Travelblog!

Hello, and welcome to my travelblog!

Today, me, my girlfriend and couple that is friends of us, are packing our bags and taking off to Wellington, New Zealand. Man, I can’t wait. I’ve heard so much nice things about Wellington! I’ve booked tickets for us all with SAS, Singapore airlines and Air New Zealand, and on the last one, on the newly presented Cuddle Class which offers us the possibility to make our seats to beds. I think the trip is going to be superb already from the first second!

The brochure picture from Air New Zealand presenting the Cuddle Class

I found some facts to be prepared for the capital of New Zealand: 

New Zealand is a country located south of Australia in the Pacific Ocean. New Zealand became a British colony at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, but is now an independent state. The country consists of the North Island and South Island and some smaller islands. The capital is Wellington and is located south on the North Island. The usual Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, often translated as "the long white cloud land." The country has a parliamentary democracy and is a part of the Commonwealth. New Zealand is responsible for the self-governing countries, Cook Islands, Niue and administers Tokelau and Ross Dependency.

Of New Zealand's four million inhabitants, it lives in excess of 3 million on the North Island and around 1 million on the South Island. These two islands are among the largest in the world and the overall area is comparable to the British Isles. 

New Zealand is among the latest lands that were inhabited. The Polynesian inhabitants probably arrived sometime between the years 500 – 1300 and developed the Maori culture. The first Europeans to reach New Zealand came in 1642.

The Maori people are the ancestors and the native people of New Zealand. Maori were divided into tribes. The tribes lived very separated. Each tribe was divided into clans that had the same ancestor. The clans were split into large family groups. Each family group each had a leader who was called Rangatiraes. These leaders could not decide over other groups. But the leaders of the different groups got together when decisions were taken. The Maori people were nomads. They moved from place to place according to how many resources it was again the different places. In summer they used to live near the sea so they could live off fishing. The Maoris brought many wars between various tribes. The cause of wars could be that someone from another tribe stole something, killed someone or simply mocked the chief or others who were central to the tribe. The wars could last for several generations. There was even a rule that said that people from the same tribe would not kill each other. The rule was to prevent the tribe lost too many members. Because of all the warfare, the Maoris were not particularly old.  

New Zealand's most popular sport is rugby. Soccer, cricket and Netball/Lacrosse is constantly gaining new ground. Otherwise, sports such as golf, tennis, rowing, sailing, skiing and snowboarding are performed.

Rugby is the sport closely related to the country's identity. The national rugby team goes under the name “All Blacks” and has the most victories of any international rugby team in the world.

70% of all the energy is generated through renewable hydropower, so I’m looking forward to visit this clean country!

 

Map of New Zealand (Wellington in the middle)

Wellington was named in honour of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington and the champion at the Battle of Waterloo. In Maori language, Wellington has two names. Te Wanganui-a-Tara refers to Wellington Harbour and means "the great port of Tara." The other name Pōneke is often omitted because many believe that there is nothing else than a rewriting of the airport's former name in English, Port Nicholson.  

A third name which is used when talking generally about the southern part of the North Island's Te Upoko o te Ika, which means the head of the fish and refers to the legend of the North Island as an enormous fish that were pulled from the sea by the god Maui.

Wellington was originally land with a lot of hills and lovely nature. The Europeans settled here first because they thought it was a perfect place to put up since no one bothered travelling over the large mountains from the other side of the North Island

 

Wellington

So, I’ve used all my day on preparing for this super exiting trip. Got to get some important sleep because our trip is going to take about 34 hours, travelling through 11 time zones, ending up in the 12^th!  That means travelling half the world! Looking forward to it!