Sport

New Zealand

New Zealand is a country known as being very active in sport. You will always find New Zealanders playing or doing one sport or other in parks, at the beach or anywhere with a bit of space.

Something worth noting is that despite New Zealand being a relatively small country of only 4 million people, New Zealanders do very well on the international scene at the highest levels. In the last Olympic Games in London (2012), New Zealand obtained 6 Gold medals, 2 Silver medals and 5 Bronze medals.

The main sports in New Zealand

The national sport of New Zealand is Rugby.
Their powerful national rugby team called the All Blacks have won the Rugby World Cup twice and are normally ranked as number one in the word according the International Rugby Board (IRB).

The main sports in New Zealand are:

Rugby
Netball
Cricket

But the following sports are also common …

Tennis
Golf
Cycling
Softball
Triathlon
Rowing
Yachting
Touch Rugby
Rugby League
Surf
Polo
Ski

Extreme Sports

New Zealand is the birthplace of extreme sports and adventure.
In fact Bungy Jumping was "born" in New Zealand in 1986 thanks to a New Zealander called A.J. Hackett.

Some extreme/adventure sports that you can do in New Zealand:

Bungee Jumping
Rock climbing
Kayaking
Rafting
Jet Boating
Mountaineering
Trekking / Hiking
Diving
Zorbing (rolling down a hill inside a great big plastic ball - again, invented in New Zealand)

Sport and Children

It is very common for children to play some sport after school and often the coaches are the same parents of those kids. It is a way of avoiding additional unnecessary costs and making sport more accessible.

Sport New Zealand (Sport NZ) invests $70 million (NZ dollars) every year promoting sport in the young people (from 0-18 años).

National Colours of New Zealand

The uniform of the New Zealand sports teans is normalmente completely black or white.
The silver ferm is the national symbol which is worn on the uniform of every sportsperson representing the national identity of New Zealand in any sport or activity.

Names of New Zealand Sport Teams

Sport	Men	Women
Basketball	Tall Blacks	Tall Ferns
Cricket	Black Caps	White Ferns
Hockey	Black Sticks Men	Black Sticks Women
Netball	x No Team	Silver Ferns
Rugby (Union)	All Blacks	Black Ferns
Rugby League	Kiwis	Kiwi Ferns
Wheelchair Rugby	Wheel Blacks	Wheel Blacks
Football / Soccer	All Whites	Football Ferns
Softball	Black Sox	White Sox
American Football	IronBlacks	x No Team
Ice Hockey	Ice Blacks	Ice Fernz