"Kia ora!" that is how people in New Zealand say hello! It is Maori for 'good health and well wishes'. This postcard travelled a long way from the Northern Island of New Zealand, from Carissa who lives near Matamata in Waikato region. She wrote that 'Waikato is full of dairy cows and sheep, and there are also quite a few Thoroughbred horses. There are green pastures and farmland as far as the eye can see in every direction" Sounds idyllic!

"Aotearoa" - that you can see on the front of the card is a Maori name for North island (and today the whole New Zealand) and means "land of the long white cloud". As Carissa wrote, there are indeed almost always at least a few clouds in the sky :)

New Zealand consists actually of 3 islands: North, South and Stewart Island (this one is accessible only by a ferry). So there's still two more New Zealand cards for me to collect. Thank you Carissa for sending this one!

North island, New Zealand

country

New Zealand

location

in the Pacific Ocean

inhabitants

over 3,422,000

biggest city

Auckland

postcard sent

10.10.2014

postcard received

22.09.2014

distance travelled

~17836km

sent from

Matamata

Read more about the island