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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.

Mark Garry 'Hammer' Hammett (born 13 July 1972) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player. Having represented Canterbury provincially 76 times, and the Crusaders 81 times and the All Blacks 30 times – including 29 Test matches, Hammett later went on to coach both Canterbury and Crusaders as a forwards/assistant coach. He is currently on the assistant coach of the Highlanders in Super Rugby and the Tasman Makos in the Mitre 10 Cup. (Full article...)

General images

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

More Did you know? - show different entries

...that the coal-mine railway at Denniston, New Zealand fell a precipitous 510 metres over a track length of only 1.7 kilometres?

...that New Zealand was the first modern nation to give its women the right to vote.

...that Sir Edmund Hillary, a Kiwi (New Zealander), was a beekeeper in Auckland before he became the first man to reach the summit of Nepal's Mount Everest; the highest peak on Earth.

...that Tim Shadbolt, mayor of Waitakere and then Invercargill, said 'I don't care where, as long as I'm mayor' for a television advertisement.


Selected article - show another

The hei-tiki /hˈtk/ is an ornamental neck pendant of the Māori. Hei-tiki are usually made of greenstone and worn around the neck. They are often referred to as tiki, a term that actually refers to large human figures carved in wood, and, also, the small wooden carvings used to mark sacred places. Tourist versions - either from real jade or sometimes from cheap plastic - are also commonly found throughout New Zealand.

The name "hei-tiki" suggests a connection with Tiki, the first man in Māori legend. Hei-tiki may signify memorials to ancestors, or represent the goddess of childbirth, Hineteiwaiwa. The rationale behind the first idea is that they were often buried when their kaitiaki (guardian) died and would be later retrieved and placed somewhere special to be brought out in times of tangihanga (mourning and associated activities). Because of the connection with Hineteiwaiwa, hei-tiki were often given to a woman by her husband's family if she was having trouble conceiving.

The most valuable hei-tiki are carved from New Zealand greenstone, also called pounamu. Pounamu consists of either nephrite or bowenite (Māori: tangiwai). Pounamu is esteemed highly by Māori for its beauty, toughness and great hardness; it is used not only for ornaments such as hei-tiki and ear pendants, but also for carving tools, adzes, and weapons. (Full article...)

Selected picture - show another

Queenstown Kiwi sculpture
Queenstown Kiwi sculpture

Queenstown (Māori: Tāhuna) is a resort town in Otago in the south-west of New Zealand's South Island. It is the seat and largest town in the Queenstown-Lakes District. (Full article...)

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

  • ... that people were scammed on New Zealand television by the host of You've Been Scammed?
  • ... that Clark House hosted Cold War meetings?
  • ... that New Zealand footballer Grace Wisnewski's bottom-ranked team upset the defending league champions when she scored what an A-League statistician called an "acrobatic" 99th-minute equalising goal?
  • ... that the name of the Noises, a group of islands in New Zealand, is a corrupted version of Les Noisettes ("the Hazelnuts")?
  • ... that New Zealand health executive Sharon Shea points to distrust in authority caused by "post-colonisation trauma" for low COVID-19 vaccination rates of Māori?
  • ... that New Zealand wrestler Leilani Tominiko (aka. Candy Lee) has a signature move called the Candy Crush?
  • ... that Harry Kent managed his family's garden nursery after winning New Zealand's first Commonwealth Games gold medal in cycling and first world track championships medal?
  • ... that New Zealand's Native Island hosted a colony of Samoyeds and huskies used in both the Southern Cross and Nimrod expeditions to the South Pole?

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