In Denmark there is an island called Zealand. But NZ was named after the Dutch province Zeeland. Australia was originally named New Holland too
OMG, your post confused me so much, lol........ Why was NZ named after that Dutch province? Was NZ discovered by the Dutch? Why was Australia named "New Holland"? Was it also discovered by the Dutch? Confusion :juggle:
Oh wow, thanks so much for this piece of information. I had no idea of this earlier, really. :thanks:
Ha Ha ... and my memory of schooldays reminds me Dirk Hartog happened in 1606!!! he thought wallabies (y'know those smaller kangaroo type animals) were giant rats. thus he named an island just off the coast of Western Australia ... 'Rottnest'. far out. thought that piece of info was crap! but now it makes me seem learned. (that's learn-ed, y'all.) just goes to show everything depends on context. cheers from Oz.
In agreement with the above posters the old Zeeland is part of the Netherlands . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeeland desert rat
There is no connection to the Danish island Zealand, New zealand is the name chosen by the British explorer James Cook.
^ Actually, this thread is really confusing, lol.......OMG. Every time I come to this particular thread, I get more confused than before regarding old and new "zealand".
It's not difficult. The country that the world knows as New Zealand was discovered by the Maori in about 1200. They named it Aotearoa, or "land of the long white cloud". 400 years later in 1642 a Dutchman named Abel Tasman was the first European to lay eyes on the place. He never set foot on it, the warlike Maori frightened him off, so he never learned it was called Aotearoa and called it New Zeeland after a part of his homeland in Holland, Zeeland. There is no Old Zealand just as there is no Old York or Old Hamphshire or Old Mexico. James Cook was next to arrive in 1769, he had a copy of Tasman's chart so he knew New Zealand was here, he didn't discover it, and by the time he turned up the spelling of New Zealand was well established. It's been known as New Zealand ever since. There's a strong movement within the country presently to rename it the original Aotearoa. Long overdue in my opinion. Time for us to cut the apron strings with our colonial past.