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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, 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.

A 19th-century carving of a tattooed Maori from kauri gum. The carving is owned and displayed by the Dargaville Museum, New Zealand.

Kauri gum is resin from kauri trees (Agathis australis), which historically had several important industrial uses. It can also be used to make crafts such as jewellery. Kauri forests once covered much of the North Island of New Zealand, before early settlers caused the forests to retreat, causing several areas to revert to weeds, scrubs, and swamps. Even afterwards, ancient kauri fields and the remaining forests continued to provide a source for the gum. Between 1820 and 1900, over 90% of Kauri forests were logged or burnt by Europeans.

Kauri gum forms when resin from kauri trees leaks out through fractures or cracks in the bark, hardening upon exposure to air. Lumps commonly fall to the ground and can be covered with soil and forest litter, eventually fossilising. Other lumps form as branches forked or trees are damaged, releasing the resin. (Full article...)

General images

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

More Did you know? - show different entries

...that New Zealand's first long-distance telephone service was between Dunedin and Milton?

...that Rangitata Island is the only place that State Highway 1 leaves New Zealand's two main islands?

...that Otago Girls' High School claims to be the oldest girls' high school in the Southern hemisphere?

...that the line "Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle" from Denis Glover's poem The Magpies is one of the most famous lines in New Zealand poetry?


Selected article - show another

The University of Auckland (Māori: Te Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki Makaurau) is New Zealand's largest university. Established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand, the university is now made up of eight faculties over six campuses, and has more than 39,000 students at April 2006. [1] Over 1300 doctoral candidates were enrolled at the University of Auckland in 2004.

It offers a wide range of programmes including Arts, Business, Education, Music, Teacher Training and Special Education, Architecture, Planning, Nursing, Creative and Performing Arts, Theology, Science, Information Management, Engineering, Medicine, Optometry, Food and Wine Science, Property, Law, Fine and Visual Arts and Pharmacy.

It also provides the most conjoint combinations across the entire nation, with over 35 combinations available. Conjoint programs allow students to achieve multiple degrees in a shortened period of time.

The University of Auckland was the only New Zealand institution ranked in the top 50 of the THES - QS World University Rankings, ranked at number 46. (Full article...)

Selected picture - show another

New Zealand spacewalk
New Zealand spacewalk

Backdropped by a colourful Earth, astronaut Robert L. Curbeam, Jr. (left) and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Christer Fuglesang, both STS-116 mission specialists, participate in the mission's first of three planned sessions of extravehicular activity as construction resumes on the International Space Station. The landmasses depicted are the South Island (left) and North Island (right) of New Zealand.

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

  • ... that Lucy Greenish was the first woman in New Zealand to become a registered architect?
  • ... that the Māori warrior on the New Zealand shilling was actually depicted wearing a dance uniform?
  • ... that trampolinist Dylan Schmidt is New Zealand's first Olympic medallist in any gymnastics discipline?
  • ... that the Waitangiroto Nature Reserve is the only known nesting area for the eastern great egret in New Zealand?
  • ... that New Zealand academic and runner Roger Robinson has continued competing in races into his 80s despite knee replacement surgery in both knees?
  • ... that a design for the New Zealand florin was criticized as looking like a violently defecating kiwi?
  • ... that the name of the Noises, a group of islands in New Zealand, is a corrupted version of Les Noisettes ("the Hazelnuts")?
  • ... that in 1936, a dairy farmer unsuccessfully attempted to cut a signal wire to prevent a train from derailing as it approached a landslide in New Zealand?

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