Who wouldn't love New Zealand. With it's lush greenery, mountains and rain forests. It has the worlds rarest birds, insects and plants. The food isn't bad either with an abundance of lamb and seafood. New Zealand is definitely a tourist dream.

Let's get on with some fun facts about New Zealand:

First known settlers were Maori and were left alone until Captain James Cook arrived in the 18th century. Captain Cook should have sailed on because the Maori warriors killed and ate nine members of his crew. After that traders and others came and fights errupted. They wanted to trade muskets for fruit and pigs. This period was known as the "Musket Wars".

• -capital city is Wellington

• -largest city is Auckland

• -languages are English and Maori

• -majority of people are Christian

• -New Zealand means, "Land of the long white cloud"

• -30 percent of the land are forests

• -90 mile beach is only miles long

• -first country to see the sunrise

• -"kiwi" is either a bird or a native

• -ostrich steak and black swan carppacio do not taste like chicken!

• -new zealand has two national athems- God Save The Queen and God Defend New Zealand

• -there are nine sheep to every human in New Zealand

• -there are 9 billion beef and dairy cattle

• -Sir Edmund Hilary was the first man to reach the peak of Mt. Everest- his face now adorns New Zealands $5 bill.

New Zealand has a lot of animals and birds. It actually has the worlds biggest flightless parrot. The worlds oldest reptile. The biggest earthworms. The smallest bats. The only native land mammals. The oldest trees.

• - New Zealand has the highest car ownership rates in the world

• - Bungee jumping which is now a popular and daredevil sport originated in New Zealand.

New Zealand is very broad and open minded with thier laws. In New Zealand homosexual marriage and prostitution are legal. Soliciting and keeping a brothel are also legal. Thier driving age is 15 and the legal age to have sex is 16. The drinking age is 18 but anyone under that age can drink with an adult present in restaurants.

New Zealand has more golf courses and bookshops then any other country in the world. So they must be smart and sporty at the same time.

Another interesting fun fact is the highly acclaimed "Lord of the Rings" was filmed entirely in New Zealand. American producers were skeptical and the fact that Peter Jackson had never directed a film of that magnitude didn't help matters.

Not only did he have to one but three and everyone said it couldn't be done! Of course they were wrong.