New Zealand
NEW ZEALAND - Aotearoa "The Land Of The Long White Cloud" is a land that was created by volcanoes and then calmed by glaciers. In the beginning it was a land of birds, there was no man, no deer, no pigs, just birds (and a couple bats). Birds that couldn’t fly, small birds, gigantic birds such as the Moa & Haast’s Eagle and some birds whose ‘song’ can haunt you (in a good way) forever. What a sight (and sound) it must’ve been for the first people to arrive on these glorious shores!
If legend is to be believed, Kupe sailed home after his discovery of the islands that we now know as New Zealand in about 925 AD and it took his descendants another 200 years to discover it again.
There's something to be said about a place that keeps needing to be discovered because in 1642, Abel Tasman discovered a "large land uplifted high.” However, he never set foot on land. Losing four men off the coast in a clash with local Maori during an effort to get to shore was enough to send him home but not before naming the place New Zealand. In 1769, Captain James Cook turned up and 'discovered' what was thought to be the last great continent. He had in fact found the last place for man to try again.
We like to think of it as saving the best till last.