List of islands of New Zealand

Rangitoto Island (pictured in the distance) is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland
Whakaari / White Island in the Bay of Plenty

New Zealand consists of more than six hundred islands, mainly remnants of a larger land mass now beneath the sea.[1] New Zealand is the sixth-largest island country, and the third-largest located entirely in the Southern Hemisphere. The following is a list of islands of New Zealand.

The two largest islands – where most of the population lives – have names in both English and in the Māori language. They are the North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui and the South Island or Te Waipounamu.[2] Various Māori iwi sometimes use other names, with some preferring to call the South Island Te Waka o Aoraki.[3] The two islands are separated by the Cook Strait. In general practice, the term mainland refers to the North Island and South Island.[4][5] However, the South Island alone is sometimes called "the mainland" – especially by its residents, as a nickname – because it is the larger of the two main islands.[6][Note 1]

To the south of the South Island, Stewart Island / Rakiura is the largest of the smaller islands, and Waiheke Island in the urban Auckland Region has the largest population of the smaller islands.

  1. ^ McSaveney, Eileen (24 September 2007). "Nearshore islands". Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
  2. ^ "Two official options for NZ island names". The New Zealand Herald. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  3. ^ Mein Smith, Philippa (2005). A Concise History of New Zealand. Australia: Cambridge University Press. p. 6. ISBN 0-521-54228-6.
  4. ^ The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals. Csiro Publishing. 2021. p. 200. ISBN 978-1-4863-0629-9.
  5. ^ Renfrew, Colin; Bahn, Paul (9 June 2014). The Cambridge World Prehistory. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-64775-6. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  6. ^ Meier, Cecile (10 September 2015). "South Island the true Mainland: Cecile Meier". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  7. ^ Bakić-Mirić, Nataša (15 November 2011). An Integrated Approach to Intercultural Communication. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-3553-4. Retrieved 24 May 2022.


Cite error: There are <ref group=Note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=Note}} template (see the help page).