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Nova Zeelandia

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Ahhh, the most perfect place on earth.  Where else can you still have an interesting native culture, go bungee jumping, see a beautiful landscape, and have a national rugby team.  Yes, New Zealand is now very English; its ruler is officially Queen Elizabeth II herself.  But what about that name?  Wouldn't an English colony have the name New Essex or New Reading or even New Caledonia, hint hint.  We should have noticed in the first glance that this name is Dutch.  So, what is New Zealand's Dutch heritage?

The first Europeans to "discover" New Zealand's islands were the Dutch, led by the explorer Abel Tasman in 1642.  He also discovered the island of Tasmania, look at his last name.  However this first encounter with Europeans was not peaceful.  Several of the Dutch crewmen died in this hustle with the indigenous people the Maori; aka the rugby and football stars of the world, you don't want to mess with them.  One beneficial outcome of this encounter was the naming of New Zealand.

Abel thought that this land was connected to the bottom tip of South America (how wrong can you be) and he named it "Staten Landt", staten just means "states".  This name meant the States Lands.  However, a few years after that some Dutch cartographers changed the name to "Nova Zeelandia" after the Dutch province of Zeeland.  As the English began pouring into Nova Zeelandia in the 1700's, English explorer James Cook, that's Captain Cook of the Cook islands, Anglicized the name to New Zealand.  It seems out of British color to keep the Dutch name, but I'm not complaining.

Here is an English/Dutch webpage talking about Abel Tasman

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