In the Māori language, the country is called Aotearoa, which means "Land of the Long White Cloud". "Ao" means “cloud”, "tea" means “white”, and "roa" means “long”. The name "New Zealand" comes from “Zeeland” (which translates to "Sealand") in Dutch, after the islands were seen by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. Zeeland is a province of the Netherlands. 