Hello Miles!

03 Jan 05 06:29, you wrote to me:

 MM> G'morning Bon,

                 <- Bon Jour?

 BS>>> Aha. Ours is beeing called "Sjalland" in the native
 BS>>> langauge, but Zealand in English. Zeeland means "The land
 BS>>> of lakes" in Dutch? "Sjalland" can't be
translated to that.
 BS>>> Not sure of what it means acutally.

 MM>> That's interesting -  Apparently Tasman thought he'd found an
 MM>> extension of South America and named NZ "Staten
Landt" at first,
 MM>> but when SA was shown not to extend to the west, the Dutch
 MM>> renamed NZ  "Nieeuw Zeeland" in 1643 - and it stuck.

 BS>> Aha. But Tasmania is a part of Austrailia right?

 MM> Yup - he discovered the Tasmanian island while exploring the
 MM> Australian coast;  not sure that he worked out what the Aussie
 MM> beaches were part of,  but the island got named after him.

Aha, one of our Princesses is from there. :-)

 MM>> "The land of lakes" is not so silly, either.  The
bits of NZ that
 MM>> Tasman visited feature a set of islands that hid the Cook Strait
 MM>> entirely from the Dutch explorers,  and gave Captain Cook a false
 MM>> steer into the bargain.

 BS>> false steer?

 MM> An English phrase meaning "misdirected him".

Aha.

 MM> Tasman's map of the area suggested no strait,  and Cook's first
 MM> impression supported that view until Cook (unwilling to risk his
 MM> ship sailing in and around all the little islands) found a tall
 MM> hill that gave him a view of his Straits.

Aha. But Cook didn't do it on purpose right?

 MM>> But I suspect that some bit of Holland or its neighbourhood was
 MM>> also called `Zeeland' at the time  -  and somewhere close to the
 MM>> true antipode of NZ would make a lot of sense of the `New'...

 BS>> Right. :) "Zealand" is a state/county in the netherlands.
 BS>> It located in the south west of Holland no far from Belgium
 BS>> border.

 MM> Aha - the Antipode !  And hence the name "New Zealand" !

Yep. :-) Hmm.. But I guess it's Zeeland in Holland.. Here it's Zealand.. :)

Bo


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