North Island (eng. North Island, maori These Ika-a-Māui) - one of the two main islands of New Zealand (the other is the South Island). The area of the island is 115 778 km² which gives it 14th place in the world. It is a continental island. The highest point of the island is the Ruapehu volcano, which rises to a height of 2797 m above sea level.
The southernmost point of the island is Cape Palliser.
North Island regions
There are 9 administrative regions in the North Island.
North Island Towns
Several major New Zealand cities are located on the North Island, incl. Wellington, the capital of the country and Auckland, the largest city of New Zealand. About 76% New Zealanders lives on the North Island. The most important cities are (estimated from June 2009 according to of the CityPopulation.de portal or World Gazetteer):
- Auckland - population 1,333.3 thousand, area 1086 km², population density 1,227.7 people / 1 km² (agglomeration)
- Manukau - 410.16 thousand
- Wellington - 386.0 thous. (agglomeration)
- North Shore - 269.5 thousand
- Waitakere - 206.27 thousand
- Hamilton - 200.3 thousand (agglomeration)
- Tauranga - 118.2 thousand
- Lower Hutt - 97.69 thousand
- Palmerston North - 80.7 thousand
- Hastings - 63.58 thousand
- Napier - 57.09 thousand
- Rotorua - 55.6 thousand
- New Plymouth - 51.6 thousand
- Whangarei - 51.4 thousand
- Porirua - 48.86 thousand
- Kapiti - 39.6 thousand
- Wanganui - 39.6 thousand
- Upper Hutt - 37.13 thousand
- Gisborne - 33.9 thousand
- Pukekohe - 25.32 thousand
- Paraparaumu - 25.26 thousand
- Taupo - 22.07 thousand
- Masterton - 19.34 thousand
- Levin - 19.01 thousand
- Whakatane - 18.45 thousand
- Cambridge - 16.11 thousand
- Te Awamutu - 15.0 thousand
- Feilding - 13.93 thousand
- Tokoroa - 12.74 thousand
- Hawer - 10.53 thousand
The much smaller ones include: