Those who live in New Zealand refer to it as God’s Own as a tribute to its beauty. Another popular name for New Zealand is the Maori word ‘Aotearoa’ meaning ‘land of the long white cloud’ and with its generally temperate and damp climate and mostly mountainous landscape, this is not surprising. Sitting 990 miles southeast of Australia, this wonderfully diverse and breathtakingly scenic country is a cluster of islands in the South Pacific, the largest two being the North and South Islands which stretch the combined distance of 1600km. The weather is usually a hot topic of conversation as it plays a huge part in the livelihood of this farming nation. New Zealand is the world’s biggest exporter of meat, wool, cheese and butter.

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