New Zealand is composed of two main islands, the North Island and the South Island, along with many smaller islands. It was the last area on Earth to be inhabited by humans. People from Pacific Ocean islands traveled thousands of miles in small canoes to reach New Zealand over eight hundred years ago. These people were the ancestors of the Māori people and named their country Aotearoa, meaning ‘land of the long white cloud’.

The landscape of New Zealand includes mountains, glaciers, lakes, rivers, forests, and volcanoes. The South Island is more mountainous than the North Island, with two-thirds of the island being mountains, including the Southern Alps and the Tasman Glacier, which is the longest glacier in New Zealand.

In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman arrived in New Zealand. Dutch cartographers later created maps of the country and named it ‘Nova Zeelandia’ after the Dutch province of Zeeland. The name was anglicized by British explorer James Cook in 1769, resulting in ‘New Zealand’.

New Zealand was the first country to grant women the right to vote in 1893. The capital, Wellington, located in the North Island, serves as the government’s base.

The population of New Zealand is just under 5 million, and its inhabitants are informally referred to as ‘Kiwis’. The kiwi is a flightless bird that is unique to New Zealand, along with other species such as the kakapo, the world’s heaviest parrot, and Hector’s dolphins, the smallest dolphins in the world.

Rugby is the national sport of New Zealand, and the country’s team, the ‘All Blacks’, is renowned worldwide. The players are known for their pre-match haka, which is based on a traditional Māori war dance.