It’s once again time for a Destination article and this time we are heading to New Zealand, an island country located in the southwestern pacific ocean. New Zealand is the 75th largest country in the world with its area of around 268 thousand square kilometers. The country consists of two main islands, the north and the south island, but it also consists of more than 700 small islands. New Zealand once was a colony to the United Kingdom but became independent in 1947 but is still a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. The population of 5 million people consist mostly of people with origins from Europe but there’s also people who originate from Māori, asian countries and pacific islands. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language.

The climate in New Zealand is temperate ocean climate which means the temperature can range from 10-24 degrees Celsius (53-75 degrees Fahrenheit) during the summer and 0-14 degrees Celsius (33-58 degrees Fahrenheit) during the winter. There’s around 2000 hours of sunshine yearly in New Zealand. 

If you were to visit New Zealand then it’s recommended to enjoy the nature and landscape of the country. There’s many locations such as the Emerald Lakes, Hokitika Gorge, Lake Gunn and Pencarrow Head that’s recommended to visit because of its beautiful and unique landscape. 

The country is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy, which means that Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state and is represented by the governor-general but the country has a parliament and a prime minister and their cabinet. The House of Representatives is the legislative body and consists of 120, sometimes more, members of the parliament. The parliament consists of 5 parties but the Labour Party has the majority with 65 seats. The Prime Minister of New Zealand is Jacinda Ardern, who has served as prime minister of New Zealand since the 26th October 2017 and got re-elected in 2020 after the general election.

The capital city of New Zealand is called Wellington and is located on the south western part of the north island. Wellington is the city where the most population of the north island is living and it’s also the most windiest city by average wind speed in the world which can be explained by it’s coastal climate. Wellington was declared a city in 1840 and in 1865 it was chosen to be the capital city of New Zealand. However, Wellington is actually the third capital city in New Zealand, during 1840-1841 Okiato was the first capital city of New Zealand and from 1841-1865 Auckland was considered the capital city but in 1865 it was decided that Wellington would be the capital city. Wellington is not defined as the capital city in legislation but it was decided by convention. The population of Wellington consists of 429 700 habitants. The parliament of New Zealand, the Supreme Court of New Zealand and most other public services are located in Wellington.

The biggest and the most populated city in New Zealand is Auckland with its area of 607.10 square kilometers and its population with around 1.7 million habitants in the Auckland region. Auckland is located in the north east part of the north island. The city was ranked the third most liveable city in the world in 2019. The University of Auckland, which was founded in 1883, is the largest university in New Zealand and is placed in the top 100 list of universities in the world.