I am a fifth generation New Zealander, or fourth generation, depending which branch of the family tree I choose to follow.
People have immigrated to New Zealand throughout our history, beginning with the Maori people. Māori came to New Zealand from eastern Polynesia, probably in several waves, most likely between AD 1280 to 1300.
Apart from Maori, many New Zealanders are of European descent - or lately Asian. Like the Maori these people have come in 'waves'.
It is interesting to meet many 'new' New Zealanders now in every day life. Here are some I come into regular contact with.
When renovating out house recently - our builder was Welsh (North Wales and Welsh speaking too - love that language!), our electrician was Swiss.
Other people we know: our lawn mowing man is English but came here from South Africa, our neighbours are Scottish, another is Malayan Chinese, another is Tongan, our dairy (corner store)owner is Indian, my friend is Australian, my sister in law is German, my neice is married to a Fijian, my nephew is married to a Dutch woman, another to an English woman, other friends are Swedish and English, - I could probably add to this list all day!
I always tend to think of NZ as being rather isolated but we are no longer.
4 comments:
Wow! I love checking out your blog because I always learn so many new things about NZ. The years I spent teaching abroad, I met many, MANY people from NZ. I fell in love with the country, the people, the accent (though they always seemed to say, "We don't have an accent! You Canadians have an accent!" LOL!).
*sigh* Your posts really do make me want to visit NZ all the more!
P.S. I had no idea that there were so many different "cultures" and groups of people in NZ. It really does sound multicultural! Kind of like Canada!
do you have a lawn mowing man???? i hate lawns, lawn mowers and that noise when all the neighbors start up the mowers all together on a saturday morning.....grass is so useless...you can't eat it, it rows stong so it breaks your mower, and when you water it, it grows, and you have to cut it again...i could go on and on
C - yes we are much more 'cosmopolitan' here than we used to be say 20 years ago. Before that we really didnt see so many people from other cultures.
Putz - I agree with you - grass is so unproductive, involves too much effort to keep it looking good, and you can't eat it! But unless we surround our house with stones or concrete, - what else can we have?
We have such a big lawn that we have grown tired of all the upkeep and that is why we have this lovely lawn mowing man who arrives with his mower ever few weeks and knocks it into shape.
Until it then grows again!
it must be fascinating living with so many cultures around you. I just have geordies and mackems here.
As for the lawn, I pebbled our back garden because of the boggy grass and have managed to minimise the front with a large flower bed. But that has it's own problems.
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