What better way to bring in the New Year than to take a look back to the past. New Zealand is seen as a very young country but believe me, it has a long and colorful past. One of the greatest and unique things that New Zealand has going for it, is that for about 80 million years it sat in total isolation. There it was, broken away from its predesessor – the super continent Gondwana, just floating around in the South Pacific With no human interfarrance until 800 years ago. This allowed the Jurassic Forest to evolve without the pressense of mammals (apart from a couple of very small bats that also live in Whirinaki te Pua-a-Tane). New Zealand split from Australia, South America, and finally Antarctica to float alone, by itself and remain ancient!
