approximately 36 times less than the US). It is similar in size to Colorado and somewhere in between the size of Japan and the United Kingdom.
New Zealand's geography includes spectacular landscapes incorporating the vast mountain chain of the Southern Alps (larger than the French, Austrian and Swiss Alps combined), the volcano region of the North Island, fiords, glaciers, lakes, rainforests and extensive grassy plains.
Highest point: Mount Cook (3,754 m or 12313 ft)
Deepest lake: Lake Hauroko (462 m 1515 ft)
Largest lake: Lake Taupo (606 km or 234 miles)
Longest river: Waikato River (425 km or 264 miles long)
Largest glacier: Tasman Glacier (29 km or 18 miles long)
Deepest cave: Nettlebed, Mount Arthur (889 m or 2916 ft)
Length of coastline: 15,811 km (9824 miles)
New Zealand experiences summer from December - February and winter from June - August. The climate is temperate with little extreme. Any huge variations in temperature can be accounted for by the combination of the mountainous geography and prevailing westerly winds.

Government
New Zealand is an independent state of the Commonwealth. The Queen is represented in New Zealand by the Governor General, Her Excellency Right Honorable Dame Silvia Cartwright. The democratic government operates under the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) Parliamentary system of 120 seats (of which 67 Members of Parliament are from geographic areas and 53 from political parties). The Government is led by coalition partners - the Labour Party and United Future. The Prime Minister of New Zealand is the Right Honorable Helen Clark.

Leisure & Tourism
New Zealanders are heavily involved in outdoors activities. Our national image and the lifestyles of the population have been largely shaped by our involvement in a wide variety of sports and leisure activities. It is often said that sports and leisure are the predominant focus of the New Zealand cultural identity, for example, New Zealand's involvement in international rugby.
Tourism generated over $5.9 billion in foreign exchange for the year ended September 2002 and attracted more than 2 million international visitors in the year ended November 2002. New Zealand is a popular holiday destination for visitors from Australia, North America, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Primary Production
Agriculture and horticulture, forestry, fisheries, energy and minerals are the primary natural resources of New Zealand. The most valuable of these product groups, providing a high proportion of New Zealand's export earnings is agriculture and horticulture which incorporates the production of sheepmeat, beef, wool, dairy produce and hides, deer, goats and cereal products. In fact, agricultural products total more than 50% of all New Zealand exports.

Industry & Business
While New Zealand's primary manufacturing industries are the food processing industry (meat and dairy etc) and the engineering sector, New Zealand has an increasingly strong competitive advantage in food processing technology, telecommunications, plastics, textiles, plantation forest products, electronics, climbing equipment and apparel. In recent years there has also been a far greater interest in the production of specialised lifestyle products such as yachts.

Economy
New Zealand's economy is heavily dependent on overseas trade. Traditionally a large proportion of New Zealand's exports, (mainly agricultural products), went to the United Kingdom. But over the past 25 years
our trading partners have become more diverse, to include a more dominant Asia.
New Zealand has developed its agriculture and manufacturing industries to suit the needs of niche markets. Dairy and meat exports still make a large contribution to New Zealand's economy. However, industries such as forestry, horticulture, fishing, manufacturing and tourism have become increasingly significant.
Australia is now our number one merchandise export market, accounting for 18% of the value of New Zealand's exports in 2001. The United States has increased its share to become our second largest export market (15%), followed by Japan (13%) and in fourth place the United Kingdom (5%).
The value of merchandise exports to all countries has increased by 141% between 1998 and 2001. Exports to many Asian countries have increased at a faster rate - for example the value of exports to Korea over this period has increased 358% to a total value of $1.4 million in 2001.
For the year ended September 2002, the merchandise exports value is $31,676 million, a decrease of 3.7 % from the previous September year. Gross Domestic Product for the year ended March 2001 totalled $112, 316 million.
The New Zealand currency is the New Zealand dollar. One dollar is equal to 100 cents (50c, 20c, 10c, 5c).
All statistics have been sourced from the latest Statistics New Zealand National Census (2001), www.statsnz.govt.nz.