Why New Zealand? Why kiwis?
New Zealand, the land of a thousand wonders
The name "New Zealand" comes from “Zeeland” (which translates to
"Sealand") in Dutch, after the islands were seen by Dutch explorer
Abel Tasman. Zeeland is a province of the Netherlands.
In the early 1900s, cartoonists started to use images of the kiwi
bird to represent New Zealand as a country. During the First World
War, New Zealand soldiers were referred to as 'kiwis', and the
nickname stuck. Eventually, the term Kiwi was attributed to all
New Zealanders, who proudly embraced the moniker.