新西兰的文化怎么介绍？
New Zealand is known as the “Land of the Long White Cloud”， a phrase from the 1852 poem “My Own Land” by James K. Baxter in which he describes New Zealand’s distinctive landscape with its rolling hills and large sky： “The land of long white cloud that lies beyond the sea/With ever-waving seas all around her head，/Green cliffs and valleys far down in the gloom/Of many-tinted mountains”.
New Zealand has two main islands – the North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) and the South Island or Te Waipounamu – and about 600 smaller islands， giving it an overall shape similar to a fishhook or scorpion， with the island of Great Britain forming part of the ‘sharp end’。
The first peoples to arrive were Polynesians who settled on the major islands sometime between the fourth and eleventh centuries AD. They came from the Society Islands in modern-day French Polynesia and introduced pigs， dogs， coconut trees and taro into the land.
In 1642 Abel Tasman， a Dutch explorer， became the first European to visit New Zealand when his ships rounded the south-west tip of the South Island. In 1769 Captain Cook sailed along the entire east coast of the North Island but didn't sight the south-east corner——now known as Cook Strait——in memory of which he named it the ‘Abbey’.
New Zealand was settled by British colonists in significant numbers starting in 1840， and became an independent dominion in 1907. Today the predominant ethnic groups are European at 79%（including those of partial European ancestry）and Māori at 13.2% followed by Asian 5.4%（mostly Chinese）with Pacific Islanders constituting nearly 2% of the population. There are also sizeable communities from Europe， Latin America， Africa， the Middle East and Oceania.
The official language is English， although te reo Māori， New Zealand's indigenous language， is making a comeback. New Zealanders are amongst the world's highest consumers of coffee， alcohol and dairy products， and have one of the highest per capita rates of chocolate consumption in the world. The nation's sports teams， including cricket， rugby union， rugby league and