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.
