Summary

Aotearoa (land of the long white cloud), consists of three islands between Australia and Antartica.  It is an independent nation under the rule of the confederated Maori tribes, or iwi.  It is the home of approximately three million citizens, more than two-thirds of which formerly belonged to the British Empire.  Most of the population is concentrated on the North Island, and the urban metropolis of Auckland.  The second largest population hub is the national capitol, located at the south end of the North Island, Wellington.

Life is largely peaceful between the formerly British citizens and the Maori, although there are occasional incidents with dissidents who desire to return to Britain’s fold.  The Anzac Freedom movement is the largest of these groups and they occasionally indulge in terrorist attacks, largely centered around Auckland and Wellington.  Large protests are also periodically staged, although they generally accomplish nothing.

Aotearoa is rich in numerous resources, notably wood and therefore paper products, dairy products, beef, and most importantly, sheep and wool.  A large part of the present economy is based upon delivering massive container ships of sheep to the Mid East, where demand for sheep for food and sacrifice is much higher than the local supply.

The Maori capital is located in Rotorua, noted for its hot springs, and the Beehive continues as the seat of parliament in Wellington. Auckland is the largest city, and is the home of the largest white population in the country.  As Aotearoa continues to gentrify, more former colonials move into the cities and more and more farms are ceded to the Maori.

In the South Island, things are largely unchanged, mostly due to the sparse population density. Those colonials that remain are independent and hardy, used to carving their life out of the bush.  They have much less tension with their Maori neighbors than their Northern neighbors.

History

The independent nation of Aotearoa declared its independence from the British Empire in 1944.  Taking advantage of the lessened British military presence due to the defense of Australia during the War of the Pacific, armed Maori, backed by tohunga medicine men, stormed the Beehive capital building in Wellington.  They took the Prime Minister hostage and immediately negotiated his release to Britain in exchange for national independence.

After the Maori took control in 1944, there was a brief rebellion in the South Island.  The colonial population of the South Island largely consists of farmers and freeholders, often of Scottish stock, who initially refused to fall under native rule.  The British Empire planned to use the South Island as a foothold to regain control of New Zealand, but when the South Islanders saw how little the new government would affect their distant and independent way of life, they grew complacent and eventually accepted the new rule.

Rulers