Where in the World is New Zealand?

I do not expect everyone who cares about my being away to actually know where I am, except that it's a place called New Zealand on the other side of the world. So, maps.

Here is Australia (which most travelers I run into down here affectionately call (and spell) "Oz"). The tiny island below it is Tasmania, and then further east from Tasmania are the two major islands that make up New Zealand. California makes a good comparison to New Zealand in terms of size. While California boasts a human population of 38 million, New Zealand only claims around 4 million. In spring time, New Zealand's sheep population reaches 44 million or so.






Here is a map of New Zealand. You can see that Auckland is in the northern part of the North Island. People generally refer to places in New Zealand as being on either the North or the South Island. I am super excited to make it to the South Island, which is generally regarded to be the wilder and more remote of the two. Wellington is the capitol, and also considered the cultural capital. People sometimes call it Well, (and they refer to Wellington boots as "gummies", for gumboots, which Brits generally refer to as Wellies). Anyway, Christchurch and Queenstown are the major cities of the South Island, Queenstown being known as the adventure sports capital and Christchurch, from what I know gets its reputation from its student population (and Kiwis often refer to Chritchurch's students as "scarfies"...I thought that might be because they wear school scarfs, but apparently it's just because they wear scarfs to keep warm down there!)

I am currently staying here in the city of Auckland, which has many smaller suburbs. About 1 million people live in Auckland and its suburbs. I drew a couple of circles and a line on this map. The line is Queen Street, the major artery of Auckland city (I've mentioned it a couple of times now). The circle to the left of the line indicates Parnell, the suburb where I'll be working as an au pair starting in January. And below the line is a circle indicating Mt. Eden, where I'm currently staying.



Thanks to everyone who has been posting. You make me smile!