Term Papers on The Geography Of New Zealand

Term Paper Title	The Geography Of New Zealand
# of Words	1135
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.54

The Geography of New Zealand

     By Clayton Brown
     Kirkpatrick
     Period 7
     February 25, 1996

     The well-known country of New Zealand is a small, resourceful nation
located 1,000 miles off Australia's south east coast.  New Zealand has an
impressive economy that continues to grow, a physical landscape that attracts
people from around the globe, and although small, New Zealand is a respected
nation for its advanced civilization and stable government.  The geography of
this prestigious nation can be described through five principal categories, the
physical geography,  the cultural geography, the citizens' standard of living,
the government, and the nation's economy.
     New Zealand is located in the southern hemisphere, with an absolute
location of 37 degrees south longitude to 48 degrees south longitude and 167
degrees east latitude to 177 degrees east latitude.  It is composed of two major
islands named the North and South Islands, and the total land area of the nation,
approximately divided equally between the two islands, is 103,470 square miles.
Surprisingly, only 2 percent of the land area is arable.  New Zealand has an
abundance of natural resources, explaining why the country is so wealthy
compared to other nations.  These resources include fertile grazing land, oil
and gas, iron, coal, timber, and excellent fishing waters.
     New Zealand's climate is basically moderate year round because of the
nearby ocean that regulates the climate.  New Zealand enjoys a marine west coast
climate, that on average produces sixty to eighty degree temperatures in January
and forty to sixty degree temperatures in July.  Because it is surrounded by the
ocean, New Zealand receives immense quantities of precipitation on both islands.
The average annual precipitation on the North Island is thirty to forty inches
and on the South Island it is forty to fifty inches.  This climate produces
mixed forests, mid-latitude deciduous forests, and temperate grassland
vegetation. The terrain is dominated by meadows, pastures, wood lands, and a
small chain of mountains called the Southern Alps.  The land is blanketed with
small lakes and rivers that drain the highlands and empty into the ocean.  The
extraordinary diversity of the physical geography found in the United States
seems to have been duplicated in this relatively small country, where the ski
slopes and the beaches may be only an hour apart.
     The cultural geography of New Zealand is not as diverse as its physical
geography.  Currently 3,547,983 people live in New Zealand, but 83.7 percent of
the population live in urbanized areas.  The chief cities, each containing more
than one hundred thousand people, are Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Manukau,
and Wellington. The average population per square mile is only 34, but it is
growing due to a 0.8 percent natural growth rate. Keeping in mind that only 2
percent of the land is arable, the crop land per capita is a meager 0.125 acres
per person.  Large portions of New Zealand are devoted to sheep stations, for
there are more sheep in New Zealand than people.
     The official language of New Zealand is English, although a small
percentage of the people speak Maori, the native language.  Somewhat
corresponding to the language groups, the religious make up is 52 percent
Christian, 15 percent Roman Catholic, and 33 percent unspecified or none.  The
country takes pride in a 99.9 percent literacy rate by having an excellent
education system. The entire nation resides in a single time zone that would
report 6:00 A.M. if the time in Amarillo, Texas was noon.  From the country's
cultural geography, it could be predicted that the nation would enjoy ...

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