Aotearoa / New Zealand has been named as the third most beautiful country in the world, according to an influential travel guide and is often considered to be one of the greenest countries in the world.

Rough Guides highlighted New Zealand’s rolling green hills, majestic mountains, breathtaking fjords and amazing diversity of landscape from one island to the next” as the reason for its high rating. The travel guide described New Zealand as a “Godzone” and wrote that “you never meet anyone who has been and didn’t love the place,” as well as praising the distinct and fascinating culture of the Maori.

Nevertheless, New Zealand still has a more sustainable economy than most other countries. The Ministry of Economic Development is taking additional steps to promote sustainability. A number of New Zealand businesses and consumers are also encouraging the trend.

New Zealanders share a strong sense of guardianship (kaitiaki-tanga) for our environment. For example, we maintain robust controls over land development, fishing, water quality and conservation. We’ve dedicated over 30% of our land area to national parks and other protected areas. There are extensive campaigns to rid our land of threats to native wildlife and to support populations of endangered species such as our native birds, including the kiwi. You’ll get an idea of how carefully we protect our environment from the strict biosecurity restrictions on what you can bring into New Zealand when you land at the airport.

Humans have a much smaller footprint on New Zealand than in many countries. So it’s easy to lose the crowds and have the wide open spaces to yourself. Size-wise we’re slightly larger than the UK and slightly smaller than Japan. But we have a fraction of their populations, just 5 million. So, on average you’ll find just 16 people for every square kilometre in New Zealand. That compares to 253 in the UK and 337 in Japan.

New Zealand went straight from an agrarian society into the modern age. Because of this, they don’t have “the other side of the tracks” in town. The rundown part with all the old factories.

New Zealand has some of the cleanest and safest air on the planet, a new World Health Organisation report suggests. The report analysed data from more than 100 nations, comparing exposure to ambient air pollution and related death and illness. It showed New Zealand was either in the top five or 10 nations with the best results for concentrations of PM2.5 – a key measure of air pollution – along with rates of deaths, disease and illness that could be attributed to pollution.

New Zealand is a world leader in research on reducing the environmental impact of agriculture. It has a well-developed and skilled eco-innovation system… New Zealand is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% below 2005 levels by 2030.

Tourists can only ever skim the surface of New Zealand’s spectacular scenery. Many New Zealanders who’ve lived their whole lives here haven’t seen or done it all either. Over 90% of migrants find our scenery exceeds or meets their expectations, according to a recent Immigration New Zealand survey. So, what can you expect? Well, if you’ve seen The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Narnia Chronicles or The Piano, you’ll have an idea: soaring mountainscapes, mysterious lakes and rivers, dramatic volcanic plateaus, vast open plains, braided rivers, thermal wonderlands, fiords, native forests, glaciers, miles of farmland and even more miles of glorious coastline with gorgeous sandy beaches…. all that sort of thing. It’s not just the range of beautiful scenery there is to see – it’s all the different ways you can experience it: by car, on foot, by boat, on horseback, by helicopter, by rail, by rubber raft…