New Zealand comes with a reputation as a unique land packed with
magnificent, raw scenery : craggy coastlines, sweeping
beaches, primeval forests, snow-capped alpine mountains, bubbling
volcanic pools, fast-flowing rivers and glacier-fed lakes, all
beneath a brilliant blue sky. Even Kiwis themselves - named
after the endearing, if decidedly odd, flightless bird that has
become the national emblem - seem to be filled with astonishment at
the stupendous vistas of what they like to think of as "Godzone"
(God's own country). All of this provides a canvas for boundless
diversions , from moody strolls along windswept beaches and
multi-day tramps over alpine passes to the adrenalin-charged
adventure activities of bungy jumping and whitewater rafting; in
fact, some visitors take on New Zealand as a kind of large-scale
assault course, aiming to tackle as many adventures as possible in
the time available. The one-time albatross of isolation - even
Australia is over a thousand kilometres away - has become a boon,
bolstering New Zealand's clean, green image, which is, in
truth, more an accident of geography than the result of past
government policy.
To a large extent New Zealand lives up to these expectations,
and remains unfettered by the crowds you'd find elsewhere. What's
more, everything is easily accessible, packed into a land area
little larger than Britain and with a population of just 3.8
million, over half of it tucked away in the three largest
cities : Auckland, the capital Wellington, and the South
Island's Christchurch. Elsewhere, you can travel miles through
steep-hilled farmland and rarely see a soul, and there are even
remote spots which, it's reliably contended, no human has ever
visited.
Geologically, New Zealand split off from the super-continent of
Gondwanaland early, developing a unique ecosystem in which
birds adapted to fill the role normally held by mammals, many
becoming flightless through lack of predators. That all changed
around 1200 years ago when the arrival of Polynesian navigators
made this the last major land mass to be settled by humans. On
sighting the new land from their canoes, Maori named it
Aotearoa - "the land of the long white cloud" - and
proceeded to radically alter the fragile ecosystem, dispatching
forever the giant ostrich-sized moa, which formed a major part of
their diet. A delicate ecological balance was achieved before the
arrival of pakeha - white Europeans, predominantly of
British origin - who swarmed off their square-rigged ships full of
colonial zeal.
The subsequent uneasy coexistence between Maori and
European societies informs both recorded history and the
current wrangles over cultural identity, land and resource rights.
The British didn't invade as such, and were to some degree
reluctant to enter into the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi , New
Zealand's founding document, which effectively ceded New Zealand to
the British Crown while guaranteeing Maori hegemony over their land
and traditional gathering and fishing rights. As time wore on and
increasing numbers of settlers demanded to buy ever larger parcels
of land from Maori, antipathy soon surfaced, eventually escalating
to hostility. Once Maori were subdued, a policy of partial
integration ensured the rapid dilution of their cultural heritage
and all but destroyed Maoritanga - the Maori way of doing
things. Maori, 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 Maori
generosity and hospitality, coupled with a colonial mateyness and
the unerring belief that whatever happens, "she'll be right".
However, an underlying inferiority complex seems to linger: you may
well find yourself interrogated as to your opinions of the country
almost before you've left the airport. Balancing this out is an
extraordinary enthusiasm for sports and culture ,
which generate a swelling pride in New Zealanders when they witness
plucky Kiwis taking on the world.
Only in the last couple of decades 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 in the
early 1970s, and partly by the resurgence of Maori identity. Maori
demands have been nurtured by a willingness on the part of most
pakeha to redress the wrongs perpetrated over the last
century and a half, as long as it doesn't impinge on their high
standard of living or overall feeling of control. More recently,
integration has been replaced with a policy of promoting two
cultures alongside each other, but with maximum interaction. In
this way New Zealand is set to forge through the new century with
considerable dignity and a good deal of uncertainty.