Extra reading:
Life and culture
New Zealand
How far is your country from New Zealand?
What do you know about it?
My name’s Rosie. I’m 17 and I live in Wellington, New Zealand.
Wellington is by the sea so we spend a lot of time at the beach. My friends are crazy about surfing but I’m scared of big waves, so I just watch. Outdoor activities are very popular in New Zealand, and bungee jumping began here.
I guess my favourite thing about Wellington is that it’s so multicultural. I have friends whose families come from Tonga and Fiji in the South Pacific, and from India, Japan and Germany. And New Zealand is a popular holiday destination, so we meet holidaymakers from all over the world.
I love drinking coffee and chatting to my mates. There are hundreds of cafés in Wellington. My boyfriend is a fan of the All Blacks – that’s the name of the New Zealand rugby team. They’re called the All Blacks because of their kit – they always wear black. Before they play against another country, they perform a Maori dance known as the Haka, which is a traditional war dance. It can be quite intimidating for the other team.
The Maoris were the first inhabitants of New Zealand. They came from Polynesia and they’ve been here for about a thousand years. The Maoris called New Zealand ‘Aotearoa’, which means ‘land of the long white cloud’. The Europeans arrived much later – about 200 years ago – and at first there were fierce battles between the Maoris and the Europeans. I’m learning Maori at school (but a lot of people also learn Japanese as a second language), and my favourite subject is Pacific art.
The national symbol of New Zealand is the kiwi – a bird which has very small wings and can’t fly. There are also some strange lizards called tuataras. They’ve been here for two hundred million years.
New Zealand is great but it’s quite isolated so, when I finish school, I want to spend a year travelling round Europe.
About New Zealenders
People who live in New Zealand are often called ‘Kiwis’ – after the bird that lives there. New Zealanders are very happy people. In a government survey, 87% of people said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their lives.
A Read the facts and the text, then read these sentences. Are the sentences true or false? Correct the false sentences.
B Choose a European country and make a facts box like the one here. Use the library and the internet and find out about the country’s capital city, population, main languages, currency, and main exports. Then add information about its climate, geographical features, typical food, etc.