[Music] thanks for tuning in to another round of facts before we begin be sure to subscribe to the channel and click on the Bell icon to be notified of the latest set of facts from all over the world today we’re looking into New Zealand you’ve definitely come to the right place to learn some of the most interesting things about this country New Zealand has a rich and interesting history spanning many centuries from many Wars to an eventual lasting peace let’s take a peek at some interesting and cool facts about New Zealand the Maori people the indigenous people of New Zealand arrived by canoe from islands in Polynesia near Tahiti between 1250 and 1300 living in isolation for some centuries they crafted a completely unique culture they developed their own language a vast mythology and a fascinating set of arts and crafts even today roughly six hundred thousand people identify as Maori according to the 2013 census they are the second largest ethnic group in New Zealand after European New Zealanders the Maori named the country out de aurora which translates to the land of the long white cloud try saying that five times fast in 1642 abel tasmin a dutch explorer was the first known European explorer to reach New Zealand he visited the islands amongst others in the area however upon being attacked his party fled the area for about a century New Zealand officially received its name in 1645 by Dutch cartographers which is just a fancy word for mapmakers abel tasmin had originally named the lands Staton lund but in 1645 Dutch cartographers changed the name to Nova Zealandia in Latin from New Zealand after the Dutch province of Zeeland it took another century or so for British explorers to modernize the name as we know it today in 1769 Captain James Cook came to the islands he was a British explorer navigator cartographer and captain in the British Royal Navy he created the first map that navigated completely around the island of New Zealand in 1840 after a series of violent disagreements between these now European settlers and the indigenous people a treaty was signed called the Treaty of Waitangi this made New Zealand an official colony of the British Empire meaning their ruler was now the Queen of England the Maori land was swiftly seized by the British as you could guess the Maori people fought the treaty tooth and nail in 1860 war broke out between 18,000 British troops and about 4,000 Maori warriors although the Maori were significantly outnumbered and had much weaker weapons at their disposal they were able to withstand the British for quite some time luckily a peaceful ending was reached by 1870 with the last of the British soldiers leaving in February of that year New Zealand is a very remote country a flight there from America would take around 13 hours now if you are flying from the UK you’d arrive in about 24 hours this island is certainly one difficult place to navigate to even in modern times this faraway country has two main islands separated by the Cook Strait the islands are named after cardinal directions north and south the country itself is rather small only about 100 3883 square miles or about 260 9055 square kilometers here’s something to ponder it’s roughly about the same size as the UK the UK has about 63 million people living there whereas New Zealand only has about 4 million New Zealand is one of the least populated countries in the world like other islands New Zealand is the product of active volcanoes there are over 50 volcanoes on the island some even still active today if you do happen to visit be sure to stay away from an active volcano the capital city of New Zealand is Wellington however the largest city is named Auckland interestingly Wellington is the southernmost capital in the world great Lake Taupo the largest lake in New Zealand was formed by a massive volcanic eruption some 26,000 years ago it was so huge that the dust could even be seen in China perhaps one mighty eruption the lake is just a little smaller than the country Singapore a swim across this lake could take you some time as it is remote New Zealand has some really cool and unusual wildlife that you won’t find anywhere else in the world nearly all of the land mammals in New Zealand are birds and most of them can’t even fly one example of this is the Kiwi the Kiwi belong to an ancient group of flightless birds called the ratites because they cannot fly how exactly they arrived in New Zealand is not completely clear this is a frightening fact in the last 1,000 years half of all the animals on the islands are now extinct there’s more other animals are also in danger of becoming extinct as forests are cut down and swamps are drained there are less than 75 thousand Kiwi birds remaining in the wild now while that may sound like a lot it really isn’t but there’s good news too some species are making a comeback the kakapo Kakaako and tuatara have all seen increasing numbers recently I certainly don’t want to see them go extinct in my lifetime New Zealand is home to one of the world’s heaviest insects called the winter the Wetty is part of the cricket family it weighs 2.5 ounces or about 70 grams that’s ridiculous for an insect it wastes 3 times more than a mouse and looks like a giant cockroach snails are herbivores right well on the South Island lives a giant carnivorous snail called the paella fonta they mostly eat earthworms and are rather large for a snail one of the most interesting animals here the tuatara are a species closely linked to the dinosaurs they’ve been around for 150 million years and can live to be about 300 years old can you imagine living to be 300 years the most curious thing about these creatures though is that they are born with a third eye however after six months the third eye gets covered with some skin did you know bungee jumping was invented in New Zealand in 1988 the world’s first commercial bungee jump was a 140 foot jump of the kawaru bridge in Queenstown that leap is just a little bit short of half the height of the Statue of Liberty do you think you’d be up for that challenge there’s a special word for New Zealand’s particular dialect of English New Zealand it’s a mixture of English and Maori words New Zealanders love their cars too there are roughly 2.5 million cars for 4 million people this makes their car ownership one of the highest in the world at roughly half their population compared to a country of similar size like the United Kingdom about 1/4 of households don’t own a car at all New Zealand is the very first country to see the Sun Rise every day I’d love to see a sunrise in New Zealand someday for such a small and remote country there is so much about New Zealand that is both entertaining
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