Queenstown is the ideal hub for your South Island adventure. Let New Zealand’s natural beauty inspire your next adventure! What current events are happening in New Zealand? How big is the New Zealand economy?

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New Zealand is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreement, known formally as the UKUSA Agreement. Today, New Zealand enjoys particularly close relations with the United States and is one of its major non-NATO allies, as well as with Australia, with a «Trans-Tasman» identity between citizens of the latter being common. The country is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and participates in the Five Power Defence Arrangements.
The Māori were the first people to reach New Zealand, followed by the early European settlers. While the demonym for a New Zealand citizen is New Zealander, the informal «Kiwi» is commonly used both internationally and by locals. For legacy systems which can only accept one ethnicity, people are usually allocated to a single ethnicity based on a pre-determined priority order, with Māori given highest priority and New Zealand European given lowest priority. Statistics New Zealand allows people to choose multiple ethnicities and reports ethnic data based on total responses, therefore ethnicities add up to more than 100%. The median age of the New Zealand population at the 2018 census was 37.4 years, with life expectancy in 2017–2019 being 80.0 years for males and 83.5 years for females.
It is the sole home, for example, of the long-beaked, flightless kiwi, the ubiquitous nickname for New Zealanders. Niue and the Cook Islands are self-governing states in free association with New Zealand. New Zealand is ranked 5th in the International Cricket Council Men’s Test Team Rankings 2025 with a rating of 100. The All Blacks, the national rugby union team, are the most successful in the history of international rugby.
In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. Source your posts in the comments as best as possible. No Reposts within 180 days of the original post or for content already in the top 50. For example, posting 20 images of Sage from various different artists would not be allowed. Album posts must contain related images from the same set, and not assorted images you put into one post.
The two main islands are named North and South islands in English, or Te-Ika-a-Maui and Te Wai Pounamu, respectively, in Maori. Discover vibrant cities like the largest city Auckland and capital city Wellington, where culture and entertainment thrive. New Zealand is about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) long (north-south) and about 280 miles (450 km) across at its widest point. New Zealand was the largest country in Polynesia when it was annexed by Great Britain in 1840. Participation in the world wars gave some New Zealand writers a new perspective on New Zealand culture and with the postwar expansion of universities local literature flourished.
At the 2023 census, 51.6% of population said they had no religion, up from 48.2% in 2018 census. As recorded in the 2018 census, Samoan is the most widely spoken non-official language (2.2%), followed by «Northern Chinese» (including Mandarin, 2.0%), Hindi (1.5%), and French (1.2%). The number of fee-paying international students and international exchange students increased sharply in the late 1990s, with more than 20,000 studying in public tertiary institutions in 2002. The most popular countries of origin for overseas-born residents were England (14.6%), mainland China (10.2%), India (10.0%), the Philippines (7.0%), South Africa (6.7%), Australia (6.1%), Fiji (4.8%) and Samoa (4.3%). In 2009–10, an annual target of 45,000–50,000 permanent residence approvals was set by the New Zealand Immigration Service—more than one new migrant for every 100 New Zealand residents. Following colonisation, immigrants were predominantly from Britain, Ireland and Australia because of restrictive policies similar to the White Australia policy.

Science and technology

New Zealand’s transport network comprises 94,000 kilometres (58,410 mi) of roads, including 199 kilometres (124 mi) of motorways, and 4,128 kilometres (2,565 mi) of railway lines. In contrast, dairy farming increased, with the number of dairy cows doubling between 1990 and 2007, to become New Zealand’s largest export earner. On 7 April 2008, New Zealand and China signed the New Zealand–China Free Trade Agreement, the first such agreement China has signed with a developed country. Food products made up 55% of the value of all the country’s exports in 2014; wood was the second largest earner (7%). Exports account for 24% of its output, making New Zealand vulnerable to international commodity prices and global economic slowdowns.

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The All Blacks perform a traditional Maori war dance, or haka, before the start of international matches. The country’s national sporting colors are black and white, and the silver fern is a national emblem. The national rugby betista casino login team, the All Blacks, has the best winning record of any national team in the world, including being the inaugural winner of the 1987 Rugby Union World Cup. The British brought the Protestant work ethic—the industrious newcomers astonished Maori people.

• New Zealand is an island country located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.
• New Zealand is a predominantly urban country, with 84.5% of the population living in urban areas and 51.4% in the seven cities with populations exceeding 100,000.
• New Zealand has competitive international teams in rugby union, rugby league, netball, cricket, softball, and sailing.
• Conservationists recognized that threatened bird populations could be saved on offshore islands, where, once predators were exterminated, bird life flourished again.
• Most private and commercial research organisations in New Zealand focus on the agricultural and fisheries sectors.
• In the 2023 census, 62.1% of residents responded as being ethnically New Zealand European, and 17.8% responded as being ethnically Māori.

New Zealand has been described as a middle power in the Asia-Pacific region, and an emerging power. A seasonal workers scheme for temporary migration was introduced in 2007, and in 2009 about 8,000 Pacific Islanders were employed under it. New Zealand has a strong presence among the Pacific Island countries, and enjoys strong diplomatic relations with Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga, and among smaller nations. Despite the United States’s suspension of ANZUS obligations, the treaty remained in effect between New Zealand and Australia, whose foreign policy has followed a similar historical trend. In 1951, the United Kingdom became increasingly focused on its European interests, while New Zealand joined Australia and the United States in the ANZUS security treaty. On 3 September 1939, New Zealand allied itself with Britain and declared war on Germany with Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage proclaiming, «Where she goes, we go; where she stands, we stand».
About 82% of New Zealand’s indigenous vascular plants are endemic, covering 1,944 species across 65 genera. Physical isolation has caused biological isolation, resulting in a dynamic evolutionary ecology with examples of distinctive plants and animals as well as populations of widespread species. Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch all receive a yearly average of more than 2,000 hours of sunshine. Of the seven largest cities, Christchurch is the driest, receiving on average only 618 millimetres (24.3 in) of rain per year. Conditions vary sharply across regions, from extremely wet on the West Coast of the South Island to semi-arid in Central Otago and the Mackenzie Basin of inland Canterbury and subtropical in Northland.

Regions and external territories

The northern and northeastern parts of the South Island are the sunniest areas of the country and receive about 2,400–2,500 hours. Elsewhere, the plate boundary involves the subduction of one plate under the other, producing the Puysegur Trench to the south, the Hikurangi Trough east of the North Island, and the Kermadec and Tonga Trenches further north. The two main islands (the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu) are separated by Cook Strait, 22 kilometres (14 mi) wide at its narrowest point. New Zealand is near the centre of the water hemisphere and is made up of two main islands and more than 700 smaller islands. After the 1982 UNCLOS, the islands contributed significantly to New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone. According to most Māori oral traditions, the islands were first discovered by the semi-legendary explorer Kupe while in pursuit of a giant octopus.
New Zealand art and craft has gradually achieved an international audience, with exhibitions in the Venice Biennale in 2001 and the «Paradise Now» exhibition in New York in 2004. Certain items of popular culture thought to be unique to New Zealand are called «Kiwiana». In the 1960s, as tertiary education became more available, and cities expanded urban culture began to dominate, but rural imagery and themes are common in New Zealand’s art, literature and media. From the early 20th century until the late 1960s, Māori culture was suppressed by the attempted assimilation of Māori into British New Zealanders. More recently, American, Australian, Asian and other European cultures have exerted influence on New Zealand.

Community highlights

The British and Irish immigrants brought aspects of their own culture to New Zealand and also influenced Māori culture, particularly with the introduction of Christianity. As of 2022, the agency is New Zealand’s largest employer, consolidating the DHBs’ combined work force of 80,000, with an estimated annual operating budget of NZ$20 billion and an asset base of about NZ$24 billion. The New Zealand Government established it to replace the country’s 20 district health boards (DHBs) on 1 July 2022.

• The Realm of New Zealand, one of 15 Commonwealth realms, is the entire area over which the king or queen of New Zealand is sovereign and comprises New Zealand, Tokelau, the Ross Dependency, the Cook Islands, and Niue.
• However, the 2008 financial crisis had a major effect on New Zealand, with the GDP shrinking for five consecutive quarters, the longest recession in over thirty years, and unemployment rising back to 7% in late 2009.
• The Gallipoli campaign played an important part in fostering New Zealand’s national identity and strengthened the ANZAC tradition it shares with Australia.
• The Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau (a dependent territory); the Cook Islands and Niue (self-governing states in free association with New Zealand); and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealand’s territorial claim in Antarctica.
• He recognized the relationship between the Maori and the Tahitian people his expedition had already visited.
• Living standards in New Zealand fell behind those of Australia and Western Europe, and by 1982 New Zealand had the lowest per-capita income of all the developed nations surveyed by the World Bank.

While officially the Chatham Islands Council is not a unitary authority, it undertakes many functions of a regional council. The territorial authorities consist of 13 city councils, 53 district councils, and the Chatham Islands Council. In 1989, the government reorganised local government into the current two-tier structure of regional councils and territorial authorities. Since 1876, various councils have administered local areas under legislation determined by the central government.
He named that area Murderers’ Bay, and called the country Staten Landt. DNA mapping of their Maori descendants indicates links to the indigenous people of Taiwan. The relative proximity of New Zealand to Antarctica has made South Island a gateway of sorts for scientific expeditions and tourist excursions to the icebound continent. Over 75 percent of the forest cover has been burnt or felled, and the land converted into pasture. It also has a diverse range of birds, including the flightless moa (now extinct) and the kiwi, the kakapo, and the takahē, all of which are endangered. Evergreens such as the giant kauri and southern beech dominate the forests.

New Zealand Facts and Culture

New Zealand became a dominion in 1907; it gained full statutory independence in 1947, retaining the monarch as head of state. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which paved the way for Britain’s declaration of sovereignty later that year and the establishment of the Crown Colony of New Zealand in 1841. In 1769 the British explorer Captain James Cook became the first European to set foot on and map New Zealand.
The government sold its telecommunications company, railway network, a number of radio stations, and two financial institutions. The formal relationship with the U.S. changed, in 1986, however, after the Labour government adopted an anti-nuclear position, which ended visits of American warships. New Zealand is a party to the ANZUS security treaty between Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S.
In September 2020 Statistics New Zealand reported that the population had climbed above 5 million people in September 2019, according to population estimates based on the 2018 census.n 9 The road and rail networks in the two main islands are linked by roll-on/roll-off ferries between Wellington and Picton, operated by Interislander (part of KiwiRail) and Bluebridge. In the year to June 2018, dairy products accounted for 17.7% ($14.1 billion) of total exports, and the country’s largest company, Fonterra, controls almost one-third of the international dairy trade. The increase of this since the 1960s led to the formation of the Pasifika New Zealander pan-ethnic group, the fourth-largest ethnic grouping in the country.
In 2005, agriculture made up about 5 percent of gross domestic product; industry, 28 percent; and services, 67 percent. A period of poor economic growth lasted until the mid-1990s, when the government began a program of immigration to boost GDP. An economic bubble developed in the New Zealand stock market starting in 1984. The businesses the government retained, known as «state-owned enterprises,» are required to operate profitably as stand-alone businesses.