Where is zealand

Well, apart from having a fantastic moustache, he was also a merchant, sailor and one of the most accomplished explorers of his day. Not bad going for someone with no Google Maps at their disposal. His legacy for exploration and discovery have more than lived on. The Antipodes are scattered with numerous landmarks, sea and towns named after him. After he had sighted, landed, fought, fled and then sketched the west coasts of the two main islands, Abel Tasman then named them Staten Landt, after the States General of the Netherlands, and that name appeared on his first maps of the country.

It was only years later when the illustrious James Cook landed a little bit late to the party, but never mind in the Endeavour, that the name was anglicised and renamed New Zealand. Yes there was. At least there was a Zeeland — in fact there still is.

It also includes a strip of land bordering the Belgian region of Flanders , the Zeelandic Flanders. While this Dutch region is a popular spot for tourists — especially Germans — in the summer months, it is also a curious fact that most of it lies underwater.

When you think that the North Island of New Zealand was supposedly pulled from the seas by Maui, as a fish with the fish-hook he crafted from the jawbone of his mother, the fact that New Zealand was named after an area of another country with such close ties to the sea is very congruous. All in all, the namesake of New Zealand really does fit the bill when you think of other such places around the world — mostly colonial places in origin, that owe their names to different countries.

One may have been quite literally pulled and wrestled from the grip of the ocean over hundreds of years by the inhabitants, shored up with breakwaters and dams and banks, linked with tunnels and ferries, whilst the other is steeped in myth. It gives us a deeper understanding of what shaped the lands that many people call home, and how those people came to be there.

And New Zealand is no exception. We and our partners use cookies to better understand your needs, improve performance and provide you with personalised content and advertisements. To allow us to provide a better and more tailored experience please click "OK". Sign Up. Travel Guides. Videos Beyond Hollywood Hungerlust Pioneers of love. It has two main islands, North Island and South Island. Its closest neighbour is Australia, more than 1, kilometres to the north-west.

New Zealand has been shaped by volcanic activity and some of its volcanoes are still active. It has a diverse environment including mountain ranges, lakes, rivers and a long coastline of sandy beaches. At a working session in April , the Secretariat helped New Zealand parliamentarians share lessons with other countries in the Pacific region on human rights issues.

They investigated reducing physical barriers to trade — for example, by improving infrastructure. The Action Group held its first meeting in February with a three-day workshop led by the government of New Zealand.