Why 80% of New Zealand is Empty

As a New Zealander, I always assumed everyone knew us for our cows and milk, and didn't know for ages that everyone thought we were sheep people

One thing you didn't mention: Since the Polynesians had a tropical crop package, they couldn't undertake full-scale agriculture as effectively in temperate New Zealand. Their crops, like sweet potato and taro, only grew well on the North Island, and they somehow lost access to the domestic pigs and chickens that other Polynesians had. As a result, they reverted to more sporadic use of agriculture supplemented by hunting (and became almost entirely hunter-gatherers on the South Island). Introduction of the European crop package was revolutionary for the Maori - in particular potatoes, which grew much better in New Zealand and quickly displaced other tuber crops as a primary carbohydrate source - but it came too late, at earliest probably during Captain Cook's exhibition. Contrast this to Madagascar, which was only settled a few centuries earlier, but developed dense populations in the highlands, because the area was conducive to high-intensity rice farming, which happened to be one of the crops the initial settlers from Borneo took with them.

Why 80% of New Zealand is Empty.. because a salary is 50k a year after tax and a house is $1.5m

Having been fortunate to visit over 60 countries during my life, I can honestly say that New Zealand is the most beautiful country I have ever come across. I am too old to move anywhere now, but if I could, I would move there tomorrow and never look back.

Next video be like: Why Antarctica is 99% empty

"New frames need analyzing; click Analyze" between 9:32 to 9:48

As a NZ'er, this was almost entirely accurate. The untrue part was that Maori found NZ by accident. They had astrologers with star maps and also recognized that masses of migrating birds passing through Pacific Islands had to come from a southern land mass. Migrations to NZ were planned and successful.

We truly enjoyed your video this week and so look forward to the next! Thank you! In another note, regarding Jason’s comment about your videos of special places being not good enough, I beg to differ. Even a video in what you term as “not good enough” to capture the grandeur, those of us who haven’t been there would most certainly enjoy them. Thank you again for doing many of the things we will never get to do. We are very appreciative!

Part of the reason I love NZ is having low population, it’s great going to a city and there’s space to walk freely and if you get up early enough it’s almost like you’re the only person in town but all the shops are open just for you.

I love this channel but as a New Zealander i must point out that the Southern Alps were formed via a strike slip fault (which is the same kind of fault as the San Andreas) not by a subduction zone

As a kiwi i lived in CANADA for 30 years and traveled extensively there and the USA, living back in NZ its great ,the climate, pace of life ,civil society is great ,personal freedoms, ect love the place

Great Video - I loved how the stock footage (while could be of generic streets and suburbs) were all from NZ. Fantastic effort finding high quality and accurate footage

New Zealand currently grows sufficient produce to support 50~60 million people. Most is exported. Soil fertility is not an issue. The only major problem was around the Volcanic Plateau in the central North Island , where the soil is deficient in cobalt ,selenium and iodine . This deficiency caused animals raised on pastures there to suffer malnutrition referred to as "bush sickness". This problem was eliminated many decades ago by using stock food supplements. Ironically, the Volcanic Plateau is the area that has received the most volcanic ash in the last millenium.

I had the opportunity to visit New Zealand last year and it is now one of my favourite places that I've travelled to in my life. I always thought I was more of a city person as I grew up in a densely populated city, but the openness, grandeur and freedom I felt when I visited the South island was so exhilarating. NZ now holds a special place in my heart.

I am proud to be a Kiwi born and raised, and I thank you for going into the ups and downs of this Island, but New Zealand is a lot more than pretty places, unique species of plants/trees, and birds/animals, I don't think anyone realizes how much of a crisis many people are in and I wish it would be acknowledged more. Our economy, government, and schooling systems are terrible, and a lot of people are struggling to get by, and we are having a housing crisis. I just wanted to say this. It isn't a complete paradise, but if you love beautiful places you won't find anywhere else, a climate that never makes its mind up (🤣), species of animals and wildlife that aren't anywhere else with sometimes TOO kind people with an ungodly amount of money you'll spend. It's a great place to visit. Also, we may have enough cows and sheep and food production, but a lot of this land is being taken by real estate agents for housing because everyone needs money since we are in a recession where everything is unnecessarily expensive, and we won't get out of this recession for at least a few years yet. Thank you!

I lived in NZ for a year. It’s a beautiful country with warm, accepting people. The smaller population density was a good thing for me. Coming from the U.K. (and I’m sure it’s the same with many other countries). There is a lot of crowding in and around cities. Auckland is like this but everywhere else in the country is not overcrowded. It was wonderful.

At 2:41 you circled the "Auckland region" but completely missed the actual city of Auckland, you mostly got the Kaipara Harbour instead of Manukau Harbour where Auckland is located

RealLifeLore, I'm just shaking my head over here in Wellington New Zealand in disbelief. You missed and misstated so many important historical, economic, and scientific points that are easily discovered and clarified by a quick web search. For instance, the 58 percent casualty rate of New Zealanders at Gallipoli, not to mention the rest of WWI in which 20% of the male population left NZ, and only 4 out of 5 returned. Those who did return included many severely wounded physically and emotionally. This percentage of the population represented the men who would have been starting families in the late 'teens and '20s. Many in NZ feel this was one important reason that the population didn't grow as fast as Australia or other Commonwealth countries. Another huge hole in this analysis: NZ's lack of certain essential trace minerals, like selenium, iodine, and chromium. While these may be imported today, their lack in previous centuries may have had an effect on the quality of food grown here. But the worst is mistaking the Australian flag as the NZ flag. If I were running a channel on geopolitical analysis and commentary and I got the flag wrong in a video, I'd take that video down and rerelease it - even if I got a quarter million views in the first few hours. My dude, you can do so much better than this. Fun fact: the NZ flag design predates the Aussie flag design, so we're not copying them as some sort of little footnote in their political sphere.

Interestingly, the first Polynesian settlers to Aotearoa/New Zealand likely knew where they were going. A few books have been written on this topic, but basically they had some very complex navigation systems using the flight patterns of birds and ocean currents. Effectively, they would row deep out into the ocean parallel to whatever landmass they were on, and then let the winds and sea move them south across the ocean, occasionally adjusting course based on bird sightings etc.

interesting knowledge, thank you!