Please do take the time to read this, because then you will be able to say you know about NZ!

New Zealand is a small country in the Southern Hemisphere near Australia. I am making this 'New Zealand' page because not many people know where NZ is! It is just to the bottom right of Australia.

New Zealand has many native birds and plants. One of the most famous native birds is the Kiwi. That is why New Zealanders are often called 'Kiwis'. The Kiwi is a flightless bird, and is also endangered. It is eaten mainly by opossums and stoats, which is sad.

The Silver Fern is very much a native New Zealand plant. It is a silvery green colour, and the name of the New Zealand netball team is "The Silver Ferns'!

What is netball, you may be thinking. Netball is a womens sport similar to Basketball. It is played by New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, and a few other countries, but not the U.S.A.

Cricket is also a very popular sport in NZ. So is Rugby. Both of these sports are hard to explain. They are both sports played by woman and men, but the mens cricket is on TV a lot more than womens cricket! (Don't ask me why!?)

Baseball is not very big in NZ, although we do have both a NZ Mens and Womens team.

At school here, we don't have grades. We have 'years'. When you are three or four years old, you go to kindergarten. When you are five you start primary school. Primary school goes from Years 1 through to 6 so you are there six years. Then you go to intermediate school for Years 7 & 8. Some primary schools, like the one I attended, go all the way through to Year 8. After intermediate school comes College/High school, which goes from Years 9 - 13. After that some people choose to go to either University or Tech (University of Technology) to get further qualifications, like College in the USA. It all sounds confusing, but when you know it, it isn't at all. Primary school starts at 9:00am and goes to 3:00pm. College/High School goes from about 8:40 - 3:25, depending on the school. We only go to school here Monday - Friday and have the weekends free.

The seasons are weird here, sort of. The middle of Winter is July, and the middle of summer is December/January. We celebrate Christmas in the sun, and thats when we have our summer Vacation/Holidays. Our school year finishes in December, and starts again in February. We call 'Fall' 'Autumn.'

We also speak differently. We speak English, but to everyone else we have a funny accent! Our accent is actually different from Australia's. It's also VERY different from America. We say Mum, they say Mom etc.

The three biggest cities in NZ are Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. Actually, Auckland is the biggest of all of them, it has 1.5 million people. That is tiny compared to Atlanta, or New York! Wellington is the capital city.

I hope now you know more about New Zealand, and I hope you can visit it sometime! It is a very green place!

This following image, a map of New Zealand and some info on wildlife, may take a few minutes to load. Sit back, relax, and be patient! :o)


If there's anything you want to know about New Zealand or the people who live here, feel free to email me! :o)