New Zealand - Beautiful but Boring

Written for the Turkish Daily News learners' page: http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=79143

People are often surprised when I tell them I have no plan to return to New Zealand. I have European Union citizenship from my English mother, and Spain has been my home base for the last eight years.
New Zealand is a beautiful country with mountains, forests and beaches, much like Turkey. It is very good for outdoor sports. It has a similar climate to theEuropean part of Turkey, and it is about the same distance from the equator.
During my travels I have learned to appreciate two things about New Zealand. It is beautiful and there is a lot of space. New Zealand is bigger than the UnitedKingdom and has only four million people. The South Island, where “Lord of the Rings” was filmed, is bigger than England but has less than one millionpeople. New Zealanders live in houses with big front and back gardens. There are almost no apartments.
About ninety percent of New Zealanders are of British or Irish ancestry. The native Maori are about fourteen percent of the population, but most have some British or Irish ancestry as well. The main immigrant groups are from the Pacific Islands.
New Zealand, therefore, is very much an English society. Elizabeth II of England is the Queen of New Zealand. Things have changed in recent times. Maoriculture has become more important and the language is now taught in schools.
But in many ways New Zealand is more English than England and, for me, a little boring. Traditionally it is a nation of sheep farmers, rugby players and beerdrinkers. Today more people live in the cities than work on the farms, however. One third of New Zealanders, 1.3 million, live in the biggest city, Auckland.
Rugby is more popular than football. New Zealand's “All Blacks” won the first Rugby World Cup in 1987 and are the favorite to win this year's World Cup in France.
They were also favorites in 1999, but France beat them in the semifinals. New Zealanders were shocked. The coach was replaced, the captain was replaced, and even the prime minister of New Zealand was replaced in the next elections!
Before their games the “All Blacks” do the Haka, a traditional Maori dance which is very popular with the fans.
Families in New Zealand are generally not as close as they are in Turkey. This is different for the Maori people however. The family is very important for them.
The Maori are a Polynesian people who came to New Zealand about 1,200 years ago. Most experts today think the Polynesians migrated out of South East Asia into the Pacific Islands thousands of years ago. They built very big boats – catamarans – on the islands of Tahiti and sailed thousands of kilometers to find places like Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand.
In New Zealand they separated into tribes and fought many wars with each other. The British Empire fought long, difficult wars with the Maori in the 19th century.
In the 1850s New Zealand began to govern itself, but it was still a British colony. It was the first place in the world to give women the vote, in 1893. In theFirst World War, many New Zealanders fought for the Anzacs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) in Turkey. Anzac Day is an important holiday in Australia and New Zealand.
New Zealand was a rich country after World War II and became independent in 1947. It was often called one of the best places in the world to bring up children. Life became more difficult in the 1980s, but there is a good social welfare system and there are no very poor people.
In 1999 New Zealand elected a woman prime minister for the first time. Helen Clark has been very successful, winning three elections. Traditionally New Zealand has supported Britain and America in war, but Clark's Labor Party opposed the second invasion of Iraq. She has been called one of the 20 most powerful women in the world.
Other famous New Zealanders were early 20th century writer Katherine Mansfield, from the capital city Wellington, Edmund Hillary who became the first man to climb Mt Everest in 1953, and actor Russell Crowe whose cousins were cricket stars for New Zealand.
New Zealand is also the home of the kiwi fruit. In fact, the kiwi is the native bird of New Zealand, and the word can be used as an adjective to describethings from that country, including its people – Kiwis.