| Geography and Climate |
New Zealand located in Oceania, are islands in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of Australia.
Area comparatively about the size of Colorado.
Climate is temperate with sharp regional contrasts. Terrain consists predominately mountainous with some large coastal plains. Elevation extreme has the lowest point in Pacific Ocean 0 m and highest point in Mount Cook 3,764 m. Natural resources are natural gas, iron ore, sand, coal, timber, hydropower, gold, limestone. Land use: arable land: 9%, permanent crops: 5%, permanent pastures: 50%, forests and woodland: 28%, other: 8% (1993 est.).
Irrigated land: 2,850 sq km (1993 est.).
Natural hazards are earthquakes are common, though usually not severe; volcanic activity.
Environment—current issues: deforestation; soil erosion; native flora and fauna hard-hit by species introduced from outside.
Geography—note: about 80% of the population lives in cities.
Ref. Anonymous, 1999 |