Kia ora.

Haere mai! Haere mai! Haere mai!
Once! Twice! Thrice! Welcome.

The powhiri is a ceremony of welcome extended to visitors by Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand/Aotearoa. The culture affects the language, the arts, and even the accents of all New Zealanders. Combined with their fellow Polynesians from Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands and Niue who have made Aotearoa their home, New Zealand is proud to claim its status as the gateway to the Pacific. With Auckland being the world’s largest Polynesian city, and host to the world’s largest Pacific festival (Pasifika Festival, sponsored by Air New Zealand) who could argue?

New Zealand comprises two main islands (the North and South Islands in English, Te-Ika-a-Maui and Te Wai Pounamu in Māori) and a number of smaller islands, with a total land area of 268,680 square kilometers. The South Island is the largest land mass, and is divided along its length by the Southern Alps, the highest peak of which is Aoraki/Mount Cook at 3754 metres (12,316 ft). The North Island is less mountainous than the South, but is marked by volcanism. The dramatic and varied landscape of New Zealand has made it a popular location for the production of television programmes and films, including Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Because of its long isolation from the rest of the world and its island biogeography, New Zealand has extraordinary flora and fauna. About 80% of the New Zealand flora is native only in New Zealand. Until the arrival of humans, 80% of the land was forested and inhabited by a diverse range of birds. Barring three species of bat (one now extinct), there were no non-marine mammals. New Zealand has led the world in clearing offshore islands of introduced mammalian pests and reintroducing rare native species to ensure their survival. A more recent development is the mainland ecological island.

New Zealand is one of the most recently settled major land masses. Polynesian settlers arrived in their waka some time between the 11th and 13th centuries to establish the indigenous Māori culture. New Zealand's Māori name, Aotearoa, is usually translated as "Land of the long white cloud”. Captain James Cook subsequently called the archipelago New Zealand and began extensive surveys of the islands in 1769, leading to European whaling expeditions and eventually significant European colonisation.

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed on February 6th 1839, and in recent years it has come to be seen as the founding document of New Zealand. The Māori translation of the treaty promised the Māori tribes "tino rangatiratanga" would be preserved in return for ceding kawanatanga, which the English version translates as "chieftainship" and "sovereignty". The real meanings are now disputed. Disputes over land sales and sovereignty caused the New Zealand land wars, which took place between 1845 and 1872. In 1975 the Treaty of Waitangi Act established the Waitangi Tribunal, charged with hearing claims of Crown violations of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Almost a quarter of NEW ZEALAND'S population, of approximately 4.1 million, are of Pacific (New Zealand Maori or Pacific Island) descent and that influence is clearly evident in much of life today in Aotearoa. Contemporary New Zealand is a melting pot of diverse culture with influences from English, Scottish, Irish, and Māori cultures, along with those of other European cultures and, more recently, other Polynesian cultures (including Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian, and Hawaiian); also southern Asian (Indian), Southeast Asian (Filipino, Malaysian, Cambodian, and Vietnamese), and east Asian (Chinese, Korean, and Japanese) cultures.

NEW ZEALND'S people are as varied as the landscape, but there are some common features to the 'Kiwi' character. On the whole, New Zealanders share a healthy dislike of formality and pretension, and tend to see each other as equals; the nation has neither a strong class system nor major social tensions. Some ethnic tensions exist, but are relatively low, and relations between the sexes aim towards egalitarianism. New Zealanders also like to pride themselves on their self-reliant 'can-do' and 'give-it-a-go' attitudes, seen to have arisen from factors such as geographic isolation and living in a sparsely populated, harsh natural environment.

Use of the Māori language (Te Reo Māori) as a living, community language remained only in a few remote areas in the post-war years, but is currently undergoing a renaissance, thanks in part to Māori language medium schools and a Māori television channel.

NEW ZEALAND music is a vibrant expression of the culture in Aotearoa. As the largest nation in Polynesia, NEW ZEALAND'S music is influenced by the indigenous Māori and immigrants from the Pacific region. The origins of NEW ZEALAND'S musical culture lie in its British colonial history, with contributions from Europe and America. Local artists have mixed these styles with local influences to create music that is uniquely NEW ZEALAND in style.

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