OceaniaNew Zealand
Discover New Zealand - Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud, where Maori culture thrives, fjords rival Norway's, and every landscape looks like a movie set.
Where Is New Zealand?
New Zealand is a country in Oceania. Its capital is Wellington.
- Capital Wellington
- Population 5.32M
- Area 268,838 km²
New Zealand is what happens when you take every spectacular landscape on Earth - fjords, glaciers, volcanoes, rainforests, beaches, geothermal wonderlands - and compress them into two islands at the bottom of the Pacific. The Maori call it Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud, and they arrived here roughly 700 years ago in one of the most extraordinary feats of Polynesian navigation. They found a land with no mammals except bats, where giant flightless birds called moa stood three meters tall and the forest was so dense that sunlight barely reached the ground.
Today New Zealand is home to 5 million people and roughly 23 million sheep. It punches absurdly above its weight in almost every field. Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand beekeeper, was the first person to climb Everest. The All Blacks are the most successful team in the history of international sport. Peter Jackson turned the country into Middle-earth and the film industry never left. The country was the first to give women the right to vote, the first to introduce the 8-hour working day, and has consistently ranked among the least corrupt nations on Earth. And the landscapes - Milford Sound, Tongariro, the Southern Alps, the Coromandel coast - are so ridiculously photogenic that they barely look real.
At a glance
Largest cities in New Zealand
Auckland
Wellington
Christchurch
Queenstown
Rotorua
Dunedin
Famous people from New Zealand
Edmund Hillary
ScienceFirst person confirmed to summit Mount Everest in 1953, a beekeeper from Auckland who became New Zealand's most famous citizen
Peter Jackson
FilmDirector of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which won 17 Academy Awards and put New Zealand on the global cinema map
Ernest Rutherford
ScienceFather of nuclear physics who split the atom and discovered the proton, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Jacinda Ardern
PoliticsYoungest female head of government who gained global attention for compassionate leadership after the Christchurch tragedy
Kiri Te Kanawa
MusicMaori soprano who became one of the world's leading opera singers, performing at the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana
Richie McCaw
SportOne of the most capped rugby players in history who captained the All Blacks to two Rugby World Cup titles, widely considered the greatest flanker ever
Janet Frame
LiteratureNew Zealand's most acclaimed novelist and poet, three-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature
Taika Waititi
FilmMaori filmmaker who won an Oscar for Jojo Rabbit and directed Thor: Ragnarok, bringing New Zealand humor to Hollywood
Traditional cuisine of New Zealand
- Hangi
- Traditional Maori feast cooked in an earth oven using heated rocks, producing tender meat and root vegetables with a smoky flavor
- Pavlova
- Crispy meringue shell with a marshmallow center topped with whipped cream and kiwifruit, claimed by both NZ and Australia
- Fish and Chips
- New Zealand's Friday night tradition, often using blue cod or snapper, served in paper with lemon and tartare sauce
- Lamb
- New Zealand lamb is world-renowned for its tenderness, served roasted with mint sauce or as rack with rosemary
- Meat Pie
- Flaky pastry filled with minced beef and gravy, the essential Kiwi lunch from bakeries and gas stations nationwide
- Hokey Pokey Ice Cream
- Vanilla ice cream with crunchy honeycomb toffee pieces, the uniquely New Zealand flavor found in every dairy
- Whitebait Fritters
- Tiny translucent fish mixed with egg and pan-fried, a seasonal delicacy from the West Coast rivers
- Rewena Bread
- Traditional Maori potato bread with a slightly sweet, fermented flavor, made with a potato bug starter
Nature and landmarks in New Zealand
- Milford SoundRiver
- Fiordland's crown jewel - sheer cliffs rising 1,200 meters from dark water, permanent waterfalls, and Mitre Peak standing guard
- Tongariro Alpine CrossingMountain
- One of the world's great day walks through volcanic terrain with emerald crater lakes, filmed as Mordor in Lord of the Rings
- Southern AlpsMountain
- Spine of the South Island with Aoraki/Mount Cook at 3,724 meters, glaciers, and dramatic alpine scenery
- Bay of IslandsCoast
- Subtropical paradise of 144 islands in the north, where dolphins play, and the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840
- Wai-O-TapuLandmark
- Geothermal wonderland near Rotorua with the vivid Champagne Pool, Devil's Bath, and the Lady Knox Geyser
- Abel TasmanNational Park
- Golden sand beaches and turquoise waters in New Zealand's smallest but most visited national park, perfect for kayaking
- Franz Josef GlacierMountain
- Glacier descending from the Southern Alps into temperate rainforest, one of the most accessible glaciers on Earth
- Coromandel PeninsulaCoast
- Rugged coastline of golden beaches, including Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach where you dig your own hot pool
Sports in New Zealand
- Rugby Union
- The All Blacks are the most successful team in international sport with an all-time winning record of over 77% and three World Cups
- Cricket
- The Black Caps reached the Cricket World Cup final in 2015 and 2019, consistently competitive despite a small talent pool
- Sailing
- Won the America's Cup in 1995, 2000, and 2021, a remarkable achievement for a nation of 5 million people
- Adventure Sports
- Birthplace of commercial bungee jumping and jetboating, Queenstown is the world capital of extreme adventure sports
Did you know?
New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote in 1893, over 25 years before the US or UK
There are roughly 4 sheep for every person in New Zealand - about 23 million sheep for 5 million humans
The kiwi bird is so central to national identity that New Zealanders call themselves Kiwis
New Zealand has no native land mammals except two species of bat - everything else walked, flew, or was brought by humans
The country was the last major landmass to be settled by humans - Maori arrived roughly 700 years ago
Baldwin Street in Dunedin is the world's steepest residential street with a gradient of 35%
New Zealand has more golf courses per capita than any other country in the world
The Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed entirely in New Zealand
Read more about New Zealand
How the Continents Got Their Names
Zeus disguised as a bull, a Florentine explorer who stole Columbus's credit, and a southern land imagined centuries before it was found. The surprising origins of all seven continent names.
Why Do Some Countries Drive on the Left?
From medieval swordfighters to Napoleon's conquests - the surprising history behind why 76 countries drive on the left while the rest of the world drives on the right.
Can you find New Zealand on a map?
Drop a pin where you think it is and see how close you got. A few rounds and you will place New Zealand and its neighbours without a second thought.
