25 Amazingly Awesome New Zealand Facts

Who knew that New Zealand was one of the least corrupt countries in the world, or that de-clawing cats is illegal!

Read on to discover these little known and fascinating facts on New Zealand, you just might want to plan a trip there to see for yourself

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New Zealand has the smallest wage gap between men and women, under 5%
The tuatara, a New Zealand reptile that pre-dates the dinosaurs, has 3 eyes.
The oldest known fossil is of the penguin species and lived in the early Paleocene epoch of New Zealand, about 62 million years ago.

During WW1, New Zealand raised an army of 100,000 men, about 10% of its population.

New Zealand will deny people residency visas if they are overweight. There have been cases of people rejected because of obesity.
An Australian man tried to sell New Zealand on Ebay, and the starting price was AU$0.01 and managed to reach AU$3000 before Ebay closed the auction.
The logo of the Royal New Zealand Air Force is the Kiwi, a flightless bird.
Declawing cats is legal in most U.S. states but banned in at least 22 countries including Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

New Zealand was undiscovered and completely devoid of human beings no more than 800 years ago.
Most of New Zealand’s population of 4.5 million is of European descent. The indigenous Maori are the largest minority at almost 15%.

Sign Language is one of three official languages of New Zealand.
New Zealand is the fastest country in the world to start a business: just one day.

Around 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in today’s New Zealand, and developed the distinctive Maori culture.
“Aotearoa,” often translated as “land of the long white cloud,” is the current Maori name for New Zealand.
Of modern countries currently independent, New Zealand was the first to allow women the vote.
It’s illegal for drug companies to advertise directly to consumers almost everywhere in the world, except in the U.S. and New Zealand.
There are no terrestrial (land) snakes in New Zealand.
In 2013, a bacteria was found in New Zealand that’s resistant to every single antibiotic known.
The least corrupt countries in the world are New Zealand and Denmark.
The steepest street in the world is Baldwin St. in Dunedin, New Zealand, with a 38° gradient.
New Zealand’s Ninety-Mile Beach is only 55 miles long.
Commercial bungee jumping first began in New Zealand in the 1980s.
In WW2, the U.S. and New Zealand secretly tested 3,700 “tsunami bombs” designed to destroy coastal cities.
If everyone lived as densely as the do in Manhattan, the human race could fit in New Zealand.
The courts in New Zealand allowed a child to be named “Number 16 Bus Shelter.”

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25 Amazingly Awesome New Zealand Facts

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