Why is New Zealand new and was there a Zealand?
Zealand, also known as Sealand or Sjaelland (in Danish) is the largest island of Denmark and is located right in the middle of the Kattegat, the strait which links the Baltic Sea with the North Sea, in north-western Europe. It is also the island on which Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, stands. However, New Zealand, was not named after Zealand. The name New Zealand is in fact an anglicised version of the Latin name Nova Zeelandia which was the name a Dutch map maker (probably Blaeu) gave to it in about 1645, naming it after Zeeland a province of the Netherlands, in the south-west of that country. It was probably Captain James Cook who anglicised the name to New Zealand. To the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand the country is known as Aotearoa.
