Land area: 103,483 sq mi (268,021 sq km); total area: 103,738 sq mi (268,680 sq km)

Population (2006): 4,076,140 (growth rate: 1.0%); birth rate: 13.8/1000; infant mortality rate: 5.8/1000; life expectancy: 78.8; density per sq mi: 39

Capital City: Wellington

Monetary unit: New Zealand dollar

Languages: English, Maori (both official)

Ethnicity/race: New Zealand European 74.5%, Maori 9.7%, other European 4.6%, Pacific Islander 3.8%, Asian and others 7.4%

Religions: Anglican 24%, Presbyterian 18%, Roman Catholic 15%, Methodist 5%, Baptist 2%, other Protestant 3%, unspecified or none 33% (1986)

New Zealand comprises of two main islands (called the North and South Islands in English, Te-Ika-a-Maui and Te Wai Pounamu in Maori) and a number of smaller islands. The tallest North Island mountain, Mount Ruapehu (2,797 m / 9,176 ft), is an active cone volcano. 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.

The dramatic and varied landscape of New Zealand has made it a popular location for the production of television programmes and films, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Because of its long isolation from the rest of the world and its island biogeography, New Zealand has extraordinary flora and fauna. About 80% of the New Zealand flora occurs only in New Zealand, including more than 40 endemic genera. The main two types of forest have been dominated by podocarps including the giant kauri and southern beech. The remaining vegetation types in New Zealand are grasslands of tussock and other grasses, usually in sub-alpine areas, and the low shrublands between grasslands and forests.

New Zealand has a diverse contemporary culture with influences from British, Irish, and Maori cultures, along with those of other European cultures and - more recently - Polynesian (including Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Cook Islands Maori, Tahitian, and Hawai'ian) and southern and southeast Asian (Indian, Chinese, Korean, Cambodian, and Japanese) cultures.

New Zealand's landscape has appeared in a number of television programmes and films. In particular, the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess were filmed around Auckland, and the film Heavenly Creatures in Christchurch. The television series The Tribe is set and filmed in New Zealand. New Zealand director Peter Jackson shot the epic The Lord of the Rings film trilogy in various locations around the country, taking advantage of the spectacular and relatively unspoiled landscapes, and Mount Taranaki was used as a stand-in for Mount Fuji in The Last Samurai. The latest of such major international films to be released are King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Buildings in New Zealand tell a unique story of immigrants - from both Polynesia and Europe - coming to a strange land and adapting known building forms to new conditions and materials.The immigrants found large, forested islands which had a temperate but highly variable and sometimes extreme climate.

The abundance of wood available as a building material allowed for early wooden homes to be made. Stone and brick quickly became available in New Zealand, but the early wooden buildings are more typical of the country than the early masonry buildings. The use of timber for buildings in the Gothic style gave New Zealand what are perhaps its finest buildings, Old St Paul's in Wellington pre-eminent among them.

Wonderful Gothic churches, in timber, stone and brick, fine classically inspired commercial buildings and imposing Baroque public buildings can be found throughout New Zealand.