New Zealand is part of the "Zealandia" continent, of which, 93% is submerged.
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New Zealand was undiscovered and completely devoid of human beings no more than 800 years ago.
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Most of New Zealand's population of 4.5 million is of European descent. The indigenous Maori are the largest minority at almost 15%.
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Elizabeth II is the Queen of New Zealand and the head of state.
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Sign Language is one of three official languages of New Zealand.
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New Zealand is the fastest country in the world to start a business: just one day.
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Around 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in today's New Zealand, and developed the distinctive Maori culture.
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"Aotearoa," often translated as "land of the long white cloud," is the current Maori name for New Zealand.
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Of modern countries currently independent, New Zealand was the first to allow women the vote.
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It's illegal for drug companies to advertise directly to consumers almost everywhere in the world, except in the U.S. and New Zealand.
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There are no terrestrial (land) snakes in New Zealand.
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In 2013, a bacteria was found in New Zealand that's resistant to every single antibiotic known.
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The least corrupt countries in the world are New Zealand and Denmark, according to the Corruptions Perception Index.
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In 1999, an ex-prostitute in New Zealand, Georgina Beyer, became the world's first openly transsexual Member of Parliament.
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The steepest street in the world is Baldwin St. in Dunedin, New Zealand, with a 38° gradient.
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New Zealand's Ninety-Mile Beach is only 55 miles long.
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Organised commercial bungee jumping first began in New Zealand in the 1980s.
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Declawing cats is legal in most U.S. states but banned in at least 22 countries including Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
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The logo of the Royal New Zealand Air Force is the Kiwi, a flightless bird.
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In 2006, an Australian man tried to sell New Zealand on Ebay. The starting price was AU$0.01 and managed to reach AU$3000 before Ebay closed the auction.
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New Zealand will deny people residency visas if they are overweight. There have been cases of people rejected because of obesity.
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New Zealand bans all advertising on TV on Christmas, Easter, Good Friday and ANZAC Day.
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In 1996, a man broke into a radio station in New Zealand, held the manager hostage, and demanded the station to play "Rainbow Connection" by Kermit the frog.
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There are giant carnivorous snails living in New Zealand.
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During WW1, New Zealand raised an army of 100,000 men, about 10% of its population.
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The smallest wage gap between men and women is to be found in New Zealand: under 5%.
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The tuatara, a New Zealand reptile that pre-dates the dinosaurs, has three eyes.
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The oldest known fossil penguin species lived in the early Paleocene epoch
of New Zealand,
about 62 million years ago.
about 62 million years ago.
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In WW2, the U.S. and New Zealand secretly tested 3,700 "tsunami bombs" designed to destroy coastal cities.
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If everyone lived as densely as the do in Manhattan, the human race could fit in New Zealand.
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The courts in New Zealand allowed a child to be named "Number 16 Bus Shelter."
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New Zealand's native Maori make up only 15% of the population, but over 50% of the imprisoned population.
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The Kiwi is the national animal of New Zealand.
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American soldiers started a riot in New Zealand during WWII because they didn't segregate their bars and they didn't want to drink with non-white people.
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In 1984, New Zealand's Prime Minister got drunk and decided to spontaneously call a general election. He lost.
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Donald Trump was the most Googled person of 2016 in 88 countries, including Mexico, Spain, South Africa and New Zealand.
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After tourists began leaving bras on a fence in rural New Zealand, the trend caught on making the "Cardrona Bra Fence" a popular tourist attraction.
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In 2012, the New Zealand government took legal action to prevent a couple calling their child "Anal."
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New Zealand's two main islands (the North Island and the South Island) had no official names until 2009.
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The New Zealand badminton team was nicknamed
‘the Black Cocks', but had to drop it after complaints.
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Illegal baby names in New Zealand include Lucifer, Christ and Messiah.
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Except for a few species of bats, New Zealand has no native mammals.
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