The World

For today’s Geo Quiz…we visit the land of the long white cloud. That’s the Maori name for New Zealand … translated into English. Two large islands make up most of New Zealand.

New ZealandNew Zealand

We want the name of the northern half. It’s where three quarters of the country’s population lives. Auckland and Wellington are both located on this island.

To the south — is the Cook Strait named after the 18th century British Explorer. To the north, its closest Pacific neighbors include New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga.

Even if you haven’t been here, you may have seen this island’s dramatic landscape at the movies. Its spectacular volcanoes show up in The Lord of the Rings and The Last Samurai.

The landscape along the island’s eastern seaboard is also impressive — and it was the backdrop for a dramatic rescue.

We’ll tell you about that when we return with the answer here

The answer to today’s Geo Quiz is New Zealand’s North Island, where conservationists struggled to save two pygmy sperm whales stranded on the island’s eastern coast. The World’s David Leveille has the story:

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