Travel day today heading to Mount Maunganui where the tournament will be held.
Today's blog is just some trivia and history:
The owners of the hotel where I am currently staying are originally from Fiji. They have lived in NZ for the past 10 years and love it. I didn't realize this, but Fiji is just a 3-hour flight from here. Tempting...
Brief History of New Zealand:
- The original inhabitants of NZ are the Maori and are thought to have arrived around 1,000 years ago after traveling by canoe from a South Pacific homeland known as Hawaiki.
- They named their new home, "Aotearoa", Land of the Long White Cloud.
- They developed a thriving successful society raising sweet potatoes and gathering birds, fish, and shellfish
- The first European to discover NZ was Abel Talsman, a Dutch explorer, in 1642.
- In 1769, British Captain James Cook circumnavigated and mapped the country.
- In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi (its founding document) was signed with Maori chiefs giving Britain sovereignty.
- 1947 Independence from Britain was formally proclaimed.
- Between 1970 - 1990, there were large numbers of Pacific Island and Asian immigrants who settled in NZ.
- New Zealand today has its own culture - a mix of those who have settled in the country.
Bye for now.
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