New Zealand, Maori Aotearoa, island country in the South Pacific Ocean, the southwesternmost part of Polynesia. New Zealand is a remote land—one of the last sizable territories suitable for habitation to be populated and settled—and lies more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Australia, its nearest neighbour. The country comprises two main islands—the North and South Islands—and several small islands, some hundreds of miles from the leading group. The capital city is Wellington and the largest urban area Auckland; both are located on the North Island. New Zealand administers the South Pacific island group of Tokelau and claims a section of the Antarctic continent. Niue and the Cook Islands are self-governing states in free association with New Zealand.

New Zealand is a land of great contrasts and diversity. Active volcanoes, spectacular caves, deep glacier lakes, verdant valleys, dazzling fjords, long sandy beaches, and the spectacular snowcapped peaks of the Southern Alps on the South Island—all contribute to New Zealand’s scenic beauty. New Zealand also has a unique array of vegetation and animal life, developed during its prolonged isolation. It is the sole home, for example, of the long-beaked, flightless kiwi, the ubiquitous nickname for New Zealanders.

New Zealand was the largest country in Polynesia when Great Britain annexed it in 1840. It was successively a crown colony, a self-governing colony (1856), and a dominion (1907). By the 1920s it controlled almost all of its internal and external policies, although it did not become fully independent until 1947 when it adopted Westminster’s statute. It is a member of the Commonwealth.

Despite New Zealand’s isolation, the country has been fully engaged in international affairs since the early 20th century, being an active member of several intergovernmental institutions, including the United Nations. It has also participated in several wars, including World Wars I and II. Economically the country was dependent on the export of agricultural products, especially to Great Britain. However, Britain’s entry into the European Community in the early 1970s forced New Zealand to expand its trade relations with other countries. It also began to develop a much more extensive and varied industrial sector. Tourism has played an increasingly important role in the economy, though this sector has been vulnerable to global financial instability.

New Zealand is about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) long (north-south) and about 280 miles (450 km) across at its widest point. The country has slightly less surface area than the U.S. state of Colorado and a little more than the United Kingdom. About two-thirds of the land is economically useful, the remainder being mountainous. Because of its numerous harbours and fjords, the country has a too long coastline relative to its area.

New Zealand is part of the Ring of Fire—the circum-Pacific seismic belt marked by frequent earthquakes and considerable volcanic activity. The North Island and the western part of the South Island are on the Indian-Australian Plate, and the remainder of the South Island is on the Pacific Plate. Their collision creates violent seismic activity in subduction zones and along faults. Numerous earthquakes occur annually, including hundreds that can be felt by New Zealanders. A number of these temblors have been disastrous, such as devastated Napier and Hastings’ towns in 1931 and a series of quakes that did likewise in Christchurch in 2010–11.

Mountains roughly bisect both the North and the South islands. Swift snow-fed rivers drain from the hills, although only in the east of the South Island have extensive alluvial plains been built up. The alluvial Canterbury Plains contrast sharply with the Westland region’s precipitous slopes and narrow coastal strip on the South Island’s west coast. The Southern Alps are a 300-mile- (480-km-) long chain of fold mountains containing New Zealand’s highest mountain—Mount Cook (Maori: Aoraki) at 12,316 feet (3,754 metres)—and some 20 other peaks that rise above 10,000 feet (3,000 metres), as well as an extensive glacier system with associated lakes.

There are more than 360 glaciers in the Southern Alps. The Tasman Glacier, the largest in New Zealand, with a length of 18 miles (29 km) and a width of more than one-half mile (0.8 km), flows down the eastern slopes of Mount Cook. Other important glaciers on the Southern Alps’ eastern slopes are the Murchison, Mueller, and Godley; Fox and Franz Josef are the largest on the western slopes. The North Island has seven small glaciers on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu.