Overview - New Zealand

New Zealand is a southern hemisphere country located in the western Pacific Ocean, comprising two main landmasses, the North Island and the South Island, and several archipelagos and smaller islands. At 2.000 km south-east of Australia, its closest neighbors are New Caledonia, Tonga and Fiji. The total surface of the territory is of 268.000 sq km for a population of 4.3 million New Zealanders. The indigenous part of the population, the Maoris, is a minority (19%) compared to the European ethnic groups that immigrated over the past centuries (78%). Therefore, with a huge amount of British and Irish settlers, the official language of New Zealand is english, coexisting with native languages.