I don’t feel it would be appropriate for me to try to give you a background to New Zealand culture on this site. However, I can provide a list of resources further down this page that you can visit to get an insight into the culture of the people who live in NZ.
You could be interested in New Zealand for a variety of reasons including; you are thinking of moving to New Zealand and are doing some research, planning a holiday there and would like to know more about the people, history, and culture before you travel, have already moved to NZ but are feeling that you don’t really know enough about the culture and people.
Whatever the reason there are plenty of existing web sites that provide much more information on the culture in New Zealand than I could ever hope to do on this site.
It is evident that the culture is in part related to the unique geography, demographics, and colonial history of this nation. There are some noticeable differences between the societies of Maori and New Zealand Europeans and so to the cultures, even more so in the historic past, but these will be explained to you by following the links to the sites listed below.
Te Manatu Taonga / Ministry for Culture & Heritage
New Zealand our Culture - Jasons
Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori / Māori Language Commission
Pouhere Taonga / Heritage New Zealand
Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa / National Library of New Zealand