1. What is the Māori name for New Zealand?
Aotearoa
Aotearoa is the Māori name for New Zealand, often translated as 'the land of the long white cloud'.
2. New Zealand is made up mainly of how many main islands?
Two
New Zealand's two main islands are the North Island and the South Island, along with many smaller ones.
3. Which city is the capital of New Zealand?
Wellington
Wellington, at the bottom of the North Island, is New Zealand's capital city.
4. Which New Zealand city is nicknamed the 'City of Sails'?
Auckland
Auckland is nicknamed the City of Sails because of its harbours and its long history of sailing.
5. The kiwi is a type of what?
A flightless bird
The kiwi is a flightless bird found only in New Zealand, and it gave its name to the fruit and to the nickname 'Kiwi'.
6. The kauri is a kind of what?
A native tree
The kauri is a giant native tree that can live for well over a thousand years.
7. What is Matariki?
A cluster of stars that marks the Māori new year
Matariki is a cluster of stars that appears in the winter sky and marks the Māori new year.
8. What is a waka?
A canoe
A waka is a canoe. Some waka were huge ocean-going canoes used for long voyages.
9. The Treaty of Waitangi was an agreement between the British Crown and who?
Māori chiefs
The Treaty of Waitangi was an agreement between representatives of the British Crown and a number of Māori chiefs.
10. Which native New Zealand tree is known for its bright red flowers in summer?
Pōhutukawa
The pōhutukawa bursts into bright red flowers each summer, which is why it is sometimes called the New Zealand Christmas tree.
11. Which island has a bigger land area, the North Island or the South Island?
The South Island
The South Island is larger in land area, though the North Island has more people living on it.
12. What is New Zealand's tallest mountain?
Aoraki, Mount Cook
Aoraki, also known as Mount Cook, is New Zealand's tallest mountain, in the Southern Alps.
13. What is New Zealand's longest river?
The Waikato River
The Waikato River, flowing from Lake Taupō to the sea north of Hamilton, is New Zealand's longest river.
14. New Zealand's biggest lake, Lake Taupō, formed inside what kind of feature?
A volcanic crater
Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake, sits inside the crater of a huge volcano.
15. Why are so many New Zealand birds flightless?
For millions of years there were no land mammals to hunt them
Without land predators such as foxes or stoats, many birds lost the need to fly, long before people and introduced animals arrived.
16. Which of these is a large, critically endangered, flightless native parrot?
Kākāpō
The kākāpō is the world's only flightless parrot, and it is critically endangered.
17. Who is credited in tradition as one of the great early Polynesian navigators to reach Aotearoa?
Kupe
Māori tradition tells of the navigator Kupe, remembered as one of the first to discover Aotearoa.
18. How did the earliest Polynesian settlers most likely reach Aotearoa?
By sailing ocean-going waka, navigating by stars, wind and waves
Polynesian voyagers were skilled navigators who deliberately sailed waka across huge distances of open ocean, guided by the stars, wind and swells.
19. Which European explorer was the first to sight New Zealand, in 1642?
Abel Tasman
The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642, over a century before James Cook arrived.
20. Which explorer charted New Zealand's coastline in detail, arriving in 1769?
James Cook
The British explorer James Cook charted New Zealand's coastline closely on his voyages, starting in 1769.
21. In which year was the Treaty of Waitangi first signed?
1840
The Treaty of Waitangi was first signed on 6 February 1840, at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands.
22. The Treaty of Waitangi exists as two texts. Which languages are they written in?
English and Māori
There is an English version of the Treaty and a Māori version, translated at the time, and the two do not say exactly the same thing.
23. What did early Māori communities build as a central meeting place, centred on a carved meeting house?
A marae
A marae is a community's meeting ground, centred on a carved meeting house, used for gatherings, ceremonies and important occasions.
24. Which New Zealand town is famous for geothermal activity such as geysers and hot mud pools?
Rotorua
Rotorua sits on an active volcanic zone, which is why it has geysers, hot springs and bubbling mud pools.
25. Which South Island city is nicknamed the 'Garden City'?
Christchurch
Christchurch has long been nicknamed the Garden City for its parks and gardens.
26. What is a pā?
A fortified Māori village, often built on a hill
A pā was a defended settlement, often built on a hill or headland, with earthworks and fences for protection.
27. What food did early Māori bring from tropical Polynesia and learn to grow in New Zealand's cooler climate?
Kūmara
Kūmara, a kind of sweet potato, was brought from tropical Polynesia and had to be carefully stored to survive New Zealand's cooler winters.
28. Which large flightless bird, now extinct, was hunted by early Māori for food?
The moa
Moa were giant flightless birds, some taller than a person, and they died out after early Māori hunted them.
29. Why does New Zealand have so many native plants and animals found nowhere else?
It separated from other land masses millions of years ago and evolved in isolation
New Zealand broke away from other land long before most mammals evolved, so its plants and animals developed in isolation.
30. The name 'Waitangi' is often translated to mean roughly what?
Weeping waters
Waitangi combines wai, meaning water, with tangi, meaning to cry or make a sound, and it is often translated as weeping waters.
31. Roughly how many Māori chiefs added their names to copies of the Treaty of Waitangi during 1840?
Several hundred, across many hapū and iwi
Over the course of 1840, more than 500 Māori chiefs from around the country added their names or moko to copies of the Treaty.
32. Which pair correctly matches a key Treaty of Waitangi word in the Māori text with how the English text describes the same idea?
Kāwanatanga (governance) in the Māori text, described as 'sovereignty' in the English text
The Māori text promised the Crown kāwanatanga, meaning governance, while the English text used the stronger word 'sovereignty' for the same article. That gap in meaning still matters today.
33. What date is Waitangi Day, marking the anniversary of the Treaty's first signing?
6 February
Waitangi Day is held every year on 6 February, the date of the first signing in 1840.
34. Matariki became an official public holiday in New Zealand in which recent year?
2022
Matariki became New Zealand's newest public holiday in 2022, the first to be based on Te Ao Māori, the Māori world view.
35. The Māori name for the North Island, Te Ika-a-Māui, translates to what?
The fish of Māui
Legend tells of the demigod Māui fishing up the North Island, so it is called Te Ika-a-Māui, the fish of Māui.
36. The Māori name for the South Island, Te Waipounamu, refers to what valuable stone often found there?
Pounamu, or greenstone
Te Waipounamu means 'the waters of greenstone', named for the pounamu found in South Island rivers, especially on the West Coast.
37. What happened when Abel Tasman's crew first met Māori in Golden Bay in 1642?
A misunderstanding led to a clash, and Tasman sailed away without landing
A clash broke out between Tasman's crew and local Māori, several of Tasman's men were killed, and Tasman left without ever setting foot on land.
38. James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific, which led to his charting New Zealand, was largely sent for what stated scientific purpose?
To observe the transit of Venus, then explore further south
Cook's voyage was sent partly to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti, with sealed orders to search further south afterwards, which is how he reached New Zealand.
39. What was William Hobson's role at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi?
He represented the British Crown, and soon after became the colony's first governor
William Hobson represented the British Crown at Waitangi and went on to become New Zealand's first governor.
40. Why is it hard to translate some Treaty of Waitangi terms exactly between English and Māori?
Some English legal and political ideas had no exact matching word in Māori at the time
Concepts such as full sovereignty did not map neatly onto Māori words for authority and guardianship, which is part of why the two texts read differently.
41. The Matariki star cluster is also known in Western astronomy by which name?
The Pleiades
Matariki is the Māori name for the Pleiades star cluster, which becomes visible in the dawn sky in midwinter.
42. Traditionally, how did the rising of Matariki help Māori plan for the year ahead?
It was a sign to reflect on the past year and plan the timing of planting crops
The appearance of Matariki traditionally marked a time for remembering the dead, giving thanks, and planning ahead for planting and harvests.
43. Kauri forests in the upper North Island are under threat today from which disease?
Kauri dieback
Kauri dieback is a soil-borne disease that damages kauri roots, and it is a major reason for cleaning stations at the entrance to kauri forests.
44. Tradition says Rotorua's name comes from Māori words roughly meaning what?
Second lake
Rotorua comes from roto, meaning lake, and rua, meaning two or second, remembered as the second great lake found by an early explorer of the district.
45. Which of these Māori words means 'water', and appears in many New Zealand place names?
Wai
Wai means water, which is why so many New Zealand place names containing 'wai', such as Waitangi and Waikato, are near water.
46. What did the Treaty of Waitangi's third article promise to Māori?
The same rights and protections as British subjects
The third article promised Māori the same rights and royal protection as British subjects, alongside the earlier articles on governance and land.
47. Current archaeological evidence suggests Polynesian settlers first reached Aotearoa around which period?
The late 1200s
Most current evidence, including tree-ring and pollen studies, points to first settlement in the late 1200s, much more recently than many other Pacific islands.
48. How did early Polynesian navigators find their way across open ocean without modern instruments?
By reading stars, ocean swells, winds and the flight paths of birds
Navigators memorised the rising and setting points of stars, the pattern of ocean swells, prevailing winds and the flight paths of land-seeking birds to find their way across vast stretches of open ocean.
49. Kaikōura, a town on the South Island's east coast, takes its name from Māori words meaning roughly what?
Meal of crayfish
Kaikōura comes from kai, meaning food, and kōura, meaning crayfish, remembered from a tradition about a traveller stopping there to eat crayfish.
50. Why do many New Zealand places have both an English name and a Māori name, such as Auckland and Tāmaki Makaurau?
Māori communities already had names for the land long before European settlers arrived and added their own
Long before European ships arrived, Māori already had names for the land, and settlers often added new English names alongside, or instead of, those that already existed.