10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About New Zealand

The Land of the Long White Cloud

Photo by Ömer Faruk Bekdemir on Unsplash

New Zealand has only been populated since around the year 1250. It was the last land in the Southern Pacific Ocean to be inhabited. Before humans arrived on the pristine shore of this beautiful little country, birds reigned supreme. There were no mammals, no predators of any kind including snakes.

1. For millions of years, nine species of large, flightless birds known as Moas (Dinornithiformes) thrived in New Zealand before humans. The Moas ranged in size from the Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae that were roughly12 ft in height with their neck outstretched and weighed between 230 and 510 lbs while the smallest, the bush Moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis), was around the size of a turkey. They became extinct sometime after the first humans arrived.
2. The Kākāpō, the world’s biggest parrot that is only found in New Zealand cannot fly, but it does climb trees.
3. Ninety-Mile Beach is a popular strip of sand that stretches along the northern west of the North Island, five kilometres south of Cape Maria van Diemen, northern most tip. Contrary to it’s name, it is actually only a little under 56 miles long.
4. Under English law and the Bill of Rights of 1688, Parliament has declared still to be in force in…