This page tells you a little about the geography of New Zealand.

New Zealand

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.

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...

Waikato Region

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.

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!