ANSWER: The most popular answer is that because "New Zealand" is a Dutch naming of the land by an Abel Tasman Expedition. What most people don't know is that the Abel Tasman Expedition was very very LOST. The Dutch Expedition was on mission to not only find routes to the Malay Spice islands, but to engage the Spanish and Catholic ships in War, and the Dutch thought that they had landed on the southern tip of South America.
Abel Tasman then attempted to rename "Magellan's Pass" as "Staten Land" under his Majesty and 'Abel Tasman Passage', again thinking he was in South America. The area was though mapped out as New Zeelandia, When the Dutch were anchored in Bay looking for resupply they didn't know they had come during an inter-Iwi Maori War, and the first encounter became a lethal mistake and so the Dutch left quickly. The British came later and never did an inquiry into the name's history, partly because they too for awhile didn't know if they were allowed to stay. Today the land has two names, both Aotearoa and New Zealand, however only the native name has actual meaning and relevance.
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