Geography of New Zealand

Area: 270,500 sq km

Coastline: 15,130km

Capital: Wellington

New Zealand’s Maori name is Aotearoa, meaning ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’. A well-watered and fertile mountainous island country in the South Pacific, New Zealand consists of two large islands (North Island and South Island), Stewart Island and a number of offshore islands. It is somewhat isolated, being about 1,600km east of Australia, the nearest land mass. Other neighbouring countries are Vanuatu and Tonga.