36 articles
Arrowtown
Arrowtown (Kā Muriwai) is a historic 1862 gold-rush town on the Arrow River, Otago, New Zealand, 20 km from Queenstown, known for Buckingham Street heritage buildings, the restored Chinese miners' settlement, and the Lakes District Museum.
Auckland
Auckland, known in Māori as Tāmaki Makaurau, is New Zealand's largest urban area, built on an isthmus between the Manukau Harbour and the Hauraki Gulf with over 1.6 million people.
Christchurch
Christchurch (Ōtautahi) is New Zealand's largest South Island city, founded in 1850 as a planned Anglican settlement and the country's first city by Royal Charter in 1856; population 419,200 (June 2025), rebuilt after the 2010–2011 earthquakes.
Cromwell, New Zealand
Cromwell, Central Otago town at the Kawarau–Clutha river junction, founded in the 1862 Hartley and Reilly gold strike as The Junction, renamed 1863, flooded by Lake Dunstan, now a stone fruit and wine center.
Dunedin
Dunedin (Ōtepoti) is a New Zealand South Island city on Otago Harbour, founded by Scottish settlers in 1848; a Gaelic form of Edinburgh, it was the country's largest city around 1880 and is now a university and medical research centre.
Greymouth
Greymouth (Māwhera), largest town of New Zealand's West Coast, at the Grey River mouth 233 km from Christchurch; Māori pā, 1860s gold-rush port, coal and timber exporter, now fishing, services and TranzAlpine terminus.
Hamilton, New Zealand
Hamilton (Kirikiriroa) is New Zealand's fourth-largest and fastest-growing inland city, on the Waikato River 90 minutes south of Auckland; founded on confiscated Maaori land in 1864, known for Hamilton Gardens.
Invercargill
Invercargill (Waihōpai), New Zealand's southernmost and westernmost city and capital of Southland, population 57,900 (2023); founded 1856 by John Turnbull Thomson, service hub for a farming hinterland.
Kaitaia
Kaitaia (Kaitāia) is the main town of the Far North district, Northland, New Zealand, in the Awanui River valley. Founded around an 1830s CMS mission, it is the gateway to Cape Rēinga, with high deprivation and the region's cheapest housing.
Levin
Levin (Māori name Taitoko) is a town of about 20,300 in Horowhenua, lower North Island, New Zealand. Founded 1888–89 and named for railway director William Hort Levin; neither Levin nor Taitoko was officially gazetted as of 2018.
List of cities in New Zealand
Cities in New Zealand: before 1989 a borough of 20,000 could be proclaimed a city; since then 50,000 is required. Covers the four main cities, provincial cities, and Stats NZ urban-area classifications.
Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt (Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) is a New Zealand city in the lower Hutt Valley, Wellington region, settled in 1840, a borough in 1891, a city in 1941, named for Sir William Hutt.
Lyttelton, New Zealand
Lyttelton (Ōhinehou) is a historic port town on Whakaraupō/Lyttelton Harbour, Banks Peninsula, near Christchurch, New Zealand. Founded 1849, arrival point of the 1850 First Four Ships, South Island's largest port, epicentre area of the 2011 earthquake.
Manukau City
Manukau City was a territorial authority in southern Auckland, New Zealand, formed in 1965, which grew into the country's third largest city before merging into Auckland Council in 2010.
Masterton
Masterton, largest town of New Zealand's Wairarapa region; founded 1854 by Joseph Masters' Small Farms Association. District population 28,900 (2025); home of the Golden Shears shearing contest and five daily trains to Wellington.
Methven, New Zealand
Methven is a small alpine service town on the Canterbury Plains, New Zealand, 95 km west of Christchurch, gateway to Mt Hutt ski field; population 1,977 (2023), fastest-growing town in Ashburton District.
Morrinsville
Morrinsville is a dairy-farming service town in the Matamata-Piako District, Waikato, New Zealand, on the Piako River. Founded on the Morrin brothers' 1874 Lockerbie estate, it is a former railway junction with about 9,300 residents.
Motueka
Motueka is a town of about 8,200 people in Tasman District, New Zealand, on Tasman Bay near the Motueka River mouth. Founded 1842, it is a horticulture and tourism hub and former tobacco-growing centre.
Nelson, New Zealand
Nelson (Whakatū) is a South Island New Zealand city of about 55,000 on Tasman Bay, founded by the New Zealand Company in 1842, noted for roughly 2,400 annual sunshine hours, its 422 km² unitary authority, and Port Nelson.
New Plymouth
New Plymouth (Ngāmotu) is Taranaki's only city on New Zealand's west coast, founded by the Plymouth Company in 1841, known for Mount Taranaki, the Coastal Walkway, and the Govett-Brewster/Len Lye Centre.
Oban, New Zealand
Oban is the sole settlement of Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand's third-largest island, on Halfmoon Bay 30 km south of Bluff. About 400 residents; ferry from Bluff, 20-minute flight from Invercargill; gateway to Rakiura National Park.
Palmerston North
Palmerston North (Māori: Papaioea) is a city on New Zealand's North Island in the Manawatū region, 140 km north-east of Wellington, with an estimated population of 91,800.
Queenstown, New Zealand
Queenstown, New Zealand: resort town on glacial Lake Wakatipu, Otago; 'adventure capital of the world' (bungy 1988, Coronet Peak 1947); 53,800 district residents, peak-summer swelling, tourism at 28.2% of GDP.
Rangiora
Rangiora is a town in the Waimakariri District of North Canterbury, New Zealand. It is the largest town in the district, with a 2023 population of 18,855 people.
Rotorua
Rotorua, New Zealand city on Lake Rotorua's southern shore, built 1880s as a government spa tourist town on Ngāti Whakaue land; geothermal fields, Te Arawa iwi, 1886 Tarawera eruption, 2006 lakes Treaty settlement.
Taumarunui
Taumarunui is a King Country town in New Zealand's Ruapehu District at the Whanganui–Ōngarue river junction, 85 km south of Te Kūiti, grown around the 1903 railway, sawmilling, and farming.
Tauranga
Tauranga is a coastal city in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty, the country's fifth largest local authority (152,844 people at 2023 Census) and home of the Port of Tauranga, New Zealand's largest port by cargo volume.
Te Anau
Te Anau is a Southland, New Zealand town of about 2,920 people on the eastern shore of Lake Te Anau, the South Island's largest lake (65 km long, three western fiords), and the gateway to Fiordland National Park and the Milford Road to Milford Sound.
Te Aroha
Te Aroha, Waikato, New Zealand spa town at the foot of Mount Te Aroha (952 m); springs gifted by chief Te Mōkena Hou, gold boom from 1880, leading 1880s–1890s health resort, Edwardian Domain and Mokena Geyser remain.
Thames, New Zealand
Thames, New Zealand: historic gold-rush town on the Firth of Thames, Coromandel Peninsula, formed from Shortland (1867) and Grahamstown (1868), amalgamated 1873; boomed to 18,000 people by 1868, New Zealand's fifth-largest town by 1871.