New Zealand comprises two main islands and a number of smaller islands. The South Island is the largest land mass, and is divided along its length by the Southern Alps, the highest peak of which is Aoraki/Mount Cook, at 3754 metres. There are 18 peaks of more than 3000 metres in the South Island. The North Island is less mountainous than the South, but is marked by volcanism. The tallest North Island mountain, Mount Ruapehu, 2797 metres, is an active cone volcano.

　　The total land area of New Zealand is 268,680 km2, is somewhat less than that of Japan or of the British Isles, and slightly larger than Colorado in the USA. The country extends more than 1600 km along its main, north-north-east axis.

Lake of Wanaka, one of most beautiful parts in the world

　　New Zealand is the most geographically isolated of all countries. Its closest neighbour, Australia, is 2,000 km to the north-west of the main islands, across the Tasman Sea. The only landmass to the south is Antarctica, and to the north are New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Partly because of its geographical isolation from neighbouring countries, and partly because of the number and location of numerous uninhabited islands belonging to it, New Zealand's exclusive economic zone of marine resources was the world's fifth largest, at 4.2 million square kilometres in the year 2000 (according to New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research).

　　The usual climate throughout the country is mild, mostly cool temperate to warm temperate, with temperatures rarely falling below 0°C or rising above 30°C. Conditions vary from wet and cold on the West Coast of the South Island to dry and continental in the Mackenzie Basin of inland Canterbury and subtropical in Northland.

　　In Wellington the average minimum temperature in winter is 5.9°C and the average maximum temperature in summer is 20.3°C. Of the main cities, Christchurch is the driest, receiving only some 500 millimetres of rain per year. Auckland, the wettest, receives a little less than three times that amount.

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名词解释：

Aotearoa：意为长白云之乡（Land of the Long White Cloud），此为毛利语（Maori），是纽西兰第二官方语言。
Southern Alps：南阿尔卑斯山脉，贯穿纽西兰南岛（South Island)
Mount Ruapehu：鲁阿佩胡火山，在北岛中南部。
*特别提示：在纽西兰会有大量的地名拼写和发音用到的是毛利语。