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 This page tells you a
little about the geography of New Zealand.
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New Zealand
 New
Zealand consists of three islands - the North and South Islands, and
Stewart Island, which is off the South Island's south coast.
It isn't that big a country - not that much bigger than the British
Isles!
That said, there are a lot less people here. New Zealand
is a young country, with less than two hundred years of recorded history.
All told, there are less people living in the whole of New Zealand
than live in, say, either Sheffield or Edinburgh!
Whilst the Māoris are commonly acknowledged to be the indigenous
(native) people of these isles (the tangata whenua, in Māori), Pakehas - meaning 'white people' -
have also been here for some time too. New Zealand is therefore multicultural
- meaning that there are peoples from many differing cultures here.
For example, there are many folk from the Pacific Islands here - such
as the Cook Islands, Fiji, Bali and the Solomon Islands, to name but a
few. These are collectively known as Polynesian people. There are
also many Asians here - such as the Koreans, Chinese and Japanese.
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North Island
 I live
in the North Island of New Zealand - in Auckland. Auckland is by far the
biggest city in New Zealand, having over a third of the whole
population living there.
Whilst Auckland is far and away the biggest city, it isn't the capital!
Wellington is the capital of New Zealand - at the bottom of the
North Island.
There are historic reasons for this.
In the far north of the North Island you have vast unspoilt tracts of
forests and beaches. There's a page about my trip around the Northland
region of the North Island, which includes a more detailed map. There's
also a page about Waipoua forest.
These are volcanic islands, and whilst there hasn't been any volcanic
eruptions for some time, there are many active volcanoes around. Rotorua
is one of the best places to visit to see evidence of this. You can
see geysers, bubbling mud pits and thermal waters (waters boiling from the
heat of the earth). You can even visit a village that was buried when a
volcano erupted some time ago.
The Bay of Islands is noted as being one of the prettiest places
in the North Island, and in the far north you can visit Ninety Mile
Beach.
That said, the Bay of Plenty, south of the
Coromandel Peninsula is also very beautiful too...
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Since
arriving, I have had a number of opportunities to travel around the
Waikato region. I've been to Hamilton, Tokorua, Otorohanga and Te Kuiti.
As well as having travelled through Huntly, Cambridge and Taupo. I shall
be adding further pages about my travels around the Waikato region, but
for now, you can click here to go to my page
about Otorohanga.
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South Island
The
South Island of New Zealand is very sparsely populated. More
people live in the town of Chesterfield in the UK than live in the whole
of the South Island!
Indeed, for this reason, it is extremely beautiful, being largely
unspoilt.
Queenstown is worthy of particular note, as the recent film The
Fellowship of the Ring (the first part of the Lord of the Rings
trilogy) was filmed very near to there. Soon the sets from the film will
be opened for people to visit. I can't wait!
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