ABSTRACT
New Zealand (“Aotearoa”, “the land of the long white cloud”, in the Maori language) is a small country far away from the rest of the world. Located in the Southern Pacific Ocean, New Zealand remains even a long distance (three hours flying time) from Australia, its closest neighbor. Its total land mass is about the same as that of Britain, with a population of almost 4 million, about 7% of that of the United Kingdom or that of a mid-sized city in Mainland China. New Zealanders (often self-called “Kiwis”) include the indigenous Maori inhabitants and latecomers from Europe, the Pacific Islands, Asia, and other parts of the world.
