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Portal:New Zealand

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New Zealand
Aotearoa (Māori)
A map of the hemisphere centred on New Zealand, using an orthographic projection.
Location of New Zealand, including outlying islands, its territorial claim in the Antarctic, and Tokelau
ISO 3166 codeNZ

New Zealand (Māori: Aotearoa) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) and the South Island (Te Waipounamu)—and over 600 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland.

A developed country, it was the first to introduce a minimum wage, and the first to give women the right to vote. It ranks very highly in international measures of quality of life, human rights, and it has one of the lowest levels of perceived corruption in the world. It retains visible levels of inequality, having structural disparities between its Māori and European populations. New Zealand underwent major economic changes during the 1980s, which transformed it from a protectionist to a liberalised free-trade economy. The service sector dominates the national economy, followed by the industrial sector, and agriculture; international tourism is also a significant source of revenue. New Zealand and Australia have a strong relationship and are considered to have a shared Trans-Tasman identity between the two countries, stemming from centuries of British colonisation. The country is part of multiple international organizations and forums. (Full article...)

This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

The slender smooth-hound or gollumshark (Gollum attenuatus) is a species of ground shark in the family Pseudotriakidae. It is endemic to the waters around New Zealand, where it is usually found close to the bottom over the continental slope at depths of 300–600 m (980–1,970 ft). An extremely slim, plain brownish shark reaching 1.1 m (3.6 ft) in length, the slender smooth-hound can be identified by its broad, flattened head with a long, distinctively bell-shaped snout. Its mouth is angular with short furrows at the corners, and contains a very high number of tooth rows in both jaws. Its two dorsal fins are roughly equal in size.

The diet of the slender smooth-hound is diverse, but dominated by small, benthic bony fishes and decapod crustaceans. It exhibits a specialized form of aplacental viviparity with oophagy: the females produce a single capsule in each uterus that contains 30–80 ova, of which one ovum develops into an embryo that consumes the rest of the ova and stores the yolk material in its external yolk sac. The growing embryo is mainly sustained by this yolk sac during gestation, though it may be additionally supplied with histotroph ("uterine milk") produced by the mother. The typical litter size is two pups, one per uterus. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the slender smooth-hound as Least Concern; it is taken as fishery bycatch but not in great numbers, and furthermore large portions of its range see minimal fishing activity. (Full article...)

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Pisonia brunoniana
Pisonia brunoniana

...that the main threat to Pisonia brunoniana (pictured) in New Zealand is cutting by people trying to prevent small songbirds from getting trapped by its very sticky seeds?

... that the Kaipara Harbour was named after a hāngi on the Pouto Peninsula, at which the para fern (Ptisana salicina) was served?

... that the Agricultural emissions research levy is commonly described as a "fart tax"?

...that cricketer Dick Motz took one wicket in his last Test match in August 1969, becoming the first New Zealand bowler to take 100 Test wickets?

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The Mount Erebus disaster was a major aircraft accident involving Air New Zealand Flight 901 in 1979. The flight was a non-scheduled passenger transport service from Auckland International Airport in New Zealand to Antarctica and return. The service was operated with McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aircraft and began in February 1977.

The flight was specifically designed and marketed as a unique sight-seeing experience, carrying an experienced Antarctic guide who would point out scenic features and landmarks using the aircraft public address system.

On November 28, 1979, at 12:49pm NZDT, flight TE901 collided with Mount Erebus, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew members. The flight that day was being operated by the DC-10 registered ZK-NZP, which was just under 5 years old. The aircraft altitude at the time of the collision was just 1465 feet (445 metres). (Full article...)

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Lyttelton, New Zealand.
Lyttelton, New Zealand.

Lyttelton (Māori: Ōhinehou or Riritana) is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō, at the northwestern end of Banks Peninsula and close to Christchurch, on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. (Full article...)

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