North Island has a mountainous center with many hot springs and volcanic peaks while it also contains the country's longest river, the Waikato and the largest lake, Lake Taupo. South Island is much more mountainous with the Southern Alps, which has some 350 glaciers, running across the length of the island. Much of the lowlands are broken and hilly while plains are not prominent on either island. The largest area of level lowland is the Canterbury Plains on the east side of South Island. New Zealand has a temperate climate dominated by the east moving anti cyclones that bring clear skies or fog while weather conditions are highly changeable throughout the year.
All months are moderately wet while the high mountains carry snow throughout the year.
Other non-European minorities include small numbers of Chinese, Indians and Arabs. Other Christian minorities include Roman Catholics, Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians. The official languages are English and Maori with English understood by all the population while Maori is the language of the indigenous New Zealanders. During the 1950's New Zealand troops fought with US forces in the Korean War. Also in 1985 Greenpeace's flagship the Rainbow Warrior, which was preparing to embark on a voyage to protest the testing of nuclear weapons in French Polynesia, was sabotaged and sunk in Auckland Harbor by French secret agents killing one person.