New Zealand Maori Essay

2113 Words9 Pages
The first wave of immigrants to New Zealand were the Maori who arrived from the islands of Polynesia between 800-1000AD. These new immigrants faced many problems to do with land, climate, food, housing and their way of life but learnt how to overcome these problems. This essay explains what problems the early Maori faced and how they learnt to overcome them. New Zealand’s land was a lot different to the Polynesian islands and it took time for the Maori to adjust to the new land. As the Maoris stepped off their canoes and set their eyes on New Zealand for the first time they were shocked at what they saw. They saw huge sand dunes that ran between the beach and forest; they saw swamplands and large, flooded rivers. They saw the scrublands and fern lands and the tussock grasslands that contained a large flightless bird called the moa then the thick, dark forest with old kauri trees that towered above them. They were shocked to see volcanoes and thermal areas alive with geysers and the huge mountains ranges that seemed impossible to cross and they looked upon the rocky alpine areas and snow with awe. This land was very different to their homeland but they managed to overcome these problems by for example using the inland rivers to travel and by cutting down the huge forests. Therefore because of the examples given these new settlers learned how to overcome their problems of the new land and quickly adapted to the New Zealand. The climate in New Zealand is far colder than the Polynesian islands so changes had to be done to the Maori lifestyle to survive. The Maori found the clothes they wore were not right for the cold, harsh New Zealand weather as the weather in New Zealand can be very cold and damp but the Maori were used to hot dry weather all throughout the year. The Maori made a big change to their clothing so they could survive like for example they made
Open Document