Waitangi Day in New Zealand - 6 February

Waitangi Day is a public holiday for New Zealanders held on the 6th February every year to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the country's founding document, in 1840. As the holiday falls in the middle of the New Zealand summer, many people take the opportunity to go to the beach or visit one of the concerts held all over the country.

New Zealand is in the south-eastern Pacific ocean and consists of two larger mountainous islands, North Island and South Island, and various smaller islands.  The islands have much unusual wildlife not found anywhere else in the world, including flightless birds such as the endangered kiwi. The islands were first inhabited by the Maori people, who came from Polynesia around 1000 AD. The Dutch discovered the islands in the 1600s and named them New Zealand but they didn't settle; Captain James Cook brought the British to the islands in 1769.

Fun fact: More people live in the city of Auckland on North Island than in the whole of the South Island! ;)
The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy was filmed entirely in New Zealand!!! 
  More info:  http://www.newzealand.com/in/feature/lord-of-the-rings/

 

Films about New Zealand:


 

Kiwis are flightless birds native to New Zealand, and have become a symbol and nickname for New Zealanders all over the world. They are about the size of a chicken.
Kiwis are unusual because they have the largest eggs, in relation to their own body size, of any bird in the world.