Why 80% of New Zealand is Empty

Select video clips courtesy of Getty Images

Select video clips courtesy of the AP Archive

Special thanks to MapTiler / OpenStreetMap Contributors and GEOlayers 3

[Karl.Zimmerman]

One thing you didn't mention: Since the Polynesians had a tropical crop package, they couldn't undertake full-scale agriculture as effectively in temperate New Zealand. Their crops, like sweet potato and taro, only grew well on the North Island, and they somehow lost access to the domestic pigs and chickens that other Polynesians had. As a result, they reverted to more sporadic use of agriculture supplemented by hunting (and became almost entirely hunter-gatherers on the South Island). Introduction of the European crop package was revolutionary for the Maori - in particular potatoes, which grew much better in New Zealand and quickly displaced other tuber crops as a primary carbohydrate source - but it came too late, at earliest probably during Captain Cook's exhibition.

Contrast this to Madagascar, which was only settled a few centuries earlier, but developed dense populations in the highlands, because the area was conducive to high-intensity rice farming, which happened to be one of the crops the initial settlers from Borneo took with them.

[joshuakan]

As a New Zealander, I always assumed everyone knew us for our cows and milk, and didn't know for ages that everyone thought we were sheep people

[ratpoison]

Why 80% of New Zealand is Empty.. because a salary is 50k a year after tax and a house is $1.5m

[nomdaploom]

Having been fortunate to visit over 60 countries during my life, I can honestly say that New Zealand is the most beautiful country I have ever come across. I am too old to move anywhere now, but if I could, I would move there tomorrow and never look back.

[alfredpek]

"New frames need analyzing; click Analyze" between 9:32 to 9:48

[nochmalbayern]

Next video be like: Why Antarctica is 99% empty

[ruthwaugh]

As a NZ'er, this was almost entirely accurate. The untrue part was that Maori found NZ by accident. They had astrologers with star maps and also recognized that masses of migrating birds passing through Pacific Islands had to come from a southern land mass. Migrations to NZ were planned and successful.

[JasonNissan]

THATS AN AUSTRALIAN FLAG AT 1:49 NOT A NEW ZEALAND FLAG

[mackakiwinz]

NZ food is cheaper overseas than in NZ. The cost of living compared to income is ridiculous in NZ and most of us just survive living paycheck to paycheck.

[michaelprice]

Part of the reason I love NZ is having low population, it’s great going to a city and there’s space to walk freely and if you get up early enough it’s almost like you’re the only person in town but all the shops are open just for you.

[grantstrahl]

As a kiwi i lived in CANADA for 30 years and traveled extensively there and the USA, living back in NZ its great, the climate, pace of life, civil society is great, personal freedoms, ect love the place

[nixilonaa]

I am proud to be a Kiwi born and raised, and I thank you for going into the ups and downs of this Island, but New Zealand is a lot more than pretty places, unique species of plants/trees, and birds/animals, I don't think anyone realizes how much of a crisis many people are in and I wish it would be acknowledged more. Our economy, government, and schooling systems are terrible, and a lot of people are struggling to get by, and we are having a housing crisis. I just wanted to say this. It isn't a complete paradise, but if you love beautiful places you won't find anywhere else, a climate that never makes its mind up (🤣), species of animals and wildlife that aren't anywhere else with sometimes TOO kind people with an ungodly amount of money you'll spend. It's a great place to visit. Also, we may have enough cows and sheep and food production, but a lot of this land is being taken by real estate agents for housing because everyone needs money since we are in a recession where everything is unnecessarily expensive, and we won't get out of this recession for at least a few years yet. Thank you!

[OrchestrationOnline]

RealLifeLore, I'm just shaking my head over here in Wellington New Zealand in disbelief. You missed and misstated so many important historical, economic, and scientific points that are easily discovered and clarified by a quick web search. For instance, the 58 percent casualty rate of New Zealanders at Gallipoli, not to mention the rest of WWI in which 20% of the male population left NZ, and only 4 out of 5 returned. Those who did return included many severely wounded physically and emotionally. This percentage of the population represented the men who would have been starting families in the late 'teens and '20s. Many in NZ feel this was one important reason that the population didn't grow as fast as Australia or other Commonwealth countries. Another huge hole in this analysis: NZ's lack of certain essential trace minerals, like selenium, iodine, and chromium. While these may be imported today, their lack in previous centuries may have had an effect on the quality of food grown here. But the worst is mistaking the Australian flag as the NZ flag. If I were running a channel on geopolitical analysis and commentary and I got the flag wrong in a video, I'd take that video down and rerelease it - even if I got a quarter million views in the first few hours. My dude, you can do so much better than this. Fun fact: the NZ flag design predates the Aussie flag design, so we're not copying them as some sort of little footnote in their political sphere.

[tobystirling]

I love this channel but as a New Zealander i must point out that the Southern Alps were formed via a strike slip fault (which is the same kind of fault as the San Andreas) not by a subduction zone

[claudiamcfie]

When this video has more views than the entire population of New Zealand...

[ladykiwi_nz]

Maori, who are classed as Polynesian, did not stumble across Aotearoa, NZ but sailed here, following their ancestor Kupe, who discovered the land around 500AD. They left from Rarotonga and this is known as the final migration. They were accomplished sailors and had been travelling by water over hundreds of years, for many generations. As they migrated throughout the pacific, each generation before settled islands in the Pacific which is where those who followed were able to fix their waka (sailing vessels), drop people off, stock up on food etc. All of them were following their ancestors who had gone before. Maori have genealogy links to Rarotonga, Tahiti, Hawaii. Settling NZ was easy for Maori as they are hunters, gatherers and easily adapted. When colonisers came here, Maori had schools of learning in Astronomy, agriculture, fishing, hunting. They traded with other countries and ran businesses and in 1835 signed a declaration of independence with the King of England but that all changed when in Queen Victoria's time, British soldiers came and started slaughtering Maori for their lands so more British could come. With the settlers came all the ugly diseases that didn't exist pre European. I could write a book.

[lols]

I had the opportunity to visit New Zealand last year and it is now one of my favourite places that I've travelled to in my life. I always thought I was more of a city person as I grew up in a densely populated city, but the openness, grandeur and freedom I felt when I visited the South island was so exhilarating. NZ now holds a special place in my heart.

[glrasshopper]

As a New Zealander, I've always been perplexed at how we are one of the extremely few "westernised" society that can feed themselves without food imports. If some of the SciFi end of the world scenarios occured, we would generally survive as a country. We're also sitting on a large amount of untapped resources (Oil, Titanium, Gold, etc) that often gets overlooked as much of it is found in environmental conservation areas. We choose to protect our environment, over exploiting the trillions of dollars worth of resources in the ground (much to the disgruntlement of our mining communities).

[pratosaurusrex]

I lived in NZ for a year. It’s a beautiful country with warm, accepting people. The smaller population density was a good thing for me.

Coming from the U.K. (and I’m sure it’s the same with many other countries). There is a lot of crowding in and around cities. Auckland is like this but everywhere else in the country is not overcrowded. It was wonderful.

[ericlind]

Sorry you missed a few things mate. The South Island is also a major fruit exporter from the South Island. Also Wine with most grapes grown in the South Island. Also a lot of wheat is grown in Mid Canterbury in the South Island.