Q 01/05

What is the capital city of New Zealand?

A) Wellington

B) Auckland

C) Christchurch

D) Dunedin

Answer · why

A) Wellington

Auckland is the biggest city by a wide margin, but the seat of government has sat at the bottom of the North Island since 1865.

Q 02/05

New Zealand has two main landmasses. Roughly how many smaller islands make up the rest of the country?

A) About 40

B) Over 700

C) Around 150

D) Nearly 3,000

Answer · why

B) Over 700

The North Island is Te Ika-a-Māui and the South Island Te Waipounamu; the small islands run from the subtropical Kermadecs to the subantarctic groups.

Q 03/05

Which Dutch explorer became the first European to sight and record New Zealand, in 1642?

A) Willem Janszoon

B) Jacob Roggeveen

C) Abel Tasman

D) Dirk Hartog

Answer · why

C) Abel Tasman

He never landed: four of his sailors were killed by Māori in a waka at what he named Murderers' Bay, now Golden Bay.

Q 04/05

Which British explorer became the first European to set foot on and map New Zealand, in 1769?

A) Matthew Flinders

B) George Vancouver

C) William Bligh

D) James Cook

Answer · why

D) James Cook

Cook charted the coastline so accurately on his first voyage that his maps stayed in use for decades.

Q 05/05

In which year did British representatives and Māori chiefs sign the Treaty of Waitangi?

A) 1840

B) 1848

C) 1856

D) 1872

Answer · why

A) 1840

It was first signed on 6 February at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, and that date is now the national day.