New Zealand - Geography, Economy and Culture

Are you a "Kiwi"? Tell us about life in NZ today. Or if you've visited, share your favourite part of the journey you made.

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Love it thank you so much for stating our independence for such a small one Thank you again Aotearoa land of the long white cloud

You did really well, haven't seen some of that cinematography before now. This kiwi girl is gonna watch it again 🙂 thank you!

Third world migrants must integrate ,NOT impose their background on us, now we have an asiaN BLOC IN pARLIAMENT, THIS IS RACIST AND AREN'T THEY SUPPOSED TO BE nzERS.

Such a beautiful documentary ❤

Enjoyed your video. Have recently been reading the works of Ngaio Marsh and missed your mentioning her 😢. Realize her works are not recent but was she not influencial?

I truly enjoyed this informative video and thank you for it! The only constructive feedback I can offer is to include Burt Monroe as a notable Kiwi and the filming of "The Worlds Fastest Indian" as it is one of my all time favorite movie and stories:)! Cheers!

Deforestation on a huge scale began as more and more colonials arrived to settle in NZ. They needed timber to build homes, timber to build business buildings and factories.
They cut down the trees to clear the land to farm and grow food for their livestock and food for their families.
Commercially, they cut down and milled the timber and shipped tons and tons of native logs to England [ eg, used the Kauri, for masts and spars for sailing ships, for building bridges, wharves, mine - props, rail sleepers and for the exterior and interior of houses as well.. also Totara and Kahikatea ].
Maori had used the native trees to build waka, tools and weapons, marae and pa.
Maori left most of the native flora, trees and ferns intact, and the idea of Maori deforestation is over the top and incorrect.


Ngamihi.

As Aussies my wife and I have been on 4 roadtrips around both the north and south islands - in terms of natural beauty NZ has to be one of the most scenic countries on the planet. The people are friendly and welcoming although they do like to have a dig at us Aussies just as we do with them but its usually only good natured fun. There seems to be a substantial difference between the North and South islands with the south having abundant lakes, rivers, snow capped mountains , verdant agricultural lands and forrests, the north is also beautiful but is more volcanic in nature and the Maori culture is a far more evident. There are currently 670,000 kiwis living in Australia and to tell you the truth I much prefer them to people arriving from any other part of the world as they fit into the way of life here so seemlessly. Our 2 countries share a lot in common so its a pretty easy for Aus or NZ citizens to jump the ditch in either direction...

Just work on your pronunciation. There's a key to it. But accentuate the start of each word. Nga, is just said as 'na' That should help a little, I'm pretty sure that I got it right.

Been greatly enjoy these

Bangladesh 🇧🇩

Second Generation Kiwi here - my Grandparents came here from Scotland on an island hopping holiday through the pacific and loved it so much they stayed. Born and bred in Christchurch I have been through a bunch but still call these islands home. Now I am engaged and have brought my Fiance here, she says there is a considerable culture shock but my god the scenery and people make it.

There are issues still - criminalization of Cannabis is a huge waste of time and money, our housing market over the last decade has split the country into the haves and have nots, and much like the North Americans we are increasingly being polarized into the left and right leaning politically. However our healthcare system, while underfunded is still lightyears ahead of what I have seen overseas, our green conscious is coming back into the forefront of most of the national minds, and I am proud that we are still nuclear free and focus on renewable energy.

NZ is an upside-down Italy

'Te Wai Pounamu' :) Or Te Wahi Pounamu, or Te Waka a Maui- name given to it by their northern neighbours

ha ha ha

Although English is the main language, it's not an official language. The only official languages in the eyes of the law in NZ are Māori and NZ sign language.

I was born and raised in NZ (Pakeha-Asian), but just happened to be living in Australia when the covid lockdowns hit. In Melbourne they lasted for about 7 months in 2020, but the following year I returned to NZ and it was like covid didn't exist. I was wearing a mask and shopping in the mornings before work, then showering when I got home in Melbourne, but in NZ everyone was out at the cafes and in town as normal prior to the Delta variant. Another interesting point is that the North Island doesn't get cold enough to snow (aside from the higher mountains) - the temperatures typically reach 4 degrees in winter and peak at 28 in summer, while Melbourne was 0 or below in winter and 38 in summer with Sydney around 5 in winter and 40 in summer (during my time in Australia). The section on fauna and flora could have been longer with flora such as the Kauri tree (like a miniature redwood in terms of size and usage), Pohutukawa (common beach tree), cabbage tree, and silver fern being cultural icons while fauna including the Tuatara (spiny lizard), Pukeko (Australasian swamp hen), Weta (grasshopper), Albatross, and the extinct Haast Eagle (giant eagle preying on Moa) being noteworthy. Food would have also been another interesting topic - traditional hangi and kina, as well as Euro-Asiatic influences in current cuisine.
As a viewer, I'm quite interested in the daily lives of people from interesting places so it would have been good to see what people do for work and how they spend weekends - Kiwis would largely be hunting/fishing - but I watched a few YT videos on Tristan da Cunha (Edinburgh of the Seven Seas) and didn't get a gauge of their daily routines/rituals.

I have to say as a kiwi living in new Zealand i have to say this doco is spot on and even emotional to watch thank you.

I would say that, especially post WW2, the US has had a massive cultural impact on NZ. Our entire countries lifestyle and the way we have built our cities was heavily influenced by American culture at the time.

Interesting to watch an outsiders perspective but how on earth could you have missed our peace loving Moriori people who arrived before Maori and who were almost wiped out by Maori warriors after European settled in NZ. This was after Maori had previously driven Moriori out of the two main islands to the Chatham Islands. They were our first people. Thanking you.

NZ is one of the few countries to have sign language as an official language. In fact the only official languages (that have special status as such in law) are Te Reo Māori and NZSL. English is official by default but it doesn’t have the same special legal status

If you listen to NZ media, the country is turning to sh*t. Problem in NZ is we are so hard on ourselves.

Great Video! I was worried you were going to miss Lord Rutherford, but seems you saved the best to last! Living in New Zealand is great, however I sometimes feel we are a bit isolated. Even with modern social media and communications, I feel many people get a sort of closeted mindset which can be to our detriment. This isolation has also benefited us in recent years, and is a prime factor in our success tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. While we have led the world in some areas such as Women's rights, I feel in the modern day we are falling behind in some areas. Over all a wonderful country to live in, and I feel very lucky to be able to call Aotearoa home (Yes, we should change the name... What relevance does Zealand have...)

Watched both parts, and have to thank you for such a good description of a country we don't hear about every day. Beautiful photography chosen, and excellent commentary.

I really hope people dont overrun our country. Part of its beauty ironically is the lack of people

NZ is BI cultural, NOT MULTICULTURAL, those wqho come here must leave their third world culture in house, racist to impose on us. SPEAK ENGLISH TO COME HERE,

Splendid!

it always will be Aotearoa but no non maori ppl know its original name

wonderful job on this documentary that's for both parts one and two

Great videos!!!.Maybe missed out Tokelau to encompass the 'Realm' and Antarctica (Ross Dependency) is a nice shout out. Using 2020 trade data for a video 3 years later, NZ is now by now means a net exporter.

Is really great. I miss it so much. Born and bred there. Made my homesick. Thank you for reminding me.

Purjealukset sekä keihästys sotaa omiamisesta.

Dam you forgot to mention STEVEN ADAMS!!

How did u miss Sir Richard Hadlee?

Just a correction: the name of the South Island is Te WAI Pounamu, not "Wei". Also, "Mount Cook" is increasingly referred to by it's Maori name of Aoraki (Cloud Piercer). Likewise, the iconic Mount Egmont, with its similarity to Mt Fujiyama, is routinely referred to nowadays as "Mount Taranaki",

New Zealand is not a country it's a rouge state of Australia

Mate, you omitted in error I guess Burt Monro (Invercargill's greatest son) from your who's who of New Zealand

The safest place in the world

One thing that makes me sick to my stomach about my country is we ally with our colonisers over our cousins. For example we’re not and never have been opposed to USA’s annexation of the kingdom of Hawaii, USA’s occupation and nuclear weapons and radiation tests on Marshall Islands and its people, Chilean annexation of Rapanui, and France’s nuclear tests in their colonies. But mind you the British side cant even meet their commitments in the treaty they wrote which is literally all they have to stand on while they’re here.

And honestly Māori did not clear half the forests. There are many environmental and cultural factors to why they wouldn’t and couldn’t have done that, one being that we depend on the forest for food, medicine, ad refuge as we were seminomadic

Wonderfully done. As a kiwi we refer to the islands as 'The' North Island, not just 'North Island'. Very well put together thank you.

New Zealanders are everywhere in the world.... makes you wonder what would happen if they all returned home. I am a Kiwi, though I also hold British and Australian citizenship, I have lived and worked in 7 different countries ..... New Zealand is the best, in my opinion.

The Maori definitely didn’t cut down half the forests - that happened when the English turned up and breed sheep

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