New Zealand Fun Facts
Interesting Facts on New Zealand
Here under New Zealand fun facts you can learn some interesting facts on New Zealand we came across. We keep on collecting and adding them here on this site as we find them.
Should you have interesting facts or funny facts about New Zealand and would like to share them. Here is the right place for it.
So you may want to stop by every now and then to see if there’s something new!
New Zealand fun facts – Animals
- Kea apart of being the name of a camper van rental company it is a native bird. This bird is known to rip the rubber from car windows.
- Tuatara is New Zealand’s oldest native reptile. It has lived for about 200 million years. Today this creature of the night still survives on offshore islands. In Maori tuatara means spiny back.
- Weta is an insect endemic to New Zealand that is a relic from the time of the dinosaurs. It has incredible survival instincts. There is an anecdote about Sir Walter Buller. He wanted a weta for his insect collection. His tries to drown the insect for four days failed as well as the attempt to kill it by putting it into almost boiling water. Another one chewed through his handkerchief to get free again.(Please take care for all wildlife.Today there are other predators that seriously threaten these ancient insects.)
- Kiwi bird is New zealand's national bird. Its eggs are about six times the size as the eggs of other in size comparable birds. After thirty days the egg reaches 15 to 20% of the total bird mass.
Planted New Zealand Fun Facts
- Tane Mahuta is the name given to the largest kauri tree.
- Pohutukawa tree is the New Zealand Christmas tree. The New Zealand Christmas falls into the summer season when the pohutukawa tree is full of crimson red blossoms.
- Kiwi
fruit is internationally well known and
marketed
from New Zealand.Interestingly it was itself introduced to the country
in 1959.
The fruit origins from China and was called at the beginning Chinese gooseberry.
New Zealand Fun Facts – Geography
- New Zealand our country's official name derived from the province Nova Zeelandia in Netherlands.
- The Sky Tower in Auckland is with 328 m the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere.
- The Surville Cliffs is the most northern point of New Zealand. The cliffs are three km further north than Cape Reinga which is often thought wrongly to hold this position.
- A Gum boot day is held annually in Taihape. It is an event, that was born in 1985, to draw country wide attention to Taihape.
- A giant carrot statue at the entrance of Ohakune stands for its market gardening history. The yearly Carrot Carnival is celebrated on the last Saturday in July.
- The Chatham Islands is a group of ten islands located eight hundred kilometre east of Christchurch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They are part of New Zealand.
- Maui discovered New Zealand according to Maori legend. A mythology refers that he fished the North Island out of the sea using a fish hook made from his grandmother’s jawbone.
- Abel Tasman a Dutch navigator discovered New Zealand in 1642. Therefore the sea between New Zealand and Australia was named after him, Tasman Sea.
- Captain James Cook drew the first map that put New Zealand definitely on the globe.
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Other miscellaneous interesting facts about New Zealand
Time Zone Game |
- Jandals the kiwi word for flip flops or thongs is a combination made in 1957 from Japanese and sandals.
- Plastic surgery was pioneered during World War I by the Dunedin born Sir Harold Gillies. This lead him to become the outstanding plastic surgeon of the century.
- Togs is a word used for Swim suits in New Zealand.
