Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ing country, has spent much of its history at war. In the 19th century it fought at home; in
the 20th, overseas.
The Waitangi Treaty Grounds, where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed in 1840, is
now a tourist attraction for Kiwis and non-Kiwis alike. Each year on 6 February, Waitangi
hosts treaty commemorations and protests.
Better Britons?
British visitors have long found NZ hauntingly familiar. This is not simply a matter of
the British and Irish origin of most Pakeha. It also stems from the tightening of NZ links
with Britain from 1882, when refrigerated cargoes of food were first shipped to London.
By the 1930s, giant ships carried frozen meat, cheese and butter, as well as wool, on reg-
ular voyages taking about five weeks one way. The NZ economy adapted to the feeding
of London, and cultural links were also enhanced. NZ children studied British history
and literature, not their own. NZ's leading scientists and writers, such as Ernest Ruther-
ford and Katherine Mansfield, gravitated to Britain. This tight relationship has been de-
scribed as 'recolonial', but it is a mistake to see NZ as an exploited colony. Average liv-
ing standards in NZ were normally better than in Britain, as were the welfare and lower-
level education systems. New Zealanders had access to British markets and culture, and
they contributed their share to the latter as equals. The list of 'British' writers, academ-
ics, scientists, military leaders, publishers and the like who were actually New Zealan-
ders is long. Indeed, New Zealanders, especially in war and sport, sometimes saw them-
selves as a superior version of the British - the Better Britons of the south. The
NZ-London relationship was rather like that of the American Midwest and New York.
Wellington-born Nancy Wake (code named 'The White Mouse') led a guerrilla attack
against the Nazis with a 7000-strong army. She had the multiple honours of being the
Gestapo's most-wanted person and being the most decorated Allied servicewoman of
WWII.
'Recolonial' NZ prided itself, with some justice, on its affluence, equality and social
harmony. But it was also conformist, even puritanical. Until the 1950s it was technically
illegal for farmers to allow their cattle to mate in fields fronting public roads, for moral
reasons. The 1953 American movie,
The Wild One,
was banned until 1977. Sunday
newspapers were illegal until 1969, and full Sunday trading was not allowed until 1989.
Licensed restaurants hardly existed in 1960, nor did supermarkets or TV. Notoriously,
