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New Zealand (Aotearoa Maori) is a state in the southwestern
Pacific Ocean in Polynesia, located on two large islands (North and
South) and a large number (approximately 700) of adjacent smaller
islands. The population, according to Statistics New Zealand as of
June 2017, is 4,793,700.
The capital of the country is
Wellington.
The state is built on the principles of
constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy and is among the
developed countries of the world. In the XI-XIV centuries, the
country was inhabited by immigrants from Polynesia, European
explorers discovered the islands in 1642. The active development of
land by Great Britain began in 1762. One of the main features of New
Zealand is its geographical isolation. The nearest neighbors of the
country: to the west - Australia, separated by the Tasman Sea (the
shortest distance is about 1700 km); to the north are the island
territories of New Caledonia (about 1400 km), Tonga (about 1800 km)
and Fiji (about 1900 km).
The Kingdom of New Zealand includes
Cook Island and Niue Island States independent of government but
freely associated with New Zealand, as well as the
Non-Self-Governing Territory of Tokelau and the Antarctic Ross
Territory.
The name given to the Maori country before the first Europeans
appeared here did not survive, but it is known that the North Maori
island was called Te Ika-a-Maui (Maori Te Ika-a-Māui), which can be
translated as "fish belonging to Maui". Maui is a demigod in the
Maori legends, who caught a huge fish in the ocean, which after that
turned into an island. South Island had two common names: Te Wai
Paunamu (Maori Te Wai Pounamu) and Te Waka-a-Maui (Maori Te Waka a
Māui). The first name can be translated as “jade water”, and the
second as “boat belonging to Maui”, already mentioned above the demi
god of Maori legends. Until the beginning of the 20th century,
Severny Island was often referred to as the native inhabitants of
Aotearoa, which can be translated as “the country of a long white
cloud” (ao = cloud, tea = white, roa = long), and later this name
became the generally accepted name in the language Maori for the
whole country.
The first European navigator to visit the
coast of New Zealand, the Dutchman Abel Tasman, called it “Staten
Landt”, thinking that in the south New Zealand is connected to the
island of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of the same name, located
in southern South America. It was this name that was transformed by
Dutch cartographers into the Latin Nova Zeelandia in 1645 in honor
of one of the provinces of the Netherlands - Zealand (Dutch.
Zeeland) and the Dutch name Nieuw Zeeland. Later, British explorer
James Cook used the English version of the name, New Zealand, in his
notes, and it was it that became the official name of the country.
The Russian name, New Zealand, is an exact translation of a
historically established name.
Early European cartographers
called the islands Northern, Middle (present Southern) and Southern
(Stuart or Rakiura). In 1830, the two main islands became known as
the North and the South, and by 1907 these names had settled. In
2009, the New Zealand Geographic Names Board found that the names of
the main islands had never been formally established. In 2013, they
were officially named Northern (or Te Ika-a-Maui) and Southern (or
Te Vaipounama). Names in Maori and English can be used
interchangeably.