It’s one of those places you hear about, but when asked, discover you know very little about; New Zealand is an island nation comprised of two main islands and a lot of other littler ones and is located about twelve hundred miles southeast of Australia across the Tasman sea.

New Zealand was first populated by early Polynesian pacific travelers from the various islands around the south pacific and its indigenous people are known as the Maori. After European explorers, which were mainly British, discovered the islands that make up today’s New Zealand, there was, as with most places Europeans visited, much fighting, until the British finally won out. Once settled, the newcomers, which over time became known as Kiwis, began a thriving wool industry which dominated New Zealand’s economy up until after World War II. After that New Zealand switched to manufacturing and tourism to provide for its main influx of cash, though it is still one of the largest contributors to dairy products on the international market. Also, in recent years, the movie industry has taken an interest in New Zealand making such films there as the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Nowadays, New Zealand is visited by several million people each year and account for nearly six billion New Zealand dollars a year of income. Most of these tourists come from Australia, Britain, the US, Japan and China. In addition, trade with Australia dominates both New Zealand’s imports and exports.

New Zealand’s capital is Wellington, which is the southernmost capital in the world. And while New Zealand is considered to be a well developed nation, it has only two cities that are well known throughout the world; Christ Church and the largest city in New Zealand, Auckland. The standard of living in New Zealand is considered to be equal to that of southern Europe, and its climate is considered temperate by most as the temperature rarely if ever falls below freezing or rises above 85F. Also, New Zealand is considered to be an independent nation, yet its head of state, like Canada, is the Queen of England.

One little known fact about New Zealand is that roughly 22% of the people that live there were born somewhere else, as opposed to 12% in the United States. Another interesting fact is that cars last longer in New Zealand than almost anywhere else in the world due to the fact that its roads never need salting. Also, despite being of small size geographically, New Zealand can boast of having one part or another that represents all of the other climate zones on earth except the frozen north and south poles. This is because New Zealand has soaring mountain ranges and deep lush valleys, as well as deserts and bush outcrops.

In short, New Zealand is a pleasant place that more and more people are visiting each year and for good reason, it has just about everything people want to see.