Destination New Zealand, a Nations Online country profile of the Land of the Long White Cloud or Aotearoa, the Māori name for New Zealand.
New Zealand (NZ) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean located about 2,000 km (1,300 mi) southeast of Australia. The island-nation consists of some smaller islands and two main islands, the North Island (Te-Ika-a-Maui) and the South Island (Te Wai Pounamu), which are separated by the Cook Strait. New Zealand shares maritime borders with Australia, the island nations of Fiji and Tonga.
New Zealand's islands are the surface area of the continent of Zealandia. Zealandia, now, for the most part, submerged, was formerly a large portion of the super-continent of Gondwanaland.
The geopolitical entity of the Realm of New Zealand comprises New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue (an island), Tokelau (some coral atolls), and the Ross Dependency, a region in Antarctica.
With an area of 270,467 km², the country is slightly larger than the United Kingdom (242,900 km²), or about the size of the US State of Colorado.
New Zealand has a population of 5.1 million people (beginning 2021). The capital is Wellington, the country's largest city is Auckland. Spoken languages are English (95%) and Māori, the language of the indigenous Māori people of New Zealand.
