> Brunnen-G, what's the native Maori name for New Zealand, anyway?!

Aotearoa. Pronounce every vowel. Ah-oh-te-ah-ro-ah. More or less. It means Land of the Long White Cloud, so named because that's how it first appeared to the first guys arriving here (exactly from where is a little hazy) in their ocean-going multihulls.
The North Island is Te Ika A Maui (the fish of Maui) and the South Island is Te Wai Pounamu (the Greenstone Waters). Greenstone is NZ jade, most of which is found in the south.
As for the fish thing, here is one of my favourite quotes (from a local comedian) retelling the Creation of NZ myth thingy:
"Many years ago a bloke called Maui went fishing with his brothers, using his grandmother's jawbone as a fish hook. He caught a big fish and hauled it to the surface. It was a big fish, man. Like, really really big. About as big as the North Island. In fact, if the truth be told, it *was* the North Island. But that's okay, because Maui's canoe was pretty large as well, as big as the South Island (get the picture?)"
"Maui's brothers, seeing the size of the fish, became jealous and laid into it with their greenstone axes, thus conveniently terraforming it into a fairly rugged bit of heavily forested and mountainous fish (or land, as geologists prefer to call it)."
If you look at a map of NZ, you can see the fish, with a bit of imagination. It's upside down, with the tail up north, two big fins out to each side, Wellington Harbour for its mouth, and Lake Taupo for its heart. The mountains down the middle of the South Island are Maui's brothers in the canoe, and Stewart Island way down south is the canoe's anchor.

Brunnen-"ooh! mythology!"G