Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest settlement in New Zealand happened between 1280 and 1300.
For centuries that followed, these early settlers developed a distinct culture now known as Māori.
What is known as New Zealand today was called Aotearoa (meaning: the land of the long white cloud) by the Maori people.
Now, in the 17th and 18th centuries, Europeans were in an exploration mode for the sake of economy (acquiring gold, spices, etc.), religion (spread Christianity), and glory.
Abel Tasman, a Dutch (those who live in the Netherlands are called the Dutch) working with the Dutch East India Company, was on one such exploration when he came across modern-day New Zealand.
If we look at this Google Map, New Zealand, and Argentina are separated just by the South Pacific Ocean.
Later, the Dutch map-makers, realising that NZ was not a part of Argentina, named it Nova Zeelandia (Latin) after the Dutch province of Zeeland.
Most of Zeeland (meaning ‘sea-land’), which is situated at the mouth of several major rivers in the Netherlands, lies below sea level.
So, the name Nova Zeelandia (new sea-land) was thought appropriate as NZ is also surrounded by water.
When the British explorer Captain Cook sailed on into Nova Zeelandia a century later, he merely anglicised the name, unlike in the case of New Holland which was changed completely to what we now know as Australia.
