Aotearoa

Aotearoa (pronounced: ) is the Māori language name for New Zealand most widely known and accepted.

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The original derivation of Aotearoa is not known for certain. A likely translation is "Long white cloud" (ao = cloud, tea = white, roa = long). It is, however, most often translated as "The land of the long white cloud", even though no part of it means "the land of".

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Clouds seen from the sea

Perhaps the most likely explanation for the name is derived from seafaring. The first sign of any land from a boat is often cloud in the sky above the island. New Zealand's mountain ranges are longer and higher than elsewhere in the South Pacific and so they are particularly good at generating standing waves. The resulting long lenticular clouds are very different from the more usual cumulus clouds seen elsewhere in the region. The sight of these clouds over either of the country's two main islands could easily have led to this name.

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Snow-capped mountains

A second possible explanation relates to the snow-capped nature of New Zealand's mountains, notably the long chain of the Southern Alps which forms a backbone to the South Island, but also the North Island Central Plateau. Polynesian travellers, unused to snow, might well have seen these snowy peaks as a long white cloud.

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Twilight land

A third explanation is connected with New Zealand's location below the tropics. Polynesian seafarers would have been used to tropical sunsets, in which the sky goes from daylight to night very rapidly, with little twilight. New Zealand, with its more southerly latitudes, would have provided surprisingly long periods of evening twilight to travellers from the tropics, and also surprisingly long summer days. It has been suggested that this long twilight is the actual origin of the term Aotearoa, which therefore would better translate as "long light sky". The presence of the Aurora Australis, and the vivid sunsets, are given as theories for the origin of part of the name for Stewart Island/Rakiura, namely Rakiura meaning "glowing sky".

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Pronounced: REDIRECT Pronunciation...

Standing waves: redirect standing wave...

Lenticular clouds: REDIRECT Lenticular_cloud...