D
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT
D
Aotearoa, Land of the Long White Cloud, was discovered and settled by the ocean-voyaging ancestors (tūpuna) of Māori (tangatata whenua or people of the land) long before Abel Tasman for the Dutch East India Company blew in upon its shores in 1642, and Captain James Cook charted its coastline for the British Admiralty in 1768-70. In 1840, tangata whenua and the British signed a treaty, te Tiriti o Waitangi, by which each entered into a relationship of mutuality with the other.
AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND
An isolated archipelago over 1,600 kilometers long, Aotearoa New Zealand sits at the bottom of the Southwestern Pacific in the path of powerful westerly winds that unload prodigious amounts of rainfall (uanga) as they fly across its rugged landscape. This precious uanga renews the 500 trillion litres that course through the country’s freshwater system of aquifers, lakes and rivers, of which ten trillion litres is consented to be taken each year for human purposes. Blessed with an abundance of mineral water (wai māori) stored in aquifers underlying 26 percent of its landmass, Aotearoa New Zealand is uniquely positioned to make this life-sustaining element and share it with the world.