About New Zealand

by Lesley Sjardins

Greetings from New Zealand! Do I hear you ask, “Where’s that?” Over the coming months, I look forward to sharing with you what life is like in “God’s Own Country”. I’d also enjoy sharing some of my insights and experiences from around forty years of pen-palling.

As to location - our nearest neighbours are New Caledonia, Fiji and Australia. (Many “Kiwis” end up living in Australia because of better prospects in the way of earning capacity and government benefits. There are around 400,000 Kiwis living in Australia, and 4 million living in New Zealand. Some of these migrants eventually return, but many never do.

New Zealand has two main islands - the North Island and the South Island. Generally speaking, the further north you go, the milder the climate and the further south you go, the cooler the climate. This rule isn’t always the case. For example, some South Island cities have very high summer temperatures.

The biggest city is Auckland, with over a million people. No other New Zealand cities have anywhere near a million people - so overcrowding isn’t a problem! If you look where the words “North Island” are located on the image above, you may be able to make out “Tauranga” which is the city I live in. It really is one of the loveliest cities to reside in. It has a population of 110,000 and is continuing to grow, albeit a little more slowly with the current economic recession. Tauranga and Mount Maunganui (technically part of Tauranga) have some of the loveliest beaches that you could ever hope to see.
The climate of Tauranga is subtropical, so kiwifruit, avocadoes and citrus fruit grow very well.

Overall, New Zealand is a great place for growing things - especially grass! In previous decades, sheep and dairy farming were our greatest income earners. That place has now been taken by tourism, but agriculture and horticulture still play a big part in the country’s income.


National pride is a big feature of life in New Zealand - especially in the sporting arena. Every boy aspires to one day becoming a great rugby player. The national rugby team is called the “All Blacks” (due to their black uniform) and there is no greater honour than to be chosen to play for such a prestigious team. The main summer sport is cricket and, again, to be a “Black Cap” is a great honour.

Our native wildlife is interesting. In fact there are no native mammals - all are imported from elsewhere. The bird-life is not as varied as in many countries, though there are a few unique birds. The kiwi (see icon at the head of this article) is New Zealand’s symbol. Its numbers have been on the decline as it is flightless, and therefore has little defence against dogs, rats and other imported pests. (As its nest is on the ground the chicks are especially vulnerable.) Fortunately there are strong recovery programmes in place. Large areas of land have been cleared of pests and ring-fenced so that the kiwi in that area can multiply without pressure from predators. I should also mention the kakapo - the world’s largest parrot. They also are flightless and have no defence against predators. Since there are only 91 left in existence, their future is endangered. All 91 kakapo live on offshore islands which have been made predator-free.



Kakapo

Since I’m writing this in mid-December, Christmas is on most people’s minds. A New Zealand Christmas can be very different from an American or English Christmas. Whilst some have a traditional turkey and all the trimmings, many have a backyard barbecue or, better still, one at the beach. We really can’t relate to a countryside covered with snow in December.