1. Geography New Zealand is situated the same distance eastwards from Australia as London is to Moscow. So if anybody tells you it's right next to Australia, tell them to go away. There are two main islands - The North Island and The South Island. There is also about a zillion other islands dotted around and about, none of which need concern you. The South Island is slightly bigger than the North Island, but South Islanders that refer to themselves as "Mainlanders". The largest city in New Zealand is Auckland, which has a population of approximately 900,000 people, many of whom own Holdens cars. The capital is Wellington; which is really boring and windy and don't go there. People Population: 4 million 0-14 years: 22% 15-64 years: 66% 64 years+: 12% Population growth rate: 1.09% Life expectancy: 78 years

2. It is generally thought that the early settlers in New Zealand, the Maori, arrived in waves of migration around a thousand years ago from the Melanesian Islands. Then, in 1642, having left the Island of Mauritius to find what lay in the Southern Oceans, Abel Janszoon Tasman, in command of 2 ships, the "Heemskerck" and the "Zeehaen", sailed towards mountains that had slowly appeared from the eastern horizon - and became the first known European to stumble across New Zealand. history

3. Wildlfie No native mammals apart from bats and marine mammals Virtually all the native insects are found nowhere else Unique species of birds include kiwi, kakapo and weka Seven penguin species wildlife

4. Weather Our coldest month is July, and our warmest is in January; our seasons opposite to those in the Northern Hemisphere. Average temperatures are around 15C in the upper North Island, and around 10C near the bottom of the South Island. The climate is fairly mild, without the extremes experienced in many other countries. In fact, New zealand doesn't tend to have temperatures over 35C or under -10C. It tends to snow only in the mountains in the North Island, and mainly in the Southern Alps in the South Island, although it has been known to snow on some of the cities on the East Coast of the South Island from time to time. weather