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Portal:New Zealand

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New Zealand
Aotearoa (Māori)
A map of the hemisphere centred on New Zealand, using an orthographic projection.
Location of New Zealand, including outlying islands, its territorial claim in the Antarctic, and Tokelau
ISO 3166 codeNZ

New Zealand (Māori: Aotearoa [aɔˈtɛaɾɔa]) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) and the South Island (Te Waipounamu)—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland.

A developed country, it was the first to introduce a minimum wage, and the first to give women the right to vote. It ranks very highly in international measures of quality of life, human rights, and it has one of the lowest levels of perceived corruption in the world. It retains visible levels of inequality, having structural disparities between its Māori and European populations. New Zealand underwent major economic changes during the 1980s, which transformed it from a protectionist to a liberalised free-trade economy. The service sector dominates the national economy, followed by the industrial sector, and agriculture; international tourism is also a significant source of revenue. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, UKUSA, Five Eyes, OECD, ASEAN Plus Six, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Community and the Pacific Islands Forum. It enjoys particularly close relations with the United States and is one of its major non-NATO allies; the United Kingdom; Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga; and with Australia, with a shared "Trans-Tasman" identity between the two countries stemming from centuries of British colonisation. (Full article...)

This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment at Awapuni Racecourse 8 August 1914

The Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment was a mounted infantry regiment from New Zealand, raised for service during the First World War. It was assigned to the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

The regiment, with an establishment of twenty-six officers, 523 other ranks and 600 horses, was formed from three squadrons belonging to pre war Territorial Force regiments; the Queen Alexandra's 2nd (Wellington West Coast) Mounted Rifles, the 6th (Manawatu) Mounted Rifles and the 9th (Wellington East Coast) Mounted Rifles. It also included a small headquarters and, until 1916, a Maxim machine-gun section. The Maxim guns were withdrawn but the regiment's fire-power increased during the war, by the end of which each squadron had four Hotchkiss machine-guns, one per troop. (Full article...)

General images

The following are images from various New Zealand-related articles on Wikipedia.

More Did you know? - show different entries

A petrified log embedded in rocks at Curio Bay.

...that Curio Bay in the Catlins is the site of a petrified forest, buried by a volcano some 160 million years ago?

...that Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot, New Zealander Alan Deere was shot down or crashed nine times?

...that English law was deemed to have taken effect in New Zealand on 14 January 1840, the date that New South Wales Governor George Gipps proclaimed his jurisdiction over New Zealand. New Zealand became a colony in its own right in 1841.

...that the mineral motukoreaite is named after one of Auckland's volcanoes, Browns Island (Motukorea in Māori), where it was first found?


Selected article - show another


The Kea (Nestor notabilis) is a species of parrot (family Nestoridae) found in forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. The Kea is one of the few alpine parrots in the world, and includes carrion in an omnivorous diet consisting mainly of roots, leaves, berries, nectar and insects. Now uncommon, the Kea was once killed for bounty as it preyed on livestock, especially sheep. It only received full protection in 1986.

Kea are legendary for their intelligence and curiosity, both vital to their survival in a harsh mountain environment. Kea can solve logical puzzles, such as pushing and pulling things in a certain order to get to food, and will work together to achieve a certain objective.

Most people only encounter wild Kea at South Island ski areas. Kea are attracted by the prospect of food scraps. Often described as "cheeky", Keas' curiosity leads them to peck and carry away unguarded items of clothing, or to pry apart rubber parts of cars - to the entertainment and annoyance of human observers. In 2009, a Scottish tourist reported that a Kea stole his passport while he was visiting the Fiordland National Park. (Full article...)

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Queenstown Kiwi sculpture
Queenstown Kiwi sculpture

Queenstown (Māori: Tāhuna) is a resort town in Otago in the south-west of New Zealand's South Island. It is the seat and largest town in the Queenstown-Lakes District. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

  • ... that two rival designers independently submitted a map for the design of a 1940 New Zealand coin?
  • ... that New Zealand's Big Lemon & Paeroa bottle was originally a replica space rocket?
  • ... that Henry Charles Swan, a law graduate from Oxford, spent more than 25 years living on a yacht in a stream in New Zealand?
  • ... that the Royal Mint reportedly shipped rare silver coins to New Zealand in unsecured bags, claiming they had not been advised to take extra precaution?
  • ... that Ron Tiavaasue was born in Samoa, grew up in New Zealand, played college football in the United States, and now plays professional football in Canada?
  • ... that Hende's Hut on Roberts Point Track, a tramping track in New Zealand, originally had no windows?
  • ... that New Zealand politician Hamish Campbell is a cancer researcher and runs a flower-delivery business?
  • ... that Miriam Soljak, after fighting to recover her New Zealand nationality for nearly three decades, was told that the government considered she had never lost it?

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