New Zealand

**New Zealand** (known as ****, in the Māori language) officially Commonwealth of New Zealand) is an island country in Oceania. It is a sovereign state in the south-western part of the Pacific Ocean. It is made up of two large islands (the North Island and the South Island) and many smaller islands. New Zealand was one of the last places in the world that humans discovered, because it is a long way away from most of the world. During its time without humans, New Zealand was a great place for an unusual range of plants and animals to develop.

The current capital city of the country is Wellington, and the largest city is Auckland. Both of these cities are on the North Island. The largest city on the South Island is Christchurch.

The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand sign language. English has never been granted official language status in the NZ laws, but it is used as a default official language due to its wide usage.

In 2010, the _New Zealand Herald_ said that New Zealand was the 8th happiest country in the world.

## Name

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.

## Government and politics

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The head of state is Charles III. The Prime Minister is Christopher Luxon, leader of the National Party.

New Zealand has made itself a _Nuclear Free Zone_: They do not use nuclear power and do not allow nuclear weapons or nuclear powered vessels in their territory.

Elections are held every 3 years.

## People

As of the 2018 census, 4,699,755 people lived in New Zealand. Most of them have European ancestors. The indigenous people of New Zealand, the Māori, have a population of 775,836, or 16.5%.

The people of New Zealand often call themselves Kiwis. This name is derived from the kiwi, a flightless native bird that is considered the country's national bird.

The North Island is smaller than the South Island, but most people (more than 3 million) live there. This might be because the North Island is usually warmer, and has more big cities.

About half of the people in New Zealand are religious. As of the 2018 census, 48.2% had no religion. The main religion in New Zealand is Christianity. Just over 2 million New Zealanders are Christian. The second most common religion is Hinduism, with 2.6%.

## Cities

Most New Zealanders live in urban areas, with the other 27% living in small towns or farming communities.

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. Auckland is the largest city, with around 1 million people.
Other cities in the North Island include Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier/Hastings, New Zealand, New Plymouth, Whanganui, and Palmerston North. South Island cities include Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Invercargill and Timaru.

## Geological origin

New Zealand sits at the boundary between the Australian and Pacific continental plates. When these two plates bumped into each other ('collided'), the Pacific plate moved under the Australian plate, north of the South Island. As a result, there has been lots of volcanic activity. South of the South Island, the Australian plate moves under the Pacific plate instead. The plates slide past each other in the South Island, where they have pushed up the Southern Alps. Because of these two colliding plates, New Zealand often has earthquakes. One of the best known is the 2010-2011 group of earthquakes that hit the Christchurch area.

The diagram shows that the North Island is on the Australian plate, but most of the South Island is on the Pacific plate. New Zealand is still geologically active, and will remain so as long as the islands are sitting above the plate boundary.

### Ancient geology

The oldest rocks in New Zealand date from the Cambrian period, 512 million years ago. New Zealand became part of the global super-continent Pangaea. When that split (End-Triassic/early Jurassic), New Zealand became part of the southern super-continent Gondwana. Finally Gondwana broke up, leaving the continents rather as they are today.

## Natural history

New Zealand was isolated from the rest of the world for a long time. It split from Australia 83 million years ago. Because of this, there are many plants and animals that only live in New Zealand. Before humans came to New Zealand, there were no mammals, except three species of bat and marine mammals such as seals, dolphins, and whales. Instead, New Zealand has many different kinds of bird. New Zealand has several species of flightless bird, including the kiwi and Kakapo. For the lizards, especially important is the Tuatara, the only living member of a whole order of reptiles.

New Zealand used to have more rare species, but some, mostly birds, were hunted to extinction early in its history. The giant Moa, _Dinornis_, is a famous example. The group of birds which the moa belongs to had been in existence since the Cretaceous period. Humans arrived in New Zealand about a thousand years ago, when many moa were living, especially on the South Island. Archaeological sites with evidence of moa hunting are all over New Zealand. The moa became extinct about five hundred years ago. Extinctions closer to today have been caused by habitat change and introduced species like rats, dogs, cats, and possums, which kill the native birds and lizards, or eat their eggs.

## Other information

- Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb to the top of Mount Everest, was from New Zealand.
- New Zealand has become more popular since New Zealander Peter Jackson made the _Lord of the Rings_ movies there.
- Many farmers in New Zealand breed sheep. There are many more sheep than people in New Zealand (20 sheep for 1 human).
- Many New Zealanders are interested in sports. Their national sport is usually considered to be rugby (in winter). They have impressive athletes in rowing, cycling, shotput, discus, triathlon, yachting, climbing, surfing, cricket, netball, softball, wind surfing, gliding, and more.
- New Zealanders enjoy outdoor pursuits. The country has a "clean, green" image, but per-person emissions are 7th worst out of 41 industrialized nations as of 2017. Really bad air and water pollution is fairly rare, though occasional outbreaks in the past 20 years have caused problems for livestock and the surrounding waters. Most major rivers (60% estimated as of 2017) are not safe to swim in due to farming pollution and run-off.
- New Zealand, like many other small nations, has a strong local media. New Zealand has a wide variety of musicians, television, and radio celebrities, and stand-up comedians. Although most are simply "world-famous in New Zealand", many others have successfully made it on the international scene. Such people and groups include Russell Crowe (actor), Kiri Te Kanawa (singer), the Flight of the Conchords, Lorde, Crowded House (bands/singers), Lee Tamahori, Taika Waititi, and Peter Jackson (movie directors).
- The NZ Army mostly does peacekeeping and natural disaster support. New Zealand sent army engineers to Iraq to do rebuilding during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
- The middle of New Zealand's North Island has an almost-desert. State Highway 1, the main north-south road, goes through that desert. This section of the road in the desert - the Desert Road - can often be closed in winter. It is called a desert because it has bare areas and unusual plants that normally grow on mountains.

## Related pages

- Animals of New Zealand
- List of rivers of New Zealand
- New Zealand at the Olympics
- New Zealand national football team

## Infobox (country)

- **native name**: _Aotearoa_
- **conventional long name**: New Zealand
- **common name**: New Zealand
- **image flag**: Flag of New Zealand.svg
- **image coat**: Coat of Arms of New Zealand.svg
- **image map**: NZL_orthographic_NaturalEarth.svg
- **map caption**: The hemisphere centred on New Zealand
- **national anthem**:
"**God Defend New Zealand**"
"God Save the King"
- **capital**: Wellington
- **largest city**: Auckland
- **official languages**: English language, English (95.9%)
Māori language, Māori (4.2%)
New Zealand Sign Language, NZ Sign Language (0.6%)
- **ethnic groups**: 78% New Zealand European, European/Other
14.6% Māori people, Māori
9.2% Asian people, Asian
6.9% Pacific Islander, Pacific peoples
- **demonym**: New Zealanders, New Zealander,
Kiwi (people), Kiwi (colloquial)
- **sovereignty type**: Independence of New Zealand, Independence
- **sovereignty note**: from the United Kingdom
- **established event1**: New Zealand Constitution Act 1852
- **established date1**: 17 January 1853
- **established event2**: Dominion of New Zealand, Dominion
- **established date2**: 26 September 1907
- **established event3**: Statute of Westminster 1931, Statute of Westminster
- **established date3**: 11 December 1931 (adopted 25 November 1947)
- **established event4**: Constitution Act 1986
- **established date4**: 13 December 1986
- **government type**: Unitary state, Unitary Parliamentary system, parliamentary constitutional monarchy
- **leader title1**: Monarchy of New Zealand, Monarch
- **leader name1**: Charles III
- **leader title2**: Governor-General of New Zealand, Governor-General
- **leader name2**: Cindy Kiro, Dame Cindy Kiro
- **leader title3**: Prime Minister of New Zealand, Prime Minister
- **leader name3**: Christopher Luxon
- **area rank**: 75th
- **area km2**: 268,021
- **area sq mi**: 103,483
- **percent water**: 1.6
- **population estimate**: 4,414,400
- **population estimate year**: September 2011
- **population estimate rank**: 124th
- **population census**: 4,027,947
- **population census year**: 2006
- **population density km2**: 16.5
- **population density sq mi**: 42.7
- **population density rank**: 202nd
- **gdp ppp**: $120.2 billion
- **gdp ppp rank**: 61st
- **gdp ppp year**: 2011
- **gdp ppp per capita**: $27,217
- **gdp ppp per capita rank**: 32nd
- **gdp nominal**: $157.877 billion
- **gdp nominal rank**: 51st
- **gdp nominal year**: 2011
- **gdp nominal per capita**: $35,374
- **gdp nominal per capita rank**: 24th
- **hdi**: 0.908
- **hdi change**: increase
- **hdi rank**: 5th
- **hdi year**: 2011
- **hdi category**: <span style="color:#090;">very high</span>
- **gini**: 36.2
- **gini year**: 1997
- **gini category**: <span style="color:#fc0;">medium</span>
- **currency**: New Zealand dollar
- **currency code**: NZD
- **country code**: NZ
- **time zone**: Time in New Zealand, NZST
- **utc offset**: +12
- **time zone dst**: Time in New Zealand, NZDT
- **dst note**: (Sep to Apr)
- **utc offset dst**: +13
- **date format**: dd/mm/yyyy
- **drives on**: left
- **cctld**: .nz
- **calling code**: +64