70 Fun Facts About New Zealand

What is the capital city of New Zealand?

Wellington has been the capital since 1865, when Parliament moved there from Auckland for its central position; Auckland remains the largest city by a wide margin.

Beyond its two main islands, roughly how many smaller islands does New Zealand have?

Over 700 smaller islands lie beyond the North and South Islands, from the subtropical Kermadecs to the subantarctic Auckland and Campbell groups; Stewart Island is the largest of them.

Which Dutch explorer became the first European to sight and record New Zealand, in 1642?

He never landed: four of his sailors were killed by Māori in a waka at what he named Murderers' Bay, now Golden Bay.

Which British explorer became the first European to set foot on and map New Zealand, in 1769?

James Cook landed at Poverty Bay in October 1769 from the Endeavour and charted the coastline so accurately that his map stayed in use for decades.

In which year did British representatives and Māori chiefs sign the Treaty of Waitangi?

The Treaty of Waitangi was first signed on 6 February 1840 at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, and 6 February is now Waitangi Day, the national day.

In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world to do what?

The petition Kate Sheppard organised carried around 30,000 signatures, and her portrait has been on the ten-dollar note since 1991.

New Zealand has three official languages: English, Māori and which other?

Sign language gained official status in 2006; Māori had been made official in 1987.

What is the most common English translation of Aotearoa, the Māori name for New Zealand?

"Land of the long white cloud" is the standard reading of Aotearoa, from ao (cloud), tea (white) and roa (long); tradition credits the name to the wife of the navigator Kupe.

The kiwi is the only bird in the world with its nostrils located where?

At the tip of its beak is where the kiwi's nostrils open, unique among birds; it probes the soil and sniffs out worms and grubs by night.

A kiwi egg can weigh up to roughly what proportion of the female's body weight?

20% is the usual figure: a brown kiwi female of about 2.5 kg lays a single egg of around 450 grams, one of the largest relative to body size of any bird.

DNA studies show the kiwi's closest living or extinct relatives were which animals?

Madagascar's elephant birds were the kiwi's closest relatives, a 2014 ancient-DNA study found, overturning the old assumption that the kiwi was a small cousin of the moa.

What is the traditional name of the haka the All Blacks have performed before matches for over a century?

Ka Mate, composed by the Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha around 1820, has been the All Blacks' haka since their 1905 tour; Kapa o Pango has been performed alongside it since 2005.

In which three years had the All Blacks won the men's Rugby World Cup as of 2024?

1987, 2011 and 2015 are the All Blacks' three titles: the 2015 win made them the first team to retain the trophy, and South Africa won the 2019 and 2023 tournaments.

What is the nickname of the 1905 New Zealand rugby team that won 34 of 35 matches on tour in Britain?

The Originals, the 1905-06 touring side, won 34 of their 35 matches, losing only 3-0 to Wales at Cardiff; the name All Blacks took hold on that tour.

In which trade did Edmund Hillary work with his father and brother before climbing Everest in 1953?

Beekeeping was the family trade: they ran about 1,600 hives, and the seasonal summer work left his winters free for the mountains.

Who was the first living New Zealander other than the monarch to appear on its banknotes?

Edmund Hillary was added to the five-dollar note in 1992, pictured with Aoraki / Mount Cook, and remained on it after his death in 2008.

What is the longest river in New Zealand?

The Waikato runs 425 km from the slopes of Mount Ruapehu through Lake Taupō and over Huka Falls to the Tasman Sea; its name means flowing water.

Lake Taupō, the country's largest lake, sits inside what kind of geological feature?

A volcanic caldera holds the lake: it fills the hollow left by the Oruanui eruption about 25,500 years ago, the most recent supereruption anywhere on Earth.

How tall is Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain?

3,724 m is the height set by a 2013 survey; the peak stood at 3,764 m until a December 1991 rock avalanche removed about 10 metres, and ice-cap erosion later took off another 30.

Which superlative does the capital of New Zealand hold among the capitals of the world?

Southernmost of any national capital, New Zealand's seat of government sits at about 41°S on Cook Strait, and it also claims to be the windiest city on Earth by average wind speed.

Auckland is built on a volcanic field that has produced roughly how many volcanic centres?

At least 53 volcanic centres make up the Auckland volcanic field; the most recent eruption built Rangitoto Island in the Hauraki Gulf around 1450 AD, well within Māori memory.

Auckland is home to the world's largest urban population of which group of people?

Polynesians are more numerous in Auckland than in any other city on Earth, with large Samoan and Tongan communities alongside Māori; the city's Māori name Tāmaki Makaurau means Tāmaki desired by many.

How many Academy Awards did The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King win, from how many nominations?

11 from 11 was the clean sweep at the 2004 ceremony, tying Ben-Hur and Titanic for the most wins ever, and it was the first fantasy film to take Best Picture.

The four red stars on New Zealand's flag represent which constellation?

The Southern Cross (Crux) is shown by the four red, white-bordered stars; the design has been in use since 1869 and gained statutory recognition in 1902.

What share of voters chose to keep New Zealand's existing flag in the 2016 silver-fern referendum?

56.7% of valid votes went to the existing flag in March 2016, against 43.3% for Kyle Lockwood's black, white and blue silver fern design.

The kākāpō holds which pair of records among the world's parrots?

"Only flightless and heaviest" describes the kākāpō among parrots: males can reach about 4 kg, and it is also the only parrot that breeds on a lek, with a lifespan thought to exceed 60 years.

The tuatara has what unusual feature on top of its head?

A third eye, the parietal eye, is visible in hatchlings and covered by scales within months; the tuatara is the last survivor of Rhynchocephalia, an order dating back to the Triassic.

The kiwifruit is native to which country?

China is the kiwifruit's homeland: seeds came to New Zealand in 1904 with schoolteacher Isabel Fraser, and locals called it the Chinese gooseberry until exporter Jack Turner coined the name kiwifruit in 1959.

How many people were killed in the earthquake that struck Christchurch on 22 February 2011?

185 people died in the magnitude 6.3 quake, which struck at 12:51 pm and brought down the CTV building, where 115 of the victims were; the cathedral spire also fell.

Rotorua's famous smell of rotten eggs comes from emissions of which gas?

Hydrogen sulphide, seeping from the geothermal field beneath the city, gives Rotorua its rotten-egg smell; the same heat powers the Pōhutu Geyser and the boiling mud pools at Whakarewarewa.

A. J. Hackett opened the world's first commercial bungy site in 1988 on which bridge near Queenstown?

Kawarau Gorge's 1880 suspension bridge, 43 metres above the river, became the first commercial bungy site in November 1988; Hackett had drawn worldwide attention by jumping from the Eiffel Tower in 1987.

In which subject did Ernest Rutherford win his 1908 Nobel Prize?

Chemistry was the category, for his work on the disintegration of elements; he is said to have grumbled that it turned him from a physicist into a chemist, and his face is on the hundred-dollar note.

Which suffragist behind the 1893 petition appears on New Zealand's ten-dollar note?

Kate Sheppard led the campaign whose 1893 petition carried about 32,000 signatures; a white camellia became the movement's emblem, and a camellia variety was later named after her.

How old was Jacinda Ardern when she became prime minister in 2017?

37 years old on 26 October 2017, Ardern was then the world's youngest female head of government; the following June she became the second elected head of government, after Benazir Bhutto, to give birth in office.

The pavlova, which New Zealand and Australia both claim, is named after a Russian what?

Ballerina Anna Pavlova toured both countries in 1926, and food historians have found early recipes on both sides of the Tasman.

New Zealand's sheep population peaked in 1982 at roughly how many animals?

70 million sheep (70.3 million) in 1982 meant about 22 for every person; by 2023 the flock had fallen to roughly 24 million, below five per person, as dairy took over.

The name New Zealand comes from Zeeland, a province of which country?

The Netherlands province of Zeeland gave the name: Dutch cartographers, Joan Blaeu among them, labelled the coast Nieuw Zeeland in the 1640s, and the English form followed a century later.

Before humans arrived, which animal was the giant flightless moa's only predator?

Haast's eagle, the largest eagle known, with a wingspan near three metres, was the moa's sole predator; both vanished within about 150 years of human settlement.

The New Zealand Wars between the colonial government and Māori were fought over which period?

1845 to 1872 spans the Flagstaff War in the north to the end of Te Kooti's campaign; the wars were once called the Land Wars, and large areas of Māori land were confiscated afterwards.

Which is the largest of New Zealand's 13 national parks?

Fiordland covers 12,607 square kilometres in the south-west of the South Island and contains the Milford Track, once billed as the finest walk in the world.

Which writer called Milford Sound the eighth Wonder of the World?

Rudyard Kipling is credited with calling Milford Sound the eighth Wonder of the World; despite its name it is a fiord, and at about 6,800 mm of rain a year it is the country's wettest inhabited place.

The glowworm that lights up the Waitomo Caves, Arachnocampa luminosa, is found where?

Only in New Zealand is Arachnocampa luminosa found; it is endemic, unlike its Australian cousins, and the cave was first explored by raft and candlelight by chief Tane Tinorau and surveyor Fred Mace in 1887.

On 10 July 1967, the New Zealand dollar replaced the pound at what rate of dollars to the pound?

Two to one was the rate: each pound became two dollars on 10 July 1967, with ten shillings becoming one dollar; the currency's nickname, the Kiwi, comes from the bird on the one-dollar coin.

Roughly what fraction of Zealandia, the continental mass New Zealand sits on, is underwater?

94% of Zealandia lies underwater, leaving New Zealand and New Caledonia as its main land above sea level; geologists argued in 2017 that it qualifies as a continent, and its Māori name is Te Riu-a-Māui.

The Hobbiton film set stands on a working sheep farm near which North Island town?

Matamata is the town nearest the Alexander family's sheep farm where the set stands; visitors walk past 44 hobbit holes and drink at a working replica of the Green Dragon inn, opened in 2012.

Tāne Mahuta, the largest known living kauri tree, stands in a forest in which region?

Northland's Waipoua Forest holds Tāne Mahuta, named for the Māori god of forests; its age is estimated at somewhere between 1,250 and 2,500 years.

Since 1996, New Zealand has elected its 120-seat Parliament using which voting system?

Mixed-member proportional replaced first past the post after a 1993 referendum and was first used at the 1996 election; voters cast one vote for a party list and one for an electorate MP.

Baldwin Street, the Guinness-recognised steepest street in the world, is in which city?

Dunedin's Baldwin Street has a gradient of about 1 in 2.86 (35%); it lost the title to Ffordd Pen Llech in Wales in 2019 and regained it in 2020 when Guinness required measuring along the road's centre line.

How many letters make up the Hawke's Bay hill name, the longest in the English-speaking world?

85 letters make up Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, which locals shorten to Taumata; it tells of Tamatea playing his flute to his loved one.

Which Auckland-born singer's 'Royals' spent nine weeks at No. 1 in 2013, when she was 16?

Lorde, born Ella Yelich-O'Connor, topped the US Hot 100 with Royals in October 2013, and the song won Song of the Year at the 2014 Grammys.

Flight of the Conchords won a 2008 Grammy in which category?

Best Comedy Album went to their EP The Distant Future at the 50th Grammys in February 2008; the duo formed in 1998 and their HBO series ran for two seasons.

Which New Zealand-born author of 'The Garden Party' died of tuberculosis in 1923, aged 34?

Katherine Mansfield, born in 1888, died at Fontainebleau in January 1923, a year after The Garden Party and Other Stories appeared; she is buried at Avon, near Fontainebleau.

A hāngī is a traditional Māori way of cooking food using what?

"Heated rocks buried in a pit" is the method: stones are heated by fire, baskets of meat and kūmara are lowered onto them and covered with earth for hours, the classic way to feed a crowd at a marae.

The hongi, a traditional Māori greeting, is performed by two people doing what?

"Pressing their noses together" (often foreheads too) is the hongi, understood as sharing the ha, the breath of life; tradition traces it to the god Tāne breathing life into the first woman, Hineahuone.

Which Pacific nation is in free association with New Zealand, its people holding NZ citizenship?

The Cook Islands have been self-governing in free association with New Zealand since 1965, with the capital Avarua on Rarotonga; Niue has had a similar arrangement since 1974.

Whom did New Zealand beat to win the inaugural ICC World Test Championship in 2021?

India lost the final by eight wickets at Southampton in June 2021, two years after New Zealand had lost the 2019 World Cup final to England on a boundary countback.

Rakiura, the Māori name for Stewart Island, is usually translated as what?

Glowing skies, in full the land of glowing skies, refers to the aurora australis and the long sunsets; Rakiura National Park covers about 85 percent of the island and the main settlement is Oban.

In March 2017 New Zealand's parliament granted legal personhood to which river?

The Whanganui became a legal person under the Te Awa Tupua Act of March 2017, with two guardians appointed to speak for it; Te Urewera had been given the same status in 2014.

How wide is Cook Strait, between the North and South Islands, at its narrowest point?

22 km separates the islands at the narrowest point, between Cape Terawhiti and Perano Head; the Interislander ferry takes about three and a half hours to cross to Picton.

Roughly how far is mainland New Zealand from mainland Australia?

About 2,000 km of the Tasman Sea separate the two countries; the sea is nicknamed 'the Ditch', and flying between them is 'crossing the Ditch'.

In roughly which period did Polynesian settlers first arrive in New Zealand?

1280 to 1350 is the window radiocarbon dating supports for the first waka landfalls from East Polynesia; moa were hunted out within about 150 years of arrival.

New Zealand became a dominion within the British Empire in which year?

1907 is the year: the change from colony to dominion was proclaimed on 26 September; full statutory independence came in 1947 when New Zealand adopted the Statute of Westminster.

Roughly what share of New Zealand's population identified as Māori in the 2023 census?

Around 18% (17.8 percent, about 887,000 people) identified as Māori in 2023; Asian New Zealanders were the next-largest group at just over 17 percent, and European at about 67 percent.

Christchurch, the largest urban centre on the South Island, is known by which nickname?

The Garden City nickname reflects its many parks and gardens, above all the 165-hectare Hagley Park; the city has also been an Antarctic gateway since Scott's Discovery expedition sailed from Lyttelton in 1901.

What name did Abel Tasman originally give New Zealand in 1642?

Staten Land (Staten Landt) was the name because he thought the coast joined land sighted off South America; Dutch cartographers changed it to Nova Zeelandia after Hendrik Brouwer disproved the link in 1643.

Which Canterbury town reached 42.4 °C on 7 February 1973, a national temperature record?

Rangiora reached 42.4 °C on 7 February 1973, a reading matched the same day at Jordan in Marlborough's Awatere Valley; the record low, −25.6 °C, was set at Ranfurly in Otago in 1903.

In which year was New Zealand's upper house, the Legislative Council, abolished?

1950 is when the Legislative Council Abolition Act was passed, with the upper house ceasing on 1 January 1951; Parliament has since consisted of the monarch and the House of Representatives.

The first shipment of refrigerated meat from New Zealand left in 1882 aboard which ship?

The Dunedin sailed from Port Chalmers on 15 February 1882 with about 5,000 frozen sheep and lamb carcasses, reaching London 98 days later and opening the refrigerated meat trade with Britain.

As late as the 1960s, which commodity still made up over a third of New Zealand's export revenue?

Wool earned over a third of export receipts in the early 1960s, ahead of meat and dairy; synthetic fibres then sank its price, and dairy took the lead.

In which year did New Zealand first compete at the Summer Olympics as its own team?

1920 at Antwerp was the first Games with a separate New Zealand team, which won a rowing bronze; in 1908 and 1912 its athletes competed in a joint Australasia team with Australia.