Travel

New Zealand is a country of stunning and diverse natural beauty: jagged mountains, rolling pasture land, steep fiords, pristine trout-filled lakes, raging rivers, scenic beaches, and active volcanic zones. These islands are one of Earth's most peculiar bioregions, inhabited by flightless birds seen nowhere else such as a nocturnal, burrowing parrot called the kakapo and kiwi. Kiwi are not only one of the national symbols – the others being the silver fern leaf and koru – but also the name New Zealanders usually call themselves.

These islands are sparsely populated. particularly away from the North Island, but easily accessible. There are sparklingly modern visitor facilities, and transport networks are well developed with Airports throughout the country and well maintained highways. New Zealand often adds an adventure twist to nature: it's the original home of jet-boating through shallow gorges, and bungy jumping off anything high enough to give a thrill.

Maori culture continues to play an important part in everyday life and government and corporate symbolism with abundant opportunities for visitors to understand and experience both the history and present day forms of Maori life.

New Zealand has been called "God's own country " and the "Paradise of the Pacific " since the early 1800s.

New Zealand is increasingly known, both in the indigenous Maori language and by Pakeha, as Aotearoa. often translated as land of the long white cloud. (Aotearoa was really just the name for the North Island. the South Island being known as Te Wai Pounamu or Te Waka a Maui .)

Consisting of two main islands - imaginatively named North Island and South Island and many smaller ones in the South Pacific Ocean, this archipelago lies roughly 1,600km (1,000 mi) south east of Australia .

New Zealand is the fifth largest wholly island nation on earth, its land area surpassed only by Australia. Indonesia. Japan and the Phillipines ; NZ's maritime Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is fifteen times larger, being exceeded only by Australia in the preceding list.

Consequently and with a population of nearly 4.5 million in a country larger than the United Kingdom. many areas are sparsely settled.

Be sure to allow sufficient time to travel in New Zealand. Distances are larger than you probably think and many roads wind along the coast and through mountain ranges (particularly on the South Island ). It's rewarding to tour for three or four weeks on each of the main islands, although you can certainly see some of the highlights in far less time.

Australians often call NZ "The Shaky Isles " because of frequent seismic activity. Lying on the margin of the two colliding tectonic plates (the Pacific and Indo-Australian), earthquakes are common, particularly in the south west of the South Island and in the central North Island, and the North Island's scenery is marked by several active and dormant volcanic cones. The largest lake, Lake Taupo drained by NZ's longest river, the Waikato River, lies in a caldera created by a super-volcanic eruption which occurred approximately 26,500 years ago. The volcano underneath is considered dormant rather than extinct.

Recording more than 14,000 earthquakes a year (with only about 150 usually felt) schoolchildren regularly undertake earthquake drills as in Japan .

Auckland. with a population of around 1.5 million people, is the largest city in Polynesia. Indeed, many small pacific nations, such as the Cook Islands. Niue and Tokelau. have more of their national population living in Metro Auckland than in their home islands! (NZ Government Statistics .) This makes for some interesting shopping and ethnic eating opportunities. However, if you want the true New Zealand experience spend as little time as possible in Auckland as it is very different to the rest of the country.

New Zealand was the last significant land mass on earth to be settled by humans.

East Polynesians reached New Zealand about 700 years ago in a series of tremendous oceanic canoe voyages to begin settlement of what was to become New Zealand - some 46,000 years after Australia. Their populations grew rapidly and led to the extinction of many unique species of flightless birds, including all 9 species of Moa, some of which grew to about 3.6m (12 ft) in height with neck outstretched and weighed about 230kg (510 lb) ! Over time their culture in these colder lands diverged into the unique Maori that the artists of Captain Cook recorded.

Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, in 1642, was the first non-Polynesian to sight the North West coast of the South Island of New Zealand.(There is a claim, disputed by most historians, that a Portuguese expedition led by Cristovao de Mendonca beat him to it over a hundred years before in 1521-1524). Tasman named his find Staten Landt (on the assumption that it was connected to Staten Island, Argentina at the south of the tip of South America) and this appeared on maps from as early as 1645.

His two ships stopped to take on fresh water in Golden Bay. but were attacked by Maori and four of his men and several Maori were killed there - causing him to name it "Murderer's Bay". Leaving the South Island by sailing up the west coast of the North Island, he mapped a small portion of the coastline; Dutch cartographers re-named this known part as Nova Zeelandia .

As part of a dedicated voyage of scientific discovery, Yorkshireman James Cook, a Captain of the Royal Navy, circumnavigated the North, South and Stewart islands in 1769 and charted their coasts. A few people of European and US origin, mostly sealers, whalers, traders and missionaries, settled during the next 80 years, some taking local wives.

In 1840, with the assistance of missionaries, Maori signed different versions of the Treaty of Waitangi and there have been arguments as to the meaning of the cod Maori version ever since. More intensive European (Pakeha) settlement began that same year. Initially annexed to the colony of New South Wales. New Zealand was split off to form a separate colony in 1841. A series of land wars between 1843 and 1872, coupled with political manoeuvring and the spread of European diseases, broke Maori resistance to Pakeha land settlement, but left lasting grievances. In recent years the government has sought to address long standing Maori grievances, but this is a complicated and rancorous process. In 2005, the Maori Party was formed, in part in response to the Government's law on the Foreshore and Seabed but also to promote an independent Maori perspective at a political level.

When the six British colonies federated to form Australia in 1901, New Zealand decided not to join the federation. Instead, the British colony of New Zealand became a self-governing dominion in 1907. It was offered complete independence under the 1931 Statute of Westminster, although it did not adopt this until 1947. All remaining constitutional links with the United Kingdom were severed with the passing of the New Zealand Constitution Act by both parliaments in 1986, though Queen Elizabeth II in right of New Zealand remains the Head of State (with a local Governor-General (appointed only after local advice) as her representative in New Zealand. Interestingly, the Constitution of Australia still permits New Zealand to join as another Australian state.

New Zealand supported the United Kingdom militarily in the Boer War of 1899–1902, as well as both World Wars. It also participated in wars in Malaya, Korea and Vietnam under various military alliances, including the ANZUS treaty with Australia and the United States. More information about New Zealand's military history can be found at the National Army Museum .

New Zealand's population has strongly opposed the testing and use of nuclear weapons. The prospect of nuclear armed US warship visits meant that its Parliament enacted anti-nuclear legislation in the mid-1980s. After consultations with Australia, the US announced that it was suspending its treaty obligations to New Zealand until US Navy ships were re-admitted to New Zealand ports, stating that New Zealand was "a friend, but not an ally". Military relations were not repaired until 2015.

New Zealand is now a socially enterprising, vigorous and independent nation with a widely-travelled and well-educated population of more than 4 million.

More than one million New Zealanders were born overseas. Of the other 3 million native "Kiwis", one in four (one in three between ages 22 and 48) have recently left "Godzone" for more favourable economic opportunities abroad (often to Australia where "Kiwis" uniquely don't need a visa).

The Realm of New Zealand

This former British colony has a population mainly of European descent but with an important indigenous Maori minority of mixed blood, a rapidly growing Asian minority, and smaller minorities of Polynesians, people from the Americas, South Africans and Zimbabweans.

This page is mainly about the core of New Zealand; please see our separate travel guides about other parts of the Realm of New Zealand. Cook Islands. Niue. Tokelau. Ross Dependency. etc.

The Chatham Islands. still a territory of New Zealand but roughly 800km (500 mi) east of Christchurch, keep Chatham Islands Standard Time (CIST) by adding twelve hours and forty-five minutes to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) resulting in UTC+12:45. (This is one of only two official time zones with a 45-minute increment from UTC - the other being Nepal .

However, the main islands visited are 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+12 = NZST = New Zealand Standard Time) and 20 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time (PST).

Daylight Saving (UTC+13 = NZDT = New Zealand Daylight Time) begins on the last Sunday in September and ends on the first Sunday in April.

Some visitors think the national religion in New Zealand is rugby union!

The all-conquering national team, the All Blacks. generally play matches at home during June through to September, mainly in The Rugby Championship (formerly the Tri Nations ) against South Africa. Australia and Argentina .

The two main rugby union competitions are Super Rugby (a regional competition incorporating regional teams from South Africa and Australia) and the domestic ITM Cup (formerly the National Provincial Championship from 1976 to 2005, and Air New Zealand Cup from 2006 to 2015). The Super Rugby season begins in February and normally ends in August (in Rugby World Cup years, the season ends in July); the ITM Cup starts in July and runs through to October.

Other popular sports include soccer, rugby league and netball in winter, and cricket in summer.

New Zealand has a temperate climate - winters are fairly cold in the south of the South Island but mild in the north of the North Island. The nature of the terrain, the prevailing winds and the length of the country lead to sharp regional contrasts. Maximum daytime temperatures sometimes exceed 30 C (86 F)and only fall below 0 C (32 F) in the elevated inland regions. Generally speaking, rainfall and humidity is higher in the west than the east of the country due to the north-south orientation of the mountain ranges and the prevailing westerly/north westerly winds.

Part situated in the Roaring Forties, unsheltered areas of the country can get a bit breezy, especially in the centre, through Cook Strait and around Wellington. The winds seem to be stronger around the equinoxes. In the winter, southerly gales can be severe but they also bring snow to the ski-fields and are usually followed by calm clear days.