South Island

South Island, also officially named Te Waipounamu, is, by a small margin, the largest of the islands of New Zealand. Many people fondly call it the Mainland. To reach the North Island by the shortest route you go east.

Population is just over a million, one-third of whom live in Christchurch with 20% of the remainder living in the country's territorially largest city, Dunedin, and a fair number in the country's geographical heart, "Sunny Nelson", and the Deep South city (led by Tim Shadbolt) Invercargill. Other notable towns are Blenheim, Ashburton, Timaru, and Queenstown. (Some sentimental folk would include Reefton in that list; it does at least hold a Southern Hemisphere record. Whale-watchers would include Kaikoura. Country and western singers would include Gore. Architects would include Oamaru because of the Oamaru stone. There are just so many great places in the South Island.)

From 2014 it will also be known (officially) as Te Waipounamu. Wai = water(s), pounamu = greenstone