Funny you should ask that. In 2018, quite a few people, including the Prime Minister, pointed out that Aotearoa New Zealand was missing from many world maps.
Because New Zealand is small, and because it sits down in the bottom right-hand corner of the standard Mercator projection maps which flattens the globe, some map makers hadn’t bothered spending any ink on New Zealand.
So “where is New Zealand located?” isn’t such a weird question after all.
Which hemisphere is New Zealand in?
Aotearoa New Zealand is located in the Southern Hemisphere, but with a name like “Zealand”, you can understand why some people get confused.
For one thing, unlike much of the country itself, the English name for Aotearoa New Zealand did not come from the British explorer James Cook.
The country got its English name from the Dutch navigator Abel Janszoon Tasman, who, in 1642, became the first European to lay eyes on Te Waipounamu, or what is now known as the South Island.
In the tradition of the not-very-creative European explorers who went around renaming newly-discovered (but often already-occupied, and therefore already-named) places after old places (see New York, New Hampshire, New Caledonia etc etc), Abel named it “Nieuw Zeeland” after Zeeland, a Dutch province.
Is New Zealand part of a continent?
Yes and no. Technically, Aotearoa New Zealand is part of Oceania, which is a geographical region, not a continent (which by definition, has to be a continuous piece of land).
It is also often referred to as part of Australasia, which includes Australia, one of the official continents (and one of the Olympic rings).
Is New Zealand part of the United Kingdom?
As a legacy of being a British colony, part of the British Empire and the commonwealth realm, the “head of state” of New Zealand is the British monarch (formerly Queen Elizabeth II, now Charles III), and New Zealand has a governor general (the monarch’s representative in New Zealand).
This makes New Zealand a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy with a Prime Minister, who is the leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives.
New Zealand’s capital city is the North Island city of Wellington (though not its most populous city - that’s Auckland).
Is New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean?
Aotearoa New Zealand is located in the Pacific Ocean, and is considered part of the South Pacific.
Some South Pacific ocean islands have a close official relationship with Aotearoa, like the Cook Islands, which are part of the realm of New Zealand and fall in some ways under the umbrella of the New Zealand economy. Cook Islanders are New Zealand citizens, and the New Zealand dollar is used in the country.
Are the North Island and South Island of New Zealand north or south of Australia?
Aotearoa New Zealand’s two main islands aren’t quite south of Australia, but they almost are.
The southern edge of the Australian state of Tasmania is at about the same latitude as Christchurch. The other South Island cities of New Zealand are all to the south of the southernmost part of Australia.
Is New Zealand close to Australia?
It’s 4155 kilometres from the east coast of Australia to the west coast of New Zealand, about a three-hour flight across the Tasman Sea.
What are the coordinates of the New Zealand map?
If you wanted to drop a pin on the world map marking New Zealand, the coordinates would be 42°S 173°E / 42°S 173°N.
How big is the New Zealand map?
Aotearoa New Zealand covers an area of 268 021 square kilometres.
What are the main geographic features of New Zealand?
One of the best things about Aotearoa New Zealand is how varied its geography is, in a relatively small island county.
The north and south islands of this island nation are home to everything from South Pacific-style beaches in the north of the North Island, to the high alpine mountains of the Southern Alps, to the open ocean of the Cook Strait and Foveaux Strait, to deserts, to lakes, to wetlands. Also, there are active volcanoes, lots of them.
Aotearoa New Zealand consists of two large main islands, the North Island and the South Island, which are separated by Cook Strait. There are a number of other, smaller islands, that are part of New Zealand, including Rakiura (Stewart Island), the Auckland Islands, the Campbell Islands and the Chatham Islands.
The South and North Island have a number of must-see landscapes. In New Zealand’s north island, highlights include the white sand beaches of Northland, the volcanic landscapes of Rotorua, Great Lake Taupo and the volcanic plateau. Taupo is also the country’s largest lake, and, as well as steaming shorelines, it’s one of the best places to fish for trout in the world.
The South Island is divided down the middle by Kā Tiritiri o te Moana, or the Southern Alps, a 500-kilometre-long mountain range, which has several permanent glaciers and the country’s highest peak, Aoraki Mount Cook.
Other South Island highlights include Fiordland National Park and The Catlins on the island’s remote south coasts. It comes complete with ancient fossilised forests, dolphins and, yes, penguins.
The penguins probably don’t mind that some mapmakers ignore New Zealand. They prefer to be left alone.