Travel Reports » New Zealand

New Zealand is an island state with a population of around 4.9 million in the southern Pacific Ocean and consists of a North and South Island and 700 smaller islands. The North Island with the cities of Auckland, the capital Wellington, Hamilton City or Tauranga City is much more densely populated and is separated from the larger South Island by the 23 kilometre wide Cook Strait. The South Island with the cities Christchurch, Dunedin City, Picton or Queenstown is determined by the Southern Alps, a mountain range of almost 4000 metres high. New Zealand is often called the “green island” because of its natural diversity. The most popular destinations are Rotorua, the Waitomo Caves, the Coromandel Peninsula, the Pancake Rocks, the Fjordland with the Milford Sound, the glaciers of the Alps, Queenstown, Auckland, the Bay of Islands, Dunedin and the Abel Tasman National Park.