1. What is the capital city of New Zealand?
Wellington
Auckland is bigger, but Wellington has been the capital since 1865.
2. What is New Zealand's largest city?
Auckland
About a third of all New Zealanders live in Auckland.
3. What is New Zealand's longest river?
Waikato River
The Waikato runs 425 km from Lake Taupō to the Tasman Sea.
4. What is New Zealand's largest lake?
Lake Taupō
Lake Taupō fills the crater of a huge ancient volcano.
5. What is New Zealand's highest mountain?
Aoraki / Mount Cook
Aoraki / Mount Cook stands 3,724 metres tall in the Southern Alps.
6. How tall is Aoraki / Mount Cook?
3,724 metres
It lost about 30 metres in a rock collapse in 1991 but is still the tallest.
7. What is the largest city in the South Island?
Christchurch
Christchurch is the South Island's biggest city by far.
8. What is the Māori name for New Zealand?
Aotearoa
Aotearoa is often translated as 'land of the long white cloud'.
9. What is the Māori name for the North Island?
Te Ika-a-Māui
Te Ika-a-Māui means 'the fish of Māui', from the legend of Māui fishing it up.
10. What is the Māori name for the South Island?
Te Waipounamu
Te Waipounamu refers to the greenstone (pounamu) waters of the south.
11. Which strait separates the North Island and the South Island?
Cook Strait
Cook Strait is only about 22 km across at its narrowest.
12. Which strait separates the South Island from Stewart Island?
Foveaux Strait
Foveaux Strait is famous for its wild weather and its oysters.
13. Rakiura is the Māori name for which island?
Stewart Island
Rakiura means 'glowing skies', a nod to its sunsets and the aurora.
14. Which city is nicknamed the Garden City?
Christchurch
Christchurch earned the name for its big parks and gardens, like Hagley Park.
15. Which city is nicknamed the City of Sails?
Auckland
Auckland has more boats per person than almost anywhere in the world.
16. What is New Zealand's southernmost city?
Invercargill
Invercargill is the country's southernmost city; Bluff is a town further south.
17. Which city is famous for geysers, hot pools and bubbling mud?
Rotorua
Rotorua sits on a geothermal field, which is also why it smells of sulphur.
18. Whangārei is the main city of which region?
Northland
Whangārei is the only city in Northland, Te Tai Tokerau.
19. Milford Sound / Piopiotahi is in which national park?
Fiordland National Park
Piopiotahi is a fiord carved by glaciers in Fiordland.
20. What is New Zealand's largest national park?
Fiordland National Park
Fiordland covers about 12,600 square kilometres of the lower South Island.
21. Mount Taranaki overlooks which city?
New Plymouth
New Plymouth sits on the coast in the shadow of Taranaki Maunga.
22. Which city was New Zealand's capital just before Wellington?
Auckland
The capital moved from Auckland to more central Wellington in 1865.
23. Whakaari / White Island, an active volcano, sits in which bay?
Bay of Plenty
Whakaari steams away about 48 km off the Bay of Plenty coast.
24. The Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana run along which island?
The South Island
The Southern Alps form the mountainous spine of the South Island.
25. The University of Otago, New Zealand's oldest university, is in which city?
Dunedin
Otago opened in Dunedin in 1869, making it the country's first university.
26. Auckland's city centre sits beside which harbour?
Waitematā Harbour
Waitematā means 'sparkling waters', and the Harbour Bridge crosses it.
27. Baldwin Street, one of the steepest streets in the world, is in which city?
Dunedin
Baldwin Street climbs at a gradient of about 1 in 2.9 at its steepest.
28. Which lake sits right beside Queenstown?
Lake Wakatipu
Lake Wakatipu is shaped like a lightning bolt and is 380 metres deep.
29. Te Puke, famous for kiwifruit, is in which region?
Bay of Plenty
The sunny Bay of Plenty grows most of New Zealand's kiwifruit.
30. The Marlborough region is most famous for growing what?
Wine grapes
Marlborough sauvignon blanc is famous all over the world.
31. Ninety Mile Beach / Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē is in which region?
Northland
Despite the name it is about 88 kilometres long, not 90 miles.
32. Cape Reinga / Te Rerenga Wairua is at which end of New Zealand?
The top of the North Island
In Māori tradition, spirits leave for Hawaiki from Te Rerenga Wairua.
33. The Interislander ferry sails from Wellington to which town?
Picton
Picton sits at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound in the Marlborough Sounds.
34. What is the largest lake in the South Island?
Lake Te Anau
Lake Te Anau is the South Island's largest lake and New Zealand's second largest.
35. Which of these volcanoes is inside Tongariro National Park?
Ngāuruhoe
Ngāuruhoe stands with Tongariro and Ruapehu in the national park.
36. What is the highest mountain in the North Island?
Ruapehu
Ruapehu reaches 2,797 metres and even has ski fields on a volcano.
37. Napier, famous for its Art Deco buildings, is in which region?
Hawke's Bay
Napier was rebuilt in Art Deco style after the 1931 earthquake.
38. Which river flows through the middle of Hamilton?
Waikato River
Hamilton, Kirikiriroa, grew up along the banks of the Waikato.
39. The world's longest place name, Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, is a hill in which region?
Hawke's Bay
The hill is near Pōrangahau in southern Hawke's Bay.
40. How many regions is New Zealand divided into?
16
There are 16 regions, from Northland down to Southland.