New Zealand has numerous museums, including Te Papa Tongarewa, the country’s national museum. Te Papa’s exhibits focus on themes of national and natural history, including a re-created island, complete with wildlife, and an art collection. There are also a number of notable local and regional museums, such as the Auckland Museum, the Otago Museum (Dunedin), and the Waikato Museum (Hamilton). Theatre is a vital part of the country’s culture, and in 1970 the government founded the New Zealand Drama School. The New Zealand Opera Company performs in the main cities.

Sports and recreation

Sports are the main leisure-time activity of more than half the population. There is widespread participation in most major sports, particularly rugby football, which is played by both men’s and women’s teams. The inaugural World Cup of rugby, which New Zealand cohosted in 1987, was won by the country’s national team, the All Blacks. (New Zealand also hosted the seventh Rugby World Cup in 2011.) The opening of each All Black match is highlighted by the players’ performance of the haka known as “Ka Mate,” a traditional Māori chant accompanied by rhythmic movements, stamping, and fierce gestures. Notable players include Colin Meads, who participated in 55 Test matches for the All Blacks. Women’s netball has become a popular participatory and spectator sport, as has basketball.

New Zealand made its Olympic debut at the 1908 Games in London, where it competed with Australia on the Australasian team. There the country captured its first medal, a bronze in the 3,500-metre walk. New Zealand competed separately at the 1920 Antwerp Games. The country has had notable success in Olympic track-and-field events. Jack Lovelock set a world record in the 1,500-metre race at the 1936 Berlin Games, and in 1952 at Helsinki long-jumper Yvette Williams became the first female New Zealander to win Olympic gold.

The climate and the variety of terrain allow for year-round activity in many sports. Mountaineering and hiking are popular outdoor activities. The country has extensive skiing facilities, especially on South Island. Sailing is also popular, particularly around Auckland Harbour; New Zealand won its first America’s Cup yachting race in 1996. Adventure sports have long been common on the islands, and in the late 20th century New Zealand helped popularize bungee jumping.

Several natural and cultural areas have been designated UNESCO World Heritage sites. Te Wāhipounamu (South West New Zealand), a 10,000-square-mile (26,000-square-km) expanse of near-pristine land on South Island, encompasses glaciers, rainforest, beaches, and mountains and is home to many ancient plant and animal species. Aoraki/Mount Cook, Fiordland, Westland Tai Poutini, and Mount Aspiring national parks are within its borders. On North Island, Tongariro National Park is also a World Heritage site. It was originally located on land inhabited by the Māori since their arrival in New Zealand and granted by them to the crown in 1887, and it has since expanded and now covers an area of some 300 square miles (800 square km). Its borders include Mount Ruapehu and other mountains of great cultural and religious importance to Māori culture.

Media and publishing

Newspapers in New Zealand provide a high standard of reporting, with substantial coverage of world news provided largely by foreign agencies. No daily paper has a national circulation, but some that originate in the large cities are distributed widely over their respective islands. Some prominent daily newspapers are the New Zealand Herald and the Dominion Post (North Island) and The Press (South Island). Numerous local and regional dailies are also published. Commercial and privately owned radio stations and television channels, including satellite and cable networks, compete with state-owned networks. All forms of media maintain an online presence.

Discovery

No precise archaeological records exist of when and from where the first human inhabitants of New Zealand came, but it is generally agreed that Polynesians from eastern Polynesia in the central Pacific reached New Zealand in the early 13th century. There has been much speculation on how these people made the long ocean voyage. People from Polynesia are known to have sometimes set sail in search of new lands, their canoes well provisioned with food and plants for cultivation, and it is likely that the discoverers of New Zealand were on such a voyage. It is probable that few canoes made the dangerous journey, but the people from even one of these large double-hulled craft could have produced the Māori population that the Europeans encountered in New Zealand in the 17th and 18th centuries. With them they brought the dog and the rat and several plants, including the kumara (a variety of sweet potato), taro, and yam.

The Polynesian period, prior to the arrival of Europeans, has been divided into an early “Archaic” phase, with primarily coastal settlements and an economy based on hunting, especially of moas (flightless birds), fishing, and limited crop cultivation, and a later “Classic” phase, characterized by a movement inland, the building of lightly defended villages, and the extensive cultivation of gardens. Another approach to Māori history divides the period into a “colonization,” a “transitional,” and a “traditional” phase. Colonization, when the new arrivals settled in base camps along the coasts and exploited the abundant animal food resources, lasted until about 1400. The transitional phase—marked by a growth in population, a shift to a fish, shellfish, and plant diet, the emergence of food-storage pits, and changing art forms—lasted until about 1600. And the traditional phase—during which inland villages were built, artifacts of bone, wood, and stone became more common, and gardening was commonplace—lasted until the arrival of Europeans.

In the South Island, if not elsewhere, the first Polynesian settlers found moas in immense numbers on tussock grasslands. These served as their major food supply and had become extinct by the 15th century. The 18th-century Māori population was densest in the warmer northern parts of the country, where the Māori variant of Polynesian culture had reached its high point, particularly in the arts of war, canoe construction, building, weaving, and agriculture.

The first European to arrive in New Zealand was a Dutch sailor, Abel Janszoon Tasman, who sighted the coast of Westland (northwestern South Island) in December 1642. His sole attempt to land brought only a clash with a South Island tribe during which several of his men were killed. After his voyage the western coast of New Zealand became a line upon European charts and was thought of as the possible western edge of a great southern continent.

In 1769–70 the British naval officer and explorer James Cook completed Tasman’s work by circumnavigating the two major islands and charting them with a remarkable degree of accuracy. His initial contact with the Māori was violent, but harmonious relations were established later. On this and on subsequent voyages, Cook, with the explorer and naturalist Joseph Banks, made the first systematic observations of Māori life and culture. Cook’s journal, published as A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World (1777), brought the knowledge of a new land to Europeans. He stressed the intelligence of the natives and the suitability of the country for colonization, and soon colonists as well as other discoverers followed Cook to the islands he had made known.