On a global scale New Zealand is a very young country and has only been inhabited by humans for approximately 1000 years. In Maori legend, the great explorer Kupe ventured across the Pacific Ocean in his waka hourua (voyaging canoe) from his ancestral Polynesian homeland of Hawaiki about 950AD. Over the next few hundred years many planned migrations were made and the Maori settled throughout the North and South Islands. Although there is some disagreement between historians it is thought that another group of Polynesians known as the Moriori  were settling the South Island, possibly around the same time. Moriori are believed to have later migrated to the Chatham Islands, off the east coast of the South Island. Unfortunately, disease and attacks from Maori decimated the population of this peace-loving people.

In 1642 the first of the European explorers, Abel Janszoon Tasman from Holland, sailed into New Zealand waters and sighted land near Hokitika on the South Islandís west coast. With the Southern Alps clearly visible from the coast he remarked that he had found ëa large land, uplifted highí. He named the land ëStaten Landtí, which was later changed to New Zealand by Dutch mapmakers. However, a squirmish with local Maori, in the northern South Island, discouraged Tasman from attempts to interact with the locals and, after partly charting the coastline, he left New Zealand without going ashore.
 
More than a century passed before James Cook, British explorer, arrived in New Zealand in 1769. Cook circumnavigated the country and his extensive charting of the coastline was very accurate given the limitations of those times. The information that the botanists and scientists, who had accompanied Cook, gathered gave valuable knowledge of New Zealandís flora and fauna.    

From the late 1790ís whalers, traders and missionaries began to arrive, establishing settlements predominantly along the coast. These new migrants interacted with the Maori people, trading and, in some cases, living with them.

In 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the Europeans and Maori and New Zealand became a British colony. As a result, many new migrants arrived from Britain. However, this caused problems as the new migrants disputed land ownership with the Maori. For the next twenty years there were ongoing conflicts and battles between the British and Maori. Today, land grievance claims are being settled by the New Zealand government in accordance with the original terms of the treaty.

While New Zealand is still a member of the British Commonwealth, it is self-governing and has developed its own trading and foreign policies. New Zealand has close defense and trading ties with neighbouring Australia, and there has even been recent talk of combining the currencies of the two nations. This notion raised the ire of the majority of New Zealanders who, though small in number, are immensely proud of their unique country.