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We love nature, ancient cultures, great architecture, authentic and simple people, and tasty food

Apparently, the New Zealand islands remained human-free for a very long time. No human prehistory here, but a late awakening in the Middle Ages. People from Polynesia arrived here in large canoes between 1250 and 1300 and developed a culture that is known as Māori. They called the islands Aotearoa, the island of the long white cloud, but the word also refers to the ocean-going canoes the Māori use.

The first European to sight New Zealand in 1642 was the Dutchman Abel Tasman, but after some skirmishes with the Māori, he continued his voyage back North. The Brit explorer James Cook was the next European to visit, only in 1769, in fact a few days before the French captain Surville, on account of the French East India Company. After that, the islands were visited intermittently but more and more often by European explorers, adventurers, traders and whalers. At Waitangi, on the North Island, the Brits convinced various Māori chiefs to sign a treaty in 1840, making the islands part of the British Empire. There were however different interpretations of the treaty that officially gave Māori and Britons the same rights. The Māori had no idea what land property means, while the Britons wanted to own land and settled here in great numbers...

Bye for now...

Well, now you've seen these 19 pages with photos from our trip to New Zealand/Aotearoa in 2016, it's bye bye for now.

There are many more photos and stories to share about these beautiful islands... so keep an eye on these pages. There are lots more subjects to be discovered in our other webpages and blogs (look under the 3 dashes up left on the page).

comments are welcome at info@toucheguy.dk. Vi ses!