who have a large place in their hearts for Canadians. They love a thrill—bungy-jumping off the highest building in the Southern Hemisphere, the Auckland Sky Tower; sandboarding down the Giant Sand dunes rising nearly 140 metres above the sea; caving; zorbing (rolling downhill inside an orb); jet-boating down the Waikato River; and swoop-swinging.
The NZ European people (Pakeha, white man) are mostly of British and Irish stock and account for about half the population. The current population is approximately 4.7 million; nearly one third live in the very large city of Auckland. The rest of the population is about 15 percent Maori, 12 percent Asian, and 7.5 percent from other South Pacific Islands—the Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, and Samoa. Australia’s indigenous people—aboriginals—make up only about 1 percent of Australia’s 24 million population.
New Zealand’s indigenous people are called Maoris, descendents of Eastern Polynesians. The first official language is English; Maori became the second official language in the late 1980s—the language is seeing a comeback and is taught in most schools.
There are open borders between New Zealand and Australia. If Kiwis wish to move to Australia or vice versa, they simply get on a plane and move there. About 600,000 Kiwis live in Australia . . . about 160,000 are Maoris. New Zealand is home to about 60,000 Australians.
The Society of Notaries Public of British Columbia
Volume 26 Number 2 Summer 2017
