New
Zealand
Štefan Golis
Milan Kohútik
Lukáš Laššák
2005 Banská Bystrica
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OBSAH
1. INTRODUCTION…str.2
2.
LOCATION . . . . .str.3
3.
ECONOMY . . . . .str.4
4. DOMINION OF NEW ZEALAND . . . . .str.5
5. HISTORY . . . . .str.5
6. WELLINGTON . . . . .str.6,7
7. POLITICS . . . . . str.8
8. THE FISH OF MAUI . . . . .str.9,10
9. CLIMATE . . . . .str.11
10. LAND OF LONG WHITE CLOUD . . . . .str.12
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Introduction
This monicker belongs to island lying in South Pacific Ocean – New Zealand. However, I
have never been to New Zealand, I think, New Zealand is one of the most beautifull places in
the world (consider to photos). New Zealand is one of the loneliest civilized countries, is a
country of islands , small and big, all scattered in South Pacific Ocean. The enormous Pacific
Ocean separates it from the coast of Chile and the empty ocean stretches to the Antarctic and
Polynesia.
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Location
New Zealand is an island country lying in the Pacific Ocean, situated southeast of
Australia. It consists of two principal islands, North Island and South Island. The country's
population is over 3 million people. Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau are Self-Governing
Territory Overseas and Karmadec Island., Chatham Island, Bounty Island, Auckland Island
belong to New Zealand too.
North Island contains more than half the whole country’s population. The northern
part of the island has rolling hills and low mountains. The southern half rises from fertile
plains along the coast to volcanic mountain peaks in the centre. The town of Rotorna is visited
by thousands of tourists each year for its hot springs and geysers.
South Island is narrow and contains a third of the population. Southern Alps mountains
extend the entire length of the island and include New Zealand’s highest peak, Mount Cook.
There are glaciers on South Island.
Some geographical attractions:
The highest point: Mount Cook (3764 m)
The lowest point: oceanic level (0 m)
The deepest lake: Manapouri (-263m)
The largest lake: L.Taupo.
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Economy
New Zealand is the world’s third largest producer of wool and the exporter of meat,
skins, butter, cheese and other dairy products. The currency of New Zealand is New Zealand´s
dollar, which has hundred cents. New Zealand is a comparatively wealthy country.
The most important sources of income are industry and agriculture. The chief industries
are food processing (meat and dairy product), transport equipment, textiles, cement and oil
refining. Wool, meat and dairy products are the main agricultural products. They breed cows
and some sheep; they cultivate potatoes, corn, oats, fruits and vegetables.Coal is sufficient for
domestic use and a small amount is exported. There are also substantial amounts of producer
of wool and the exported of meat esp. mutton and lamb, skins, butter, cheese and other dairy
products.
But tourism makes a lot of money too. Tourists travel to Maori land to see beautiful
nature, culture of Maori and for unique animals: platypus and Little Penguin. It is the world’s
smallest species and is found only in New Zealand. New Zealand´s inhabitants are of British
origin and original residents are Maori. Most immigrants have come from Ireland, Poland and
other parts of Europe. Amplitudes of temperatures are reduced by Pacific Ocean. Because of
this the climate of NZ is mild oceanic, it means that winters are wet and summers are cold.
North Island has subtropical oceanic climate but South Is. has mild oceanic.
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Dominion of New Zealand
The Maoris migrated there from Polynesia during the 8th century. European settlement dates
only from the end of the 18th century when James Cook circumnavigated both main islands
and his descriptions encoraged colonization. New Zealand became a territory of Great Britain,
although there has always been a strong Maori resistance against it. Recently the 97- member
House of Representatives is elected by universal adult suffrage for three years to represent
constituencies, four of which have a Maori electorate. The Governor General-appoints a
Prime Minister who commands a majority in the hose. In turn, the Prime Minister appoints a
Cabinet, which is resposible to the House.
History
The islands has been inhabited long before europeans visited these far place. The aboriginal
inhabitants were ther Maoris, a branch of the Polynesian race living in Hawai, Samoa and
other Pacific islands east of Fiji. Today they number of population is only 220000, which is
less than 6 % of the total population. They live mostly in Auckland area af North Island.
When the European discover the islands they were divided in the small tribes. The first
European, which land in New Zealand was Abel Tasman – a famous Dutch navigator. Captain
James Cook, an englishman, was the next visitor. His relations with Maoris were peacefull
and friendly. In 1777 he published his journal “A voyage toward the South Pole and Round
the world“, which bottom a new lands to Europeans. He pre-loaded, that country was suitable
for colonization. The white colonization had a destructive effect upon Maori life. Wars and
diseases reduced their numbers.
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Wellington: The Windy Capital
Wellington the capital of New Zealan, is notone of the biggest capital cities in the world, nor
is it one of the most exciting. The climate isn´t very good, and it´s built in a major earthquake
zone. But Wellingtonianslove their city anyway, because of its special character, its relaxed
lifestyle and its wonderful natural setting, which must make it one of the most picturesque
capitals in the world. Wellington is situated at the southern end of the North Island, in the
geographical centre of the counry. It has been the seat of New Zealand´s government since
1860s, when it replaced Auckland because the South complained that their politicians were
too far away. Wellington has a popoulation of about 330 000 making it the second largest city
in New Zealand ( Aukland, with almoust one million people, is the largest). The city is built on
the steep hillsides surrounding Wellington Harbour, which protects ships from the stormy seas
that separate the North and South Islands. These bush-clad hills that descend right to the water's
edge give Wellington its special character and rugged beauty, but also make it a difficult place to
build a city. Flat land is so scarce that Wellington must be one of the few capital cities that does
not have an international airport: there simply isn't room to build a runway long enough to
land a large jet. Passengers arriving from overseas have to land first at Auckland, 700
kilometres to the north, change to a smaller plane, and then hope it will be able to stop before
falling off the end of the runway. Like all New Zealand's cities, Wellington's climate is very
mild. In summer the temperature rarely rises above 25 degrees, and in winter the temperature is
usually between 10 and 15 degrees. Frosts are rare and snow is almost unknown.
Wellington's wind, on the other hand, cannot be described as mild. It is famous (or infamous)
for being one of the windiest places in the country, something it celebrates with an annual wind
festival. Not surprisingly, the most popular part of the festival is the kite flying competition.
Even the local radio station is called Radio Windy. Another special feature of Wellington, but
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one that worries the city's inhabitants more than the fairly harmless wind, is its location in a major
earthquake zone. The city is built right on top of a fault line, part of the Rim of Fire, a ring of
volcanoes and faults which encircles the Pacific Ocean. The last earthquake was a long time ago,
and even had some positive results (part of the seabed was lifted, creating valuable new land
near the city centre), but another, more destructive quake could strike the city a-nytime. This
danger has had a great effect on the appearance of the city, as one by one the old stone Victorian
buildings have been pulled down and replaced by new "e-arthquake-proof" buildings. As a result,
today most of the city centre consists of concrete and steel tower blocks that house banks and
government offices. Fortunately traditional colonial architecture still survives in the suburbs.
Wellington is famous for its beautifully restored wooden villas, mostly built around the turn of
the century, which cling to the hills around the harbour. Some of these houses are built on land
so steep that instead of a path or steps from the street, some Wellingtonians need a lift or
their own miniature funicular railway to reach their front doors. These historic and brightly painted houses give the capital much of its charm, and when visitors arrive in Wellington their
first view of the city, and often their best memory, is of the brightly coloured iron roofs scattered
across the steep green hills. Wellington is different from other New Zealand cities not only
because it is the capital, because of its setting or its architecture. Like any capital, its streets are of
course filled with politicians and thousands of government bureaucrats16 who can be seen
running around wearing suits and clutching briefcases. But it is also a very young and "trendy"
city, and has hundreds of cafes crowded with Wellingtonians dressed in black, sipping espressos
and listening to the latest music. By comparison, Auckland is much busier, has many more
people and traffic jams and exists only to make money, while the cities of the South Island are
sleepier, more conservative and not as cosmopolitan as the capital. The major of the country
population’s reside in the towns of Auclanland and Wellington in the North Island and two
major cities in the South Island are Cristchurch and Dunedin
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The feeling that many New Zealanders have for their capital are perfectly expressed in the words
of a song by the Muttonbirds, an Auckland band which is finding some success in Britain:
I wish I was in Wellington
Though the weather´snot so good
The wind it cuts right through you
And rains more than it should
But I'd be there tomorrow
If I only could
Oh, I wish I was in Wellington...
Politically and geographically is Wellington the most important city in the country. Its
harbour is one of the finest in the world. Wellington is seat of many principal public buildings
including the Houses of parliament, the National art gallery and Dominion museum, its also
seat of one of the finest educational institutions – Victoria University.
Politics
New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy. It is an independent parliamentary democracy
within the British Commonwealth. New Zealand is a dominium of Great Britain. Its sovereign
is Elizabeth II, Queen of the Great Britain and also of New Zealand. Her representative is the
governorgeneral who acts as chief of state when she is not in New Zealand. He doesn’t govern
and his functions are normal. New Zealand’s flag has “union jack“ in upper left corner and
four star southcross in the right half. The anthem of New Zealand is God save the Queen and
the official language is english. The population is most of British (93%) origin, but there are
also Maoris (7%), the original inhabitants of New Zealand and a Polynesian people The
Maoris are the original inhabitants of New Zealand who nearly all live in North Island..
English is the official language, the Maoris speak Maori, a Malayo-Polynesian language..
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The fish of maui
How far has the English language travelled from its country or origin? The answer to
that question is 'As far as it possibly could have gone.' On the opposite side of the globe
from the Small Island' of Great Britain, is another small island where tea with milk is
drunk in the afternoon and that most 'English' of all sports, cricket, is enjoyed by a large
number of the population. Like Britain, this country is culturally mixed but this country is
not troubled by the problems one finds in the heavily industrialised Europe. It is tucked
away' in the South Pacific, far, far away from the rest of the world. This country is New
Zealand. It took a long time for Europeans to discover New Zealand. The first European to sight
the country was the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642 but his attempts at weighing anchor
and coming ashore failed because of the hostility of the natives. It was more than a hundred
years later that the British explorer James Cook, came to this part of the world and discovered
the country in 1769. The native people who scared off Tasman and with whom Cook was
able to make friends are known as Maoris and are a Polynesian people who are believed to
have settled the islands approximately 1000 years ago. Since Cook's discovery, Europeans
have travelled across the entire globe to settle the country and today New Zealand has a
population of around 3.5 million people. Only about 12 % of the population today are Maoris
and there are very few pure-blooded Maoris. New Zealand actually consists of a number of
islands just to the west of the international dateline so it is one of the first countries to see the
sun at the beginning of each new day. There are two main islands which are far larger than any
of the rest and these are quite simply called the North Island and the South Island. Almost
80 per cent of the population live on the North Island which is actually the smaller of the
two. It is of an unusual diamond shape and has both the country's capital and its largest city.
The capital is Wellington situated on the south coast of the island, its bay lying on Cook
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Strait which is the body of water separating the two islands. In the north, between two
bays is Auckland, easily the largest city in the country with almost a third of the country's
inhabitants. The beautiful setting of this city, with large expanses of water on both sides of it,
makes water sports one of the most favoured activities for Aucklanders. It is amazing
statistics that more than one in ten Aucklanders is the owner of a yacht. The island finds itself
close to the world's earthquake fault line and there is a lot of volcanic activity on the island. The
most active volcano is on White Island just off the northern coast. The volcano can be seen
steaming continuously and occasionally erupts. In the centre of the country is the small area of
Rotorua full of thermal lakes, exploding geysers and hot mud pools. Houses in the town of
Rotorua actually get some of their heating energy from the natural gasses from the area,
though this reduces active thermal activity and is bad for tourism. Further south is a chain of
volcanoes known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. In the very centre of the island is the gigantic lake
Taupo the area of which is 606 square kilometers. It is actually the crater of what may have
been the biggest volcanic eruption ever.As much as the North Island.
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Used literature :
Friendship magazine
www.nz.com
www.stats.govt.nz
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