New Zealand

New Zealand Aotearoa
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem:  "God Defend New Zealand" "God Save the Queen"
The hemisphere centred on New Zealand
Capital		Wellington 41°17′S 174°27′E
Largest city		Auckland
Official languages		English (95.9%) Māori (4.2%) NZ Sign Language (0.6%)
National language		English (98%)
Ethnic groups		78% European/Other 14.6% Māori 9.2% Asian 6.9% Pacific peoples
Demonym		New Zealander, Kiwi (colloquial)
Government		Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
-	Monarch	Elizabeth II
-	Governor-General	Sir Jerry Mateparae
-	Prime Minister	John Key
Independence from the United Kingdom
-	New Zealand Constitution Act 1852	17 January 1853
-	Dominion	26 September 1907
-	Statute of Westminster	11 December 1931 (adopted 25 November 1947)
-	Constitution Act 1986	13 December 1986
Area
-	Total	268,021 km2 (75th) 103,483 sq mi
-	Water (%)	1.6
Population
-	September 2011 estimate	4,414,400 (124th)
-	2006 census	4,027,947
-	Density	16.5/km2 (202nd) 42.7/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$120.2 billion (61st)
-	Per capita	$27,217 (32nd)
GDP (nominal)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$157.877 billion (51st)
-	Per capita	$35,374 (24th)
Gini (1997)		36.2 medium
HDI (2011)		0.908 very high · 5th
Currency		New Zealand dollar (NZD)
Time zone		NZST (UTC+12)
-	Summer (DST)	NZDT (UTC+13)
		(Sep to Apr)
Date format		dd/mm/yyyy
Drives on the		left
Calling code		+64
Internet TLD		.nz

New Zealand (also called Aotearoa) is an Oceanian country in the south-western Pacific Ocean. It is made up of two large islands (the North Island and the South Island) and several much smaller islands. In 2010, it was ranked as the 8th happiest country in the world. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand sign language.

History

Name

The name "New Zealand" comes from “Zeeland” in Dutch. Zeeland is a province of the Netherlands. New Zealand is called “Aotearoa” in the Māori language. It means "Land of the Long White Cloud". Ao means “cloud”, tea means “white”, and roa means “long”.

Government and politics

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II. The Prime Minister is Mr. John Key.

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.

People

As of the 2006 census, 4,143,279 people lived in New Zealand. Most of them had European ancestors. The indigenous people of New Zealand, the Māori, had a population of 565,329, or 14.6%.

The people of New Zealand call themselves Kiwis, representing their national native although flightless bird. The North Island is smaller than the South Island, but most people (more than 3 million) live there.

The main religion in New Zealand is Christianity. Just over 2 million New Zealanders are Christian.

Cities

Farming represents a large community in both the North and South Islands. Most New Zealanders, however, choose to live in more urban areas. 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 Plymouth, Wanganui, and Palmerston North. South Island cities include Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Invercargill and Timaru.

Geological origin

Major fault zones of New Zealand. It shows how the Pacific and Australian plates move against each other.

New Zealand sits at the boundary between two continental plates. They are the Australian and Pacific plates. When these two plates moved together ('collided'), one (the Pacific) moved under the other (the Australian) north of the South Island. As a result, there was a great deal 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, 510 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 supercontinent Gondwana. Finally Gondwana broke up, leaving the continents rather as they are today. New Zealand (like Britain) is a remnant of these great events.

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. 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 to which the Moa belongs had been in existence since the Cretaceous period. Humans arrived in New Zealand about a thousand years ago, when a large number of moas lived, especially on South Island. Archaeological sites with evidence of Moa hunting are all over New Zealand. The moas became extinct about five hundred years ago. Extinctions closer to today have been caused by habitat change and introduced species like rats and dogs, which can kill the native species.

Other information

• New Zealand has become more popular since New Zealand born Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies were all made there.
• Many farmers in New Zealand breed sheep. There are many more sheep than people in New Zealand.
• Many New Zealanders are interested in sports. Their national game is usually considered to be rugby (in winter). They have impressive athletes in rowing, cycling, shotput, discus, iron man, triathlon, yachting, climbing, surfing, cricket, netball, softball, wind surfing, gliding, and more.
• New Zealanders enjoy outdoor pursuits. They have a "clean, green" image as a country. Air and water pollution is still fairly rare, though occasional outbreaks in the past 20 years have caused problems for livestock and the surrounding waters.
• New Zealand, like many other small nations, has a strong local media. New Zealand has a wide variety of musicians, television (and even 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, Crowded House (band), Lee Tamahori (movie director), Peter Jackson (movie director).
• The NZ Army mostly does peacekeeping. New Zealand sent army engineers to Iraq to do rebuilding during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Related pages

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