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 New Zealand: 100% Pure
New Zealand's spectacularly beautiful landscape includes vast mountain chains, steaming volcanoes, sweeping coastlines, deeply indented fiords and lush rainforests. It is also home to the Maori people, the indigenous people of Aotearoa (New Zealand) who first arrived here in waka hourua (voyaging canoes) from their ancestral homeland of Hawaiki over 1000 years ago.
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| Interesting Facts about New Zealand |
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| New Zealand Weather |
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| Area |
total: 268,680 sq km land: 268,021 sq km water: NA note: includes Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands, Bounty Islands, Campbell Island, Chatham Islands, and Kermadec Islands |
| Climate |
temperate with sharp regional contrasts |
| Population |
4,115,771 (July 2007 est.) |
| Languages |
English (official), Maori (official), Sign Language (official) |
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| Source:
CIA World Factbook |
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| CIA World Factbook Description of New Zealand |
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| The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year, the British began the first organized colonial settlement. A series of land wars between 1843 and 1872 ended with the defeat of the native peoples. The British colony of New Zealand became an independent dominion in 1907 and supported the UK militarily in both World Wars. New Zealand's full participation in a number of defense alliances lapsed by the 1980s. In recent years, the government has sought to address longstanding Maori grievances. |
| Source:
CIA World Factbook |
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