New Zealand is an island country in the Pacific situated southeast of Australia. It consists of two principal islands, North Island and South Island. The country's population is over 3 million people.
North Island contains more than half the whole country's population. The northern part of the island has rolling hills and low mountains. The southern half rises from fertile plains along the coast to volcanic mountain peaks in the center. The town of Rotorna is visited by thousands of tourists each year for its hot springs and geysers.
South Island is narrow and contains a third of the population. The Southern Alps mountains extend the entire length of the island and include New Zealand's highest peak, Mount Cook. There are glaciers on South Island.
New Zealand is an independent parliamentary democracy within the British Commonwealth. The official Head of State is the British Queen, represented by a governor-general. Most of the populations are of British origin (93%), and about 7% of the populations are the Maoris, a Polynesian people. The Maoris are the original inhabitants of New Zealand who nearly all live in North Island. English is the official and dominant language. The Maoris speak Maori, a Malayo-Polynesian language. The town of Wellington, situated in the south of North Island, is the capital of New Zealand and a Busy seaport on North Island with over 150 000 inhabitants and engineering, shipbuilding, textile, chemical and food industries. There are six universities in New Zealand.
New Zealand is a comparatively wealthy country. The chief industries are food processing (meat and dairy product), transport equipment, textiles, cement and oil refining. Wool, meat and dairy products are the main agricultural products. Coal is sufficient for domestic use and a small amount is exported. There are also substantial amounts of producer of wool and the exported of meat esp. mutton and lamb, skins, butter, cheese and other dairy products.