Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand. Its height, as of 2014, is listed as 3,724 metres. It sits in the Southern Alps, the mountain range that runs the length of the South Island. A popular tourist destination, it is also a favourite challenge for mountain climbers. Aoraki / Mount Cook consists of three summits: from south to north, the Low Peak, the Middle Peak and the High Peak. The summits lie slightly south and east of the main divide of the Southern Alps, with the Tasman Glacier to the east and the Hooker Glacier to the southwest. Mount Cook is ranked 10th in the world by topographic isolation.
The tuatara is a species of reptile endemic to New Zealand. Despite its close resemblance to lizards, it is part of a distinct lineage, the order Rhynchocephalia. The name tuatara is derived from the Māori language and means "peaks on the back".
In Māori mythology, Rongo or Rongo-mā-Tāne is a major god (atua) of cultivated plants, especially kumara, a vital crop. Other crops cultivated by Māori in traditional times included taro, yams (uwhi), cordyline (tī), and gourds (hue). Because of their tropical origin, most of these crops were difficult to grow except in the far north of the North Island, hence the importance of Rongo in New Zealand.
The Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Islands are a group of 13 uninhabited islands about 55 kilometres (34 mi) northwest of Cape Reinga / Te Rerenga Wairua, New Zealand, where the South Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea converge. They measure 6.85 km2 (2.64 sq mi) in area. The islands are on a submarine plateau, the Three Kings Bank, and are separated from the New Zealand mainland by an 8 km wide, 200 to 300 m deep submarine trough. Therefore, despite relative proximity to the mainland, the islands are listed with the New Zealand Outlying Islands. The islands are an immediate part of New Zealand, but not part of any region or district, but instead Area Outside Territorial Authority, like all the other outlying islands except the Solander Islands.
The Coromandel Peninsula on the North Island of New Zealand extends 85 kilometres (53 mi) north from the western end of the Bay of Plenty, forming a natural barrier protecting the Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames in the west from the Pacific Ocean to the east. It is 40 kilometres (25 mi) wide at its broadest point. Almost its entire population lives on the narrow coastal strips fronting the Hauraki Gulf and the Bay of Plenty. In clear weather the peninsula is clearly visible from Auckland, the country's biggest city, which lies on the far shore of the Hauraki Gulf, 55 kilometres (34 mi) to the west. The peninsula is part of the Thames-Coromandel District and the Waikato Region.
Stephens Island is at the northernmost tip of the Marlborough Sounds in the South Island of New Zealand. It lies two kilometres to the northeast of Cape Stephens, the northernmost point of D'Urville Island. The island is 1.5 square kilometres in size, and rises 283 metres (928 ft) high from the sea.
The word pā can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā sites occur mainly in the North Island of New Zealand, north of Lake Taupō. Over 5,000 sites have been located, photographed and examined, although few have been subject to detailed analysis. No pā have been yet located from the early colonization period when early Polynesian-Māori colonizers lived in the lower South Island. Variations similar to pā occur throughout central Polynesia, in the islands of Fiji, Tonga and the Marquesas Islands.
The Brothers is a group of small islands in Cook Strait, New Zealand, off the east coast of Cape Koamaru, Arapaoa Island. The islands are a restricted-access wildlife sanctuary administered by the Department of Conservation.
Mayor Island / Tūhua is a dormant shield volcano located off the Bay of Plenty coast of New Zealand's North Island. It lies 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of Tauranga and covers 13 km2 (5 sq mi).
Young Nick's Head / Te Kurī is a headland at the southern end of Tūranganui-a-Kiwa / Poverty Bay in New Zealand's North Island. The area is the landing place of the Horouta and Te Ikaroa-a-Rauru waka which carried Māori settlers to the region around 1350 AD. In Māori, the promontory is named Te Kuri o Pāoa.
Tairua is a beachside town located on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula in the North Island of New Zealand in the Thames-Coromandel District. It is located 150 kilometers east of Auckland and 125 kilometers north of Tauranga. It lies at the mouth of the Tairua River on its north bank and on the small Paku Peninsula. As the 2023 census, the town had a permanent population of 1,630. It is the Tairua is a Māori name which translates literally as tai: tides, rua: two.
Slipper Island is located 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the east of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand's North Island and 8 kilometres (5 mi) southeast of the town of Pauanui.
Penion sulcatus is a species of medium-to-large predatory marine snail or whelk, commonly called the northern siphon whelk or kākara nui in Māori, belonging to the whelk family Austrosiphonidae.
The Wairau Bar, or Te Pokohiwi, is a 19-hectare (47-acre) gravel bar formed where the Wairau River meets the sea in Cloudy Bay, Marlborough, north-eastern South Island, New Zealand. It is an important archaeological site, settled by explorers from East Polynesia who arrived in New Zealand about 1280. It is one of the earliest known human settlements in New Zealand. At the time of the occupation it is believed to have been a low scrub-covered island 2 to 3 metres high, 1.1 kilometres (0.68 mi) long and 0.4 kilometres (0.25 mi) wide.
The Māori people have had a strong and changing conservation ethic since their discovery and settlement of New Zealand. This is closely tied to their spiritual beliefs.
The Noises are a collection of islands lying northeast of Rakino Island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, off the coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The largest and most forested islands are Ōtata and Motuhoropapa; Orarapa and Maria/Ruapuke are also significant. After a rat eradication campaign in the 1960s, Maria was the first New Zealand island to become predator-free. The lack of invasive predators, intact native forest, and large numbers of breeding seabirds give the Noises significant conservation value. There has however been a marked decline in marine biodiversity surrounding the islands from over-fishing.
Motukawanui Island is the largest of the Cavalli Islands, and is located approximately four kilometres northeast of Matauri Bay, north of the Bay of Islands in northern New Zealand. The island has an area of 355 ha
Hidden Falls is an archaeological site that contains evidence for the earliest occupation in Southern Alaska along with evidence of marine resource usage. It is dated to the Archaic and Pacific period, between 9,500 and 1800 B.C.
New Zealand's archaeology started in the early 1800s and was largely conducted by amateurs with little regard for meticulous study. However, starting slowly in the 1870s detailed research answered questions about human culture, that have international relevance and wide public interest.
Motunau / Plate Island is a small island in the Bay of Plenty, roughly 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) off New Zealand's North Island at Okurei Point and a similar distance east-south-east from the much larger Mōtītī Island. The island is split into northern and southern portions by a small channel as narrow as 2 metres across, with several small sea stacks surrounding the two main parts of the island. Like many of the other islands in the Bay of Plenty, Motunau is volcanic in origin and lacks any permanent fresh water source, and as a result has not seen permanent settlement by humans.
