100 Interesting Facts About New Zealand
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Welcome to Countries Facts in this Article I will show you 100 facts about New Zealand,New Zealand located in the middle earth of nowhere New Zealand is here for all your dramatic scenery and amusing accent needs the big NZ is practically overflowing that wildlife too as well as burly rugby players and giant inflatable orbs all hail the orb but why is the sex life at the New Zealand longfin eel so tragic why are New Zealand's beaches lying to you and how many New Zealanders have already clicked off this video because I made fun of their city City accents ah actually I probably shouldn't make fun of this videos principal target demographic this is my job Oh me and my keepers two out of three these questions are going to be answered so grab a nearby sheep make a comfy chair to some number-8 fencing wire and prepare yourself a 100 facts about New Zealand.
1 New Zealand is a sovereign island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean that's it video over good night everybody good night.
2 Geographically the countries comprised of two main land masses the more densely populated North Island and the mountainous South Island there are also roughly about 600 smaller islands that are also part of New Zealand.
3 New Zealand is part of the Zealandia continent of which 93 percent is submerged beneath ocean water Zealandia was only recognized as a bonafide continent in 2017 that's really recent I mean finally God.
4 New Zealand is situated roughly 900 miles east of Australia across the Tasman Sea as such they are often lumped together especially given their fairly similar accents which Australian to New Zealanders will turn you sound completely different even though they don't.
5 Because of its remoteness preferring to hang out on its own in the middle of nowhere like a right little emo the islands of New Zealand constitute the last major landmass outside of Antarctica to be settled by humans during this long period of isolation a distinct ecology emerged teeming with a wide variety of animal plant and fungal species all enjoying life without humans our blitter rating them.
6 When did we turn up in New Zealand archaeologists believe that the Maori people the Polynesians who settled in the islands arrived sometime between 1250 and 1300 ad yes that's right I said ad mother-effer that means that New Zealand has been inhabited by humans for less than 800 years.
7 The According to Maori tradition the native people of New Zealand came from an island called Hawaii the original home of the Polynesian people's as such Hawaii is viewed as a source of life and legend dictates that the soul of Polynesian people returned to Hawaii when they died.
8 According to Maori legend the dead traveled to cape reinga the northwestern most point of the North Island here they leap off an 800 year old for who - Carla tree and into the ocean beginning their trip back to the ancestral homeland of Hawaii.
9 The Maori weren't alone on the island for long in 1642 the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand only about four hundred years after the Polynesian people had already arrived there numerous geographical features such as the Tasman Sea in the Australian island of Tasmania are named after him.
10 When Tasman arrived at the islands he initially thought it was part of South America and named it Staten land meaning States land when they realized that the landmass was very much not attached to the South American continent they changed the name to Nova Zealandia the exact Dutch translation for New Zealand it was named this after the Dutch province of Zeeland.
11 However it wasn't actually the dot she first colonized the island now known as New Zealand as it was the British sorry in the form of Captain James Cook who first began making break into contact with the Maori people in 1769 roughly one hundred twenty seven years after Tasman did the British began trading with the Maori exchanging metal tools weapons and food for timber Maori artefacts and food people love food apparently a food.
12 Roughly 70 years later the British decided to make an honest woman out of New Zealand and declared British sovereignty over the islands in 1840 with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi the Accord was signed by William Hobson New Zealand's first governor and about 540 Maori chiefs.
13 Barron Europeans continue to arrive in New Zealand including Christian missionaries who ultimately converted most of the Maori population unfortunately however with European people came European diseases including such smash hits as influenza and measles to which the native Maori people had no natural immunity as such the 19th century saw the Maori population fall dramatically while the number of Europeans continued to search.
14 Not only that the Europeans brought with them fancy new technology in the form of guns which soon ended up in the hands of the Maori though different Maori groups had always fought amongst themselves because that's just how humans beö the introduction of the muskets made these conflicts significantly more deadly it's thought that approximately 20,000 Maori died as a result of the so called musket Wars though some estimates put the figure at highs 40,000.
15 The intertribal musket wars decimated various Maori groups which forced many of them to free their traditional lands and shifted territorial boundaries for others this opened up large areas to European settlement inflaming tensions between Maori and the New Zealand government that quickly escalated into a series of armed wars now known as the New Zealand Wars between 1845 in 1872 roughly 3,000 were killed the vast majority of which from Maori.
16 In 1841 New Zealand officially became a colony of the British Empire before being upgraded to a Dominion in 1907 this was a change in name only meant to elevate the region's position above the less than complimentary status of colony New Zealanders used to celebrate their nations promotion on Dominion day on the 26th of September but the tradition dying out only a few decades later.
17 New Zealand eventually gained full independence in 1947 and with the passage of the Constitution Act in 1986 unilaterally eliminated all residual British legislative power all such residual luenell at unilaterally unilaterally eliminated all residual British registers of power well done you guys however the British monarch remained the nation's head of state meaning that Queen Liz is very much the queen of New Zealand represented in the country by governor-general love your Queen Liz.
18 As such New Zealand is today a constitutional monarchy organized into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purpose sexy.
19 But that's not all the realm of New Zealand which sounds like middle-earth itself but we'll get to that in a bit also includes Tokelau new way the Cook Islands and the Ross dependency which is a slice of Antarctica claimed by New Zealand as well as the name of a horrible disease that Rachel from friends seemingly suffered.
20 Day in the Australian Constitution which is a great read by the way I suggest you pick it up sometime New Zealand is listed as a state of Australia which means they can join the Australian Confederation if they so choose and they chose not to in 1901.
21 New Zealand's population is 4.7 million which is pretty much half the population of New York and over 35,000 times the size of norwich most of them are now of European descent the indigenous Maori are the largest minority it slightly under 15 percent followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders.
22 In case you're wondering how big the combined land area of New Zealand is I can help you out there it so talks roughly one hundred three thousand four hundred eighty square miles you're welcome bish.
23 The official languages of New Zealand are English which I mean thank goodness is the voice how the heck could they understand what I'm all about and Maori which I've been practicing my small talk in a we know Maya Hal Kai roto a how a roto a taro he taro everybody the other is New Zealand sign language interestingly New Zealand was the first country on earth to make a signed language and official language which they did in 1987.
24 In case you're wondering by the way the Maori name for New Zealand is Altair Roja which I always definitely butchered them but it means land of the long white cloud which is coincidentally what Snoop Dogg calls his house well ok I assume.
25 The North Island is known in the native Mallory as tuica a Maori the South Island bt-dubs it's known as teh Waipounamu.
26 New Zealand's capital city is Wellington which some reason I find hilarious it's the most southern capital city in the world - in fact if you want to yes another fact to impress your friends with also use that on dates - they can they'll really love it.
27 Wellington isn't the most rocker block place in the big NZ though oh no that honor goes to Auckland I have a feeling it's about to do what we're about to cover in the next fact I reckon so stay tuned.
28 I record because of this big bad boy the Auckland City sky tower it's one thousand and seventy six feet high making it the tallest freestanding structure in the southern hemisphere I mean that's why people move to Plato's right big tall mother's like this absolute unit.
29 Wake up sheeple Auckland New Zealand is also known as the city of sails because it loves that song by AWOLNATION so damn much sail just killing exactly because it has the highest boat ownership per capita in the world in fact one in every three people owned a boat.
30 To give you an idea of how unevenly New Zealand is populated it should be noted that more people live in Auckland than the entirety of South Island.
31 How much stop there on the last Monday of January the Auckland anniversary regatta takes place at regard to being a boating race and not an Italian dessert like I assumed it's the world's biggest single day yachting event with more than 1,000 Botti boys taking part.
32 The New Zealanders city of Gisborne is the first city in the world to see the Sun Rise it's also just a mere 300 8.4 miles up the International Dateline which meant on December 31st 1999 they got major TV coverage as the first to welcome in the new millennium.
33 Look at this this is New Zealand's ninety Mile Beach looks nice doesn't it yes something is gone yes how long it is wrong it's actually 56 miles long everything is a lie.
34 If you live in New Zealand you should probably strap in for the long haul in terms of life itself New Zealanders females have an average life expectancy of 80 2.3 years and men have 78.3 both of which are one of the highest in the world.
35 New Zealand is a good country for the ladies too and not just because the lack of snakes and no I'm not quite sure what I meant by that either NZ allowed women the boat in 1893 the first country in the whole of planet Earth to allow suffrage.
36 New Zealanders sing to bloody love wires more specifically number 8 fencing wire it see they use it so often it's become slang for New Zealand disability to fix everything and using ingenuity and innovation to do so.
37 New Zealanders refer to themselves as Kiwis which probably dates back to World War one when New Zealand soldiers acquired the nickname this is because of the flightless kiwi bird which is native to new zealand itself.
38 There's a fact about Kiwis for you in relation to their size their eggs are the largest in the world they tend away a whole third of the birds weight oh yes sorry when I said Kiwis just now I met the birds not humans I should have specified.
39 Kiwis also have a sense of smell incredibly again the birds do not that great if it was a human they're actually the only birds in the world.
40 The New Zealanders dollar coin features a Kiwi bird on one side it could also be called the Kiwi in international money circles to which no doubt must be confusing for any Kiwis in the room or any other Kiwis in the room for that matter none.
41 The Kiwi is so beloved in New Zealand that numerous organizations use it in their logos and signage one such group is the Royal New Zealand Air Force which features the bird as part of their emblem this is nothing short of a cruel joke made at the expense of the flightless Kiwi and I for one and shook and demand an apology the meaning of life.
42 New Zealand only has two land mammals that are native to the dying place specifically two species of bat meaning Bruce Wayne would have absolutely chuffing loved it just kidding he's afraid of bats that's kind of the whole point Batman everything else was introduced by Malory's and Europeans.
43 New Zealand is also home to the wetter bug a wingless insect endemic to New Zealand that has changed little in the last 190 million years the harmless giant wetter can weigh in excess of 70 grams making it the world's heaviest insect.
44 Indiana Jones should live in New Zealand you know why no not because the zoos are particularly cheap it's because they're apparently absolutely no snakes New Zealand.
45 New Zealand is also home to Hector's dolphin which is a species of dolphin not just one dolphin in particular belonging to a guy called Hector as some people very reasonably assumed until they corrected one subspecies of Hector's dolphin known as Maui's dolphin is the rarest of smallest dolphin in the world and it's nowhere else on earth but in New Zealand waters.
46 New Zealand is also home to more species of penguin than any other country what you do with that information is between you and your chosen deity.
47 New Zealand is also home to the world's only flightless parrots the kakapo also known as the owl parrot the kakapo was almost wiped out in 1990s before conservation efforts began to increase their numbers the kakapo are known for their friendly nature and their extended life spans with some individuals living to over 90 years of age making the kakapo possibly the longest living bird species in the world.
48 The closest living relative to the kakapo is the Kea which is the world's only Alpine parrot living in the mountains regions of New Zealand's South Island unlike its exclusively terrestrial cousin the Kea can fly which it probably uses as a party trick at family reunions.
49 New Zealand has 44 native reptile species of which the largest is the tuatara which can grow up to 2 feet long despite that I bet it looks very much like a lizard it's actually the only surviving species of a distinct family of reptiles that became extinct outside of New Zealand 60 million years ago.
50 The longfin eel and demyx in New Zealand is interesting for a number of reasons one of which is that these sleepyboys can live up to the ripe old age of 80 years old that's pretty much the same life span as in New Zealand human.
51 Longfin eel also breed only once in their entire lives which is a damn shame not only that the point at which they do get to mate is at the end of their lives meaning that the only action they get to experience is gross old people action almost immediately before death even more tragically they have to swim all the way to Tonga to do it never felt some story for an beel before.
52 As mentioned before the population New Zealand isn't that big in fact there are seven times as many sheep and three times as many cows as there are people and hello if you're watching you guys Moo bar.
53 In fact of the total population sentient organisms in New Zealand only 5% is human with the rest being made up of entirely non-human animals this gives New Zealand the highest ratio of animals to human on earth.
54 New Zealand was once home to the truly enormous flightless birds known as MOA the largest species of which the giant MOA reached around 12 feet in height her mama was one of the largest birds to ever inhabit the earth and they were the dominant herbivores in the islands for thousands of years before they were hunted to extinction by the Maori in the year 1500.
55 New Zealand is also home to kauri trees which take about 200 years to mature the biggest tree boy in all the world is called the lord of the forest and he's over 169 feet tall it's also over 2,100 years old.
56 Does this tree scream Christmas trees well in New Zealand it does not literally though this is the Mbutu karwa tree which is New Zealand's Christmas tree it blooms crimson red fire was for several weeks each December which is where it gets that soon as he looked.
57 New Zealand owes much of its natural beauty to the fact of roughly thirty thousand square kilometres of the country falls within one of its 14 protected national parks the largest lake in New Zealand is lake taupo which sits in the caldera of the Talpiot volcano one of Earth's few known super volcanoes.
58 The Talpiot volcanoes most recent eruption known as the IRA warned eruption occurred roughly 26,000 years ago and constitutes the world's most recent super eruption it's thought the volcano eruption violently ejected about 15,000 times the amount of volcanic material than the eruption of Mount st. Helens in 1980.
59 Located in the northern reaches of New Zealand's Southern Alps is Blue Lake which has the distinction of holding the clearest natural fresh water in the world the water in Blue Lake exhibits the visibility of up to 80 metres deep a degree of clarity that reveals the waters beautiful natural blue color.
60 Another interesting New Zealand lake is frying-pan Lake so named as it has the largest hot pool on earth located near rotorua frying-pan lake has a surface area of almost 10 acres and can reach temperatures of up to 200 degrees Celsius and its deepest point the lakes hot waters give it a permanent covering of misty steam perfect for background scenery in another Lord of the Rings film.
61 For a short four year period between 1900 and 1904 the northern New Zealand city of Rotorua was home to the largest geezer in the world known as waimangu meaning Blackwater's the guys who was named after the dark color of the modern rock filled water it would regularly blast an incredible 1500 feet into the air.
62 The South Island Coco II Beach is home to the Meraki builders which are known worldwide for their unusually large in spherical shape interestingly these boulders are not unique in New Zealand as the North Islands hokianga harbour has its own status paragrah rocks known as the kimochi boulders some of which measure at roughly 3 metres in diameter these formations are known as concretions and were formed in the earth when minerals built up around a nucleus like a rocky huge snowball.
63 Poo namu which forms part of the aforementioned Maori name at the South Island Tay Waipounamu is a green colored stone revered by the Mallory's in English these substances simply known as green stone and refers to several types of jade bow a night or so Penta nights that the Maori is used to create ornate tools and jewellery nintendo.
64 New Zealand is one liberal place same-sex marriage is legal prostitution is legal and the driving age is 15 which seems extremely dangerous that last one I mean everything else.
65 Interestingly New Zealand is one of the only two countries on earth the other Byng Denmark to have two official national anthems in 1940 God to defend New Zealand was adopted as the country's national song and in 1977 was promoted to national anthem status on equal footing with God Save the Queen which is normally played only when a member of the royal family is present.
66 New Zealand is actually the most peaceful place on earth or at least it was in 2009 that was the year that it topped the Global Peace Index.
67 New Zealand is barony also one of the freest nations on earth scoring highly on various freedom scoring indices such as the human freedom index on which it most recently ranked third behind only Switzerland and Hong Kong.
68 According to the corruptions perception index New Zealand is the least corrupt nation on earth beating out other honorable and scrupulous nations like Denmark Singapore and Canada.
69 New Zealand is known for its staunch anti-nuclear stance operating no nuclear power stations at all in the country and maintaining a nuclear-free zone that blocks all nuclear powered sea vessels 12 nautical miles out of the coast of New Zealand in 1985 New Zeeland refused to allow a nuclear capable American warship to dock in any of its ports as the u.s. refused to confirm or deny that the vessel was carrying nuclear weapons the incident soured American New Zealand Relations dramatically but earn the Kiwi nation the nickname of the mouse that roared.
70 Somewhat ironically the so called father of nuclear physics Ernest Rutherford was a New Zealander in 1917 Rutherford became the first person to split the nucleus of an atom and eventually went on to win a Nobel Prize for his work Rutherford's face now appears on the New Zealand $100 note.
71 By far the most popular sport in New Zealand is rugby which is the national sport of New Zealand played by 250,000 people at club level the national team is named the All Blacks due to their traditional black kit and they are very very good something about being extremely isolated and surrounded by sheep makes New Zealanders extremely talented - throwing balls backwards and smashing into each other I don't know the science behind it either.
72 In fact New Zealand won the first ever Rugby World Cup held in both New Zealand and Australia in 1987.
73 New Zealand first competed as an independent nation at the 1920 Summer Olympics and since then the country's one more Olympic gold medals per capita than any country in history this one Kiwis.
74 New Zealanders call walking and hiking trumping apparently which is weird because I swear that's the debauched activities who won accuse me off in high school odd.
75 It's also a very wet place - or rather you have the capacity to get wet very often let me explain every single place in New Zealand is never more than 87 miles away from the ocean thus the wet itch.
76 While mopping themselves dry New Zealanders have given the world an awful lot this is including but not limited to the disposable syringe the non-charitable electric fence childproof bottle tops and Zoar the big inflatable balls inside of which you strap yourself and roll down large hills ostensibly for fun.
77 The first tee people to reach the summit of Mount Everest the world's tallest mountain were New Zealand Edmund Hillary and Nepali Indian Sherpa Tenzing Norgay who achieved their feet at 11:30 a.m. on the 29th of May 1953 four years after the pair were frequently asked who was the first of them to actually step foot on the mountain summit to which they responded that the achievement was a joint effort however Tenzing later revealed that hillary was in fact the first person atop the mountain very humble of him hashtag sit down don't be humble.
78 This right here is Georgina Beyer who was both a mayor and then became a member of parliament in 1999 this was quite the milestone as she was the world's first transsexual Member of Parliament and the world's first openly transsexual Mayor.
79 A New Zealand er by the name of Jim Burke holds the world record for opening the most Easter's in an hour with an incredible total of 1719 that equates to prying open roughly 28 Easter's a minute for a solid hour.
80 New Zealand also have some pretty popular films made there two popular movies made in New Zealand by New Zealand filmmakers include wantable warriors hung for the water people the Whale Rider and the piano.
81 Of course I should also bloody mention that lord of the chuffing rings - all but one scene of The Lord of the Rings was shot in New Zealand practically making the movies a 12 hour long infomercial for the country's landscapes the tourism basically does itself.
82 The filming of the Lord of the Rings movies pumped some hot hot money into the economy of New Zealand to the tune of around 200 million dollars the New Zealand government even created a minister / Lord of the Rings to ensure the most money could be made from the film's what an absolute nerd of a title that is about.
83 The fruit known as the kiwi fruit earns New Zealand over a billion dollars a year despite the fact originated in China and that such what's known as the Chinese gooseberry it was later renamed the kiwi fruit after the New Zealand bird.
84 One of the most celebrated desserts in all of the world also originated in New Zealand for the uninitiated the mighty pavlova is a meringue cake topped with whipped cream and slices of fresh fruit ill the popular dessert was named in honor of Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova who visited New Zealand in the 1920s.
85 A farmer in New Zealand named John Lambert came up with the idea of using small airplanes to spray crops with fertilizers from the air yes that's right you can thank New Zealand for the miracle of crop dusting and no not that kind you filthy swine.
86 New Zealand boasts over 400 golf courses both public and private that works out to roughly one Dolf course for every 9,000 New Zealanders which is you guessed it the highest number of golf courses per capita on earth and may as well be my cats freight at this point.
87 New Zealand apparently has more helicopters in proportion to the population than anywhere on earth this is because they used them to cold deer in the 1960s which is harsh really south Bambi.
88 The people who love wires they also love pipes to specifically musical Scottish pipes in fact according to some sources like the BBC for example New Zealand has more Scottish pipe bands per person living there than Scotland itself does suck on that Scotland or rather blow through it.
89 The most famous pop song to come out of New Zealand is probably how bizarre by OMC which was a huge hit in Australia Europe and the United States during the mid 90s the band's name RMC stands for Otara Millionaire's Club a tongue-in-cheek reference to the band's poverty-stricken home avatar right.
90 The world's first commercial bungee jump operation was set on the kawarau bridge in the Otago region in the South Island in 1988 this bungy site is still in operation today and gives thrill-seekers the opportunity to leap into the 43 metre deep cabaret River Gorge.
91 New Zealand is also home to something pretty spectacular the longest place name in the world tell matter work in their tinkin the I've got that you know that baton is on screen now is the hill in the North Islands Hawke's Bay region I'm not even attempting to pronounce it properly so don't expect me to try okay I'll try to matter what hacker Dingaan shall we artim up t 2 riku caca picky mango Kai.
92 Other weird place names in New Zealand include an area in South Island's mount cook national park would hooker valley and a major reserve in the South Island called point.
93 However New Zealand's lover being a surly loner who hangs out alone at the bottom of the world has had an unintended consequence as the country has left off maps with surprising frequency this effect often turns up and popular culture with images of Earth seen in TV and films including The Simpsons and Star Trek first contact both of which Miss New Zealand.
94 The strange turned is so prolific that Kiwi comedian Rhys Darby and current New Zealand Prime Minister cinder Arden teamed up to create a comedy video alongside the hashtag get NZ on the map hashtag to encourage people not to eliminate New Zealand from existence there's even a mattress without NZ subreddits featuring numerous examples of disrespectful New Zealand this maps and globes daring me.
95 The somehow wildly popular live-action kids TV show Power Rangers has been filmed in New Zealand since 2003 the year in which the series was bought by Disney Studios when the show was required for Saban entertainment in 2010 production remained in New Zealand that's where Power Rangers should have stayed frankly.
96 In 2012 New Zealand broadcasted the first weather report - delivered entirely in the elvish Sindarin language from the Lord of the Rings universe the forecast was delivered by Newton and TV presenter Tamati Coffey who is now a member of New Zealand Parliament and good for him coffee even dressed up his knell for the event because why the elf not haha.
97 In 1990 New Zealand became the first country in the modern world to appoint an official national wizard the wizard of New Zealand whose real name is Ian Brackenbury chandell is an educator comedian and magician and politician who was actually born right here in London.
98 England snazzy apparently more people die in New Zealand each year playing lawn bowls and scuba diving than a wife said about that scuba diving scuba diving that's still terrifying though what are they bowling with cartoon bombs.
99 New Zealand is only one of two countries in the world when drunk companies are permitted to advertise directly to the public the only other country to do so is the good old US.
100 New Zealand also has what is believed to be the steepest road in the world specifically it's Baldwin Street in Dunedin and with a 38 degree gradient it's almost impossible to skip leg day there that was 100 fact about New Zealand which one was your favourite are we surprised by how little we mentioned Lord of the Rings are you all so disgusted we didn't talk about flight at the Concours enough let us know in the comments down below also make sure to like this Article and subscribe to our website.
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