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New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean, made up of two main islands, the North Island and the South Island, and more than 700 smaller ones. It lies more than 1,500 km east of Australia across the Tasman Sea. The Southern Alps run down the length of the South Island, with glaciers, lakes and deep fiords, while the North Island has volcanoes, hot springs and geysers. Sheep farms, rainforest and long empty beaches are never far away.
The islands were the last large habitable land on Earth to be settled by people. Polynesian voyagers arrived in canoes called waka between about 1280 and 1350, and their descendants became the Māori people. The Māori name Aotearoa, often translated as 'land of the long white cloud', is widely used today alongside New Zealand. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted the islands in 1642, and in 1840 the British Crown and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of the country.
Today about 5.4 million people live in New Zealand, most of them in the North Island, and about a third of them in the Auckland region. Most New Zealanders are of European descent, Māori are the largest minority, and there are large Asian and Pacific Islander communities. New Zealanders are known the world over as 'Kiwis', after the flightless native bird. The country is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, and in 1893 it became the first country where all women could vote in parliamentary elections.
New Zealand's human story is short compared with most countries, but full of change. Polynesian settlers arrived only about 700 years ago and built the Māori world of tribes (iwi), carved meeting houses and great canoe traditions. Europeans came first as explorers, then as whalers, traders and missionaries, and from 1840 as settlers under British rule. Wars over land followed, and much Māori land was taken. The young colony became a pioneer of votes for women, a dominion and finally a fully independent country, which today continues to work through the promises of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians from the islands of eastern Polynesia sailed thousands of kilometres in ocean-going canoes (waka) and settled New Zealand. Māori traditions tell of the explorer Kupe and of canoes setting out from Hawaiki. Many Māori today trace their ancestry back to the crews of particular waka.
On 13 December 1642 the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted the north-west coast of the South Island. In a clash in what is now Golden Bay with Māori of Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri, four of his crew were killed, and he sailed on without landing. Dutch mapmakers later named the land Nova Zeelandia, after the Dutch province of Zeeland.
The British explorer James Cook reached New Zealand on 6 October 1769 in the Endeavour and landed at Poverty Bay (Tūranganui-a-Kiwa) the next day, where several Māori were killed in the first meetings. The Tahitian navigator Tupaia, who could understand Māori, helped as an interpreter. Over six months Cook mapped almost the entire coastline.
On 28 October 1835, at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, 34 northern Māori chiefs signed He Whakaputanga, the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand, with the British Resident James Busby. By 1839, 52 chiefs had signed it.
On 6 February 1840 William Hobson, for the British Crown, and about forty Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi at Waitangi. Copies travelled around the country, and in the end about 530 to 540 Māori, at least 13 of them women, signed the Māori text. The English and Māori texts differ, especially about sovereignty, and this led to long disagreement. 6 February is now Waitangi Day, the national day.
From 1845 to 1872 a series of wars was fought between the colonial government, with its Māori allies, and many Māori tribes. The first major conflict was the Flagstaff War in the far north in 1845 and 1846, and the largest campaign was the invasion of the Waikato in 1863 and 1864. Large areas of Māori land were confiscated after the fighting.
Auckland had been the capital since 1841, but settlers in the South Island wanted a more central seat of government. Wellington, at the southern tip of the North Island, was chosen, and in 1865 Parliament began meeting there as the capital.
After years of campaigning led by Kate Sheppard, a law giving women the vote received royal assent on 19 September 1893. New Zealand became the first country in the world where all women could vote in parliamentary elections, and they first voted in November 1893. Women could not stand for Parliament until 1919.
On 26 September 1907, at the request of the New Zealand Parliament, King Edward VII proclaimed New Zealand a Dominion of the British Empire instead of a colony. The new name reflected that the country already governed itself.
On 25 April 1915, during the First World War, soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey. The campaign failed, with heavy losses, and 25 April became Anzac Day, when New Zealanders and Australians remember those who served and died in war.
On the morning of 3 February 1931 a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck near Napier, killing 256 people. It is still New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster. Napier and nearby Hastings were largely destroyed, and Napier was rebuilt in the Art Deco style of the time.
New Zealand adopted the Statute of Westminster with an act that received royal assent on 25 November 1947. From then on the British Parliament could no longer make laws for New Zealand without its consent, which gave the country full independence in law. The British monarch remained head of state.
On 29 May 1953 the New Zealand beekeeper and climber Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. Hillary later spent much of his life building schools and hospitals in Nepal.
The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 set up the Waitangi Tribunal, a permanent commission that hears Māori claims that the Crown broke the promises of the Treaty. From 1985 it could also look at grievances going back to 1840, and since the 1990s many tribes have reached settlements with the government.
In 1987 Parliament passed a law declaring New Zealand a nuclear-free zone, including its waters and airspace, and banning nuclear-powered ships from its waters. The nuclear-free policy is still a strong part of the country's identity. In the same year, Māori became an official language.
At 12:51 pm on 22 February 2011 a shallow magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck close to the centre of Christchurch, killing 185 people and destroying much of the city centre, including the spire of ChristChurch Cathedral. The rebuilding of the city took many years.
New Zealanders usually eat breakfast, lunch and an evening meal, which many older Kiwis still call 'tea'. Everyday cooking has British roots, such as roasts, meat pies and fish and chips, and the country's farms and cold seas give excellent lamb, dairy, mussels, oysters and fish. Māori cooking brought the hāngī earth oven, the boil-up and rēwena bread, and the kūmara, a sweet potato brought by the first Polynesian settlers. Home baking is much loved, from Afghan biscuits to lolly cake, and the café culture is strong: the flat white is claimed by both New Zealand and Australia, as is the pavlova.
A traditional Māori way of cooking food in a pit in the ground. Stones are heated in a large fire, baskets of meat and vegetables such as lamb, pork, chicken, potato, kūmara and pumpkin are placed on them, and everything is covered with cloths and earth for several hours. The food comes out tender, with a smoky, earthy taste.
A hāngī is still made for big gatherings on special occasions, because it can cook food for a large crowd without any kitchen appliances. The stones are heated to around 600 to 700 °C.
A hearty broth of pork bones or meat simmered with potatoes or kūmara and greens such as pūhā (sow thistle), watercress or cabbage, with flour dumplings called 'doughboys' cooked on top.
Boil-ups began in the 1800s, when Māori adopted pigs, potatoes and iron cooking pots brought by European settlers.
A round sourdough loaf leavened with a fermented potato starter, often called the 'bug'. It has a slightly sweet and sour taste and is delicious with butter and golden syrup, or with a boil-up.
Rēwena comes from the English word 'leaven', and parāoa from 'flour'. A good starter can be fed and kept alive for years.
Tiny, almost see-through young fish bound with beaten egg and fried in butter into a thin golden pancake. They are often eaten between two slices of buttered white bread, with a squeeze of lemon.
New Zealand whitebait are the young of five kinds of small native freshwater fish. They may only be caught with small nets that the fisher must stay with, during a short legal season in spring, so they are a pricey treat.
Large mussels with a bright green edge to the shell, found only in New Zealand. They are steamed with white wine or coconut milk, grilled on the half shell, or made into fritters and chowder.
They are farmed in large numbers under the trade name Greenshell. About 80 percent of the young 'seed' mussels for the farms wash up on one beach, Ninety Mile Beach in Northland.
Plump, rich flat oysters dredged from the cold waters of Foveaux Strait at the bottom of the South Island. Most people eat them raw with lemon, or fried in batter. Raw shellfish is not advised for pregnant women, young children, older people or anyone with weak immunity.
The town of Bluff holds a yearly oyster festival, and the start of the oyster season each autumn is followed closely all over the country.
A hand-sized pie of chunky beef steak in gravy, topped with melted cheese under a flaky pastry lid. Mince and cheese is just as popular.
The meat pie is probably the closest thing New Zealand has to street food, sold in bakeries, dairies (corner shops), supermarkets, petrol stations and school canteens.
A large round of meringue, crisp outside and soft like marshmallow inside, topped with whipped cream and fruit such as kiwifruit, strawberries and passionfruit. It is the classic dessert of a summer Christmas.
It is named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who toured both countries in the 1920s. A recipe called 'pavlova cake' was printed in New Zealand in 1929, but Australia also claims the dessert, and the friendly argument goes on.
Vanilla ice cream with small, crunchy lumps of honeycomb toffee, which New Zealanders call hokey pokey. It is a summer favourite in a cone at the beach.
It is the second most popular ice cream flavour in New Zealand after plain vanilla, and a classic piece of 'Kiwiana'.
An unbaked sweet log of crushed malt biscuits, butter and condensed milk, packed with soft, colourful fruit puff or explorer lollies, rolled in coconut and sliced.
The soft lollies inside were called 'Eskimo lollies' until 2021, when they were renamed 'Explorers'.
Rich, buttery chocolate biscuits with crunchy cornflakes inside, topped with chocolate icing and half a walnut. They are only lightly sweet, which the icing makes up for.
Despite the name, the biscuit is thought to come from New Zealand. A recipe for 'Afghans' appeared in The Timaru Herald in 1934, and nobody knows for sure where the name came from.
Slices of white bread spread with a cheesy, oniony filling, rolled up into tubes and toasted with butter until golden and crisp. They are a favourite at cafés in the south of the South Island.
They are one of the few recipes that belong mainly to one of New Zealand's two main islands, the South Island.
A thick, creamy party dip made by stirring a packet of onion soup powder into a can of reduced cream, often with a dash of lemon juice or vinegar, then chilling it. It is served with potato chips.
The 'kiwi' in the name means New Zealand, not the fruit or the bird. Its creation is credited to the home economist Rosemary Dempsey, who later became the New Zealand Herald's first food editor.
A sweet, fizzy lemon soft drink. It was first made by mixing lemon juice with naturally sparkling mineral water from a spring in the town of Paeroa.
Paeroa has a statue of an L&P bottle about 7 m tall, one of the most photographed sights in the country. The brand's slogan calls it 'World famous in New Zealand'.
Espresso coffee with steamed milk and only a thin layer of fine, velvety foam, usually served in a smaller cup than a latte, so it tastes stronger.
Cafés in both New Zealand and Australia claim to have invented the flat white in the 1980s, and the question is still open. The name itself was already heard in England in the 1960s.
Most New Zealanders live in the North Island, and the Auckland region alone is home to about a third of the country. Wellington, the capital, sits at the windy southern tip of the North Island. In the South Island, Christchurch and Dunedin are the main cities, while small towns such as Queenstown and Te Anau are gateways to mountains, lakes and fiords. Many places have both an English and a Māori name.
The capital since 1865, on a deep harbour at the south-western tip of the North Island, looking across Cook Strait to the South Island. Houses climb steep green hills around the harbour. As of 2026 it is the southernmost capital city of any sovereign country, and it is famous for its strong winds.
New Zealand's largest city by far, with about 1.8 million people in the Auckland region. It lies on a narrow neck of land between two harbours, one on the Pacific Ocean and one on the Tasman Sea, and is dotted with about 50 small volcanoes. It was the capital from 1841 to 1865. Its Māori name is Tāmaki Makaurau.
The largest city in the South Island, on the flat Canterbury Plains beside the Pacific. It is known as the 'Garden City' for its parks and English-style gardens, and the Avon River winds through its centre. Its Māori name is Ōtautahi. The city centre was badly damaged in the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 and has been largely rebuilt.
An inland city on the banks of the Waikato River, the country's longest, and the centre of a rich dairy farming region. Its Māori name, Kirikiriroa, comes from one of the villages that once stood here.
A small seaside town in the Bay of Islands in the far north, where a Christian mission was set up in 1823. Next to it, across a short bridge, is Waitangi, where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed in 1840.
A city on the shore of Lake Rotorua, full of steaming vents, bubbling mud pools and hot springs, and known for its smell of sulphur. It is a centre of Māori culture, home to the Te Arawa people since the 14th century, and a spa and tourist town since the 1800s.
A lakeside town on Lake Taupō, the largest lake in New Zealand, in the centre of the North Island. The lake fills the crater of a huge ancient volcano. The Waikato River leaves the lake here and soon thunders over the Huka Falls.
A sunny seaside city on Hawke Bay, rebuilt after the 1931 earthquake with a rare concentration of 1930s Art Deco buildings. Its seafront is lined with Norfolk pines, and it is surrounded by orchards and vineyards.
A resort town on the shore of Lake Wakatipu, a long S-shaped glacial lake, below the jagged peaks of The Remarkables. It began as a gold rush town in the 1860s and is now famous for adventure sports and skiing. Its Māori name, Tāhuna, means 'shallow bay'.
A small lakeside town on Lake Te Anau, the gateway to Fiordland National Park. The Milford Road starts here and runs 117 km through mountains and rainforest to Milford Sound.
A hilly harbour city founded by Scottish settlers in 1848. Its name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, and its Māori name is Ōtepoti. It has grand Victorian and Edwardian stone buildings and a large student population.
The southernmost city in New Zealand and one of the southernmost cities in the world, in the middle of the flat, green Southland Plains. Many of its streets are named after Scottish rivers, such as the Dee, the Tay and the Spey. The port of Bluff, home of the Bluff oyster, is about 18 km to the south.
A deep fiord in Fiordland National Park, with sheer rock walls and waterfalls that multiply after heavy rain. Rudyard Kipling called it the eighth wonder of the world. It is part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Area, listed in 1990, and is reached by the Milford Road from Te Anau, about 117 km away.
UNESCO World Heritage
A park of three active volcanoes, Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu, south of Lake Taupō. The Ngāti Tūwharetoa chief Te Heuheu Tūkino IV gave the sacred peaks to the Crown in 1887 so that they would be protected, and the park was created by law in 1894. It is a World Heritage Site for both its nature and its Māori cultural meaning, and it was the first national park in the world to have its spiritual meaning recognised as a 'cultural landscape'.
UNESCO World Heritage
The lawns above the Bay of Islands where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1835 and the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed on 6 February 1840. Visitors can see James Busby's Treaty House and Te Whare Rūnanga, a carved Māori meeting house opened on 6 February 1940.
A 328 m telecommunications and observation tower in central Auckland, finished in 1997. Its observation decks look out over both harbours and the city's volcanoes, and daring visitors can walk around the outside or jump from it on a cable. It was the tallest freestanding structure in the Southern Hemisphere until 2022.
The Museum of New Zealand on Wellington's waterfront, opened in 1998. Its name means 'the treasure box'. It tells the stories of the land and its people, from Māori treasures and a marae to earthquakes and a colossal squid, and entry is free for New Zealanders.
The largest active geyser in the Southern Hemisphere, in the Whakarewarewa geothermal valley on the edge of Rotorua. It erupts up to 20 times a day, shooting hot water up to 30 m into the air, among steaming vents and bubbling mud.
Limestone caves about 75 km by road south of Hamilton where visitors glide in a boat under a ceiling lit by thousands of glowworms, the larvae of a gnat found only in New Zealand. The Māori chief Tāne Tinorau and the surveyor Fred Mace explored the cave in 1887, and it was returned to its original Māori owners in 1989.
The village of the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, built on a sheep and cattle farm near Matamata. Director Peter Jackson spotted the green, rolling farm from the air in 1998. Visitors take guided tours past the round hobbit-hole doors and can have a drink at the Green Dragon inn.
The centre of Napier, rebuilt after the 1931 earthquake mainly in the Art Deco style of the 1930s, with some Spanish Mission buildings. This rare concentration of colourful 1930s buildings draws visitors from around the world. The Napier Art Deco historic precinct is on New Zealand's tentative list for World Heritage.
The Transitional Cathedral of Christchurch, opened in August 2013 after the old ChristChurch Cathedral was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquake. The Japanese architect Shigeru Ban designed it without charge, using more than 90 large cardboard tubes for the walls and roof.
Guinness World Records calls Baldwin Street in Dunedin the steepest street in the world. At its steepest point it rises about 1 m for every 2.86 m it runs forward.
The kiwi cannot fly. A female kiwi lays an egg that can weigh up to 20 percent of her own body weight, one of the largest eggs for the size of the bird.
New Zealand sits on Zealandia, a mostly sunken continent. About 94 percent of it lies under the Pacific Ocean, and in 2017 a team of geologists concluded that it counts as a continent of its own.
Lake Taupō fills the crater of a supervolcano. Its Ōruanui eruption, about 25,600 years ago, was the largest known eruption in the world in the last 70,000 years.
The world's first commercial bungy jumping site is on the Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge near Queenstown, opened by AJ Hackett.
Sir Edmund Hillary has appeared on the New Zealand five-dollar note since 1992. Apart from monarchs, he is the only person to have appeared on a New Zealand banknote during his own lifetime.
A hill in Hawke's Bay has an 85-letter Māori name, Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, one of the longest place names in the world. Most people just call it Taumata.
Matariki, the Māori New Year marked by the rising of the Matariki star cluster (the Pleiades), became an official public holiday in 2022. It falls in June or July.
Old New Zealand telephone dials were numbered backwards. The emergency number 111 was chosen in 1958 partly because on those dials it sent the same pulses as the British emergency number 999.
The All Blacks rugby team has performed a haka before matches since 1905. The best known one, 'Ka Mate', is credited to the Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha.
The silver fern, whose leaves are silvery white underneath, is a national symbol. Māori are said to have used the fronds to mark paths at night, and it appears on the shirts of many national sports teams.
Wellington became the capital in 1865, chosen for its central position between the North and South Islands. As of 2026 it is also called the world's windiest city, with an average wind speed of about 27 km/h.
As of 2026, New Zealand has three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Tongariro National Park, Te Wahipounamu in the south-west of the South Island, and the Sub-Antarctic Islands.
Many Māori words are part of everyday New Zealand English. Vowels are pure: a as in 'father', e as in 'bed', i as in 'machine', o as in 'more', u as in 'moon'. A line over a vowel (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū) makes it long. 'Wh' usually sounds like 'f', 'ng' is said as in 'singer', and 'r' is a light tap. Pronunciation is written the way it sounds; the capital letters show where the stress goes. Audio is coming soon.
Greetings and phrases that New Zealanders of every background use every day. Pronunciations are simple guides; capital letters show the stressed part.
Traffic drives on the left. Many roads are narrow, hilly and winding, so trips often take longer than the map suggests. Plan shorter driving days, take regular breaks and use the official NZ Transport Agency advice for visiting drivers.
As of 2026, visitors from visa-waiver countries, such as the United Kingdom, the United States and most of Europe, need an electronic travel authority (NZeTA) before they travel, and most also pay the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy of 100 New Zealand dollars. Australian citizens need neither. Apply only through the official Immigration New Zealand website or app.
New Zealand protects its farms and native nature with strict biosecurity. On arrival you must declare food, plants, seeds and outdoor gear such as hiking boots, tents and fishing gear, and you can be fined for not declaring them. When in doubt, declare it or put it in the bins at the airport.
The sun in New Zealand is fierce in summer, and you can burn quickly even on a cool or cloudy day. Wear a hat and sunglasses, use sunscreen and seek shade in the middle of the day.
Mountain weather can change within hours, even in summer. Before a walk (a 'tramp'), check the forecast, take warm and waterproof clothing, and tell someone your plans. The official AdventureSmart website has advice and a way to leave your trip details.
The official emergency number for police, fire and ambulance is 111, from any phone. Ask for the service you need.
If you are invited onto a marae, you will usually be welcomed with a pōwhiri. Follow your hosts' lead, stay with your group, and take your shoes off before entering the meeting house. Visitors often bring a koha (a gift, usually money in an envelope), and the hongi, a greeting by pressing noses, may be offered.
New Zealand English has its own words: a 'dairy' is a corner shop, 'jandals' are flip-flops, 'tramping' is hiking, a 'bach' (a 'crib' in the far south) is a simple holiday home, and 'sweet as' means great.
