How big is New Zealand compared to USA?

Planning a trip to New Zealand? Have you traveled there before? Understanding travel times and distances are important when planning a trip to another country.

How big is New Zealand?

New Zealand Size Comparison US

New Zealand has roughly the same surface area as the state of Colorado. Also, New Zealand has an estimated population of just over 4.5 million people which is comparable to the state population of Louisiana. Imagine taking Louisiana’s population and swapping them with Colorado’s population (not a huge difference). Colorado would then become the ‘New Zealand’ of America!

However, looking at New Zealand on a map can be deceiving because the island country stretches out north to south. If you were to lay New Zealand over the United States, it would stretch from Florida to Pennsylvania along the east coast. That’s a long stretch of land! (Take a look at the picture above for a visual.)

Taking this information into consideration, it is recommended that travelers start planning which areas they want to visit at least a few months ahead of when they want to travel. The plus is that traveling in New Zealand is relatively cheap. The bus system is affordable, and New Zealand has local and regional train services available throughout the day. There are a total of 28 different regions in New Zealand, so fares will get more expensive for longer commutes.

Here at About New Zealand, we help you create the vacation you’ve always wanted! You can rest assured that you will experience high quality service from our family of South Pacific enthusiasts who are experts in vacation planning and coordinating New Zealand vacations!

Have a few questions? Visit our FAQs page for more useful information and check out the best things to do in New Zealand.

Still need further assistance? Please, do not hesitate to contact us!

Traveling to New Zealand? Need help planning your trip? We’d love to help you!

We’re Experts at custom vacations to Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific. Tell us your interests, preferred travel dates and we’ll custom build your itinerary and send you a Quote (no obligation).

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About New Zealand Reviews

Rating of

Average of

4.86

on a total of 29 Ratings

Denise Leaks

I had a fabulous time in New Zealand. My accommodations were very convenient and comfortable.. Since I was traveling solo it was important that I felt safe and I did.

John Philipp

We had a great time in New Zealand

We loved Queenstown, the room was a bit older, but a clean Hotel. All the other cities and tour packages were great and the people friendly, a lot more friendly than in the states. Can’t say enough of the people there. And thanks Ana for conn(…)

Lonnie Minze

Best bucket list square I’ve ever filled!

Rebecca Stark

It was amazing!!

We had a fantastic time and appreciate all of the help we complaining our trip and once we got there. We got stuck at the airport and had instant help. The hotels and places were fantastic. One of the best trips I’ve ever been on.

Lea Harris

Koda was super helpful in arranging a flight that suited my time frame and was a great price.

Janet H. Rust

Wonderful Time!

We had a fabulous time in Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. You arranged fun excursions that we all enjoyed and then a relaxing time in Fiji before we returned to the US. Especially enjoyed the tour of the Opera House in Sydney, holding a Koal(…)

Dave Palazzolo

A fantastic service

Really outstanding. The pre-arranged activities were really incredible, from an ocean cruise around milford sound right up to a walking tour of Hobbiton. The van was a great way to see a lot of NZ with a lot of freedom to stop whenever the moo(…)

francine lindsey

About New Zealand helped every step of the way from planning trip, answering questions and having all the documents to be used sent in a step by step procedure. Thank you

Carol Strickler

Thanks!

Thanks to Layla for planning our trip to New Zealand. Our hotels were lovely & well situated and our travel transportation worked well. The only glitch was we had to wait for our pickup shuttle at the Wellington airport for one hour as we just m(…)

Eric Olberding

My wife and I had a wonderful trip to New Zealand.

About New Zealand did an excellent job of covering all the details which led to a very organized and stress free vacation! A couple of the IBIS hotels we stayed at were disappointing but on the flip side we received a nice surprise with lake vie(…)

Delyn Simmons

Our trip to New Zealand was amazing!

It’s such a beautiful country with lots of friendly people! Our travel guide did amazing work setting up our flights, hotels, tours, and shuttles, making it really relaxing on our part. So thankful for the opportunity for our family!

Bonnie Kelly

Our trip to New Zealand was fantastic.

Darin our coordinator with About Australia did a fantastic job coordinating our trip for us. Everything went smoothly with accommodations,car rentals and all of the attractions we were going to see. We would book with them for another trip.

(…)

Sandy Peterson

Best Trip Ever

Our trip to New Zealand was unbelievable. Everything was planned for us impeccably. Ana was a delight to work with. Every “t” was crossed and “I” dotted. We did not have one hiccup. Every reservation on our itinerary was made and we did not ha(…)

Scott Nowak

What a great way to spend our 40th Anniversary! Thank you!!

It was a fantastic vacation to both New Zealand & Australia (Melbourne area). Bekah arranged a self drive tour in NZ with all the tours/hotels to fit into our schedule. Amazing views of the coast, mountains, glaciers, country side & city. We esp(…)

John B

Outstanding trip and customer service

Wound up with an opportunity to take some vacation time on short notice. After reaching out with a little less than a month to go til departure, we were able to arrange the most active and exciting vacation we’ve ever done. Our agent, Ana, too(…)

Patrick Kurz

YOU CAN’T TAKE A BAD PICTURE IN NEW ZEALAND!

We LOVED our New Zealand trip!!!!! It was the most gorgeous place we’ve ever been…the mountain scenery is amazing….the Rotorua geothermal area was amazing…. the entire country is AMAZING!

Bryan Betke

About New Zealand & Ana Musgray did an excellent job planning my honeymoon!

Clyde & Sharon

A Great Experience!

It would actually please us greatly if our visit to Hobbiton might be the catalyst for others to visit the Shire. We’ve been Tolkien fans forever and lifting a pint in the Prancing Pony was one of highlights of our trip.

Gene and Sandy Bauman

Perfect Adventure

Our trip covered several stops in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji over about a month. Each accommodation, shuttle, arranged tour and request was fulfilled beautifully. We couldn’t have asked for a better trip, and the price was well within our(…)

Rebecca Stark

It was amazing!!

Cheryl Dubs

One of the best vacations ever!

Didn’t know how this campervan experience was going to go but it turned out to be one of the best vacations I have ever had. About New Zealand Travel Agency had information we needed and was helpful. Obviously there are things we had to resear(…)

Chris

Great experience

Beck S.

Fantasic Job

I had a fantastic time in New Zealand. I only wish I could have been there longer! Thank you for putting together such a great itinerary on such short notice.

Carolyn Frank

Arranged a completely enjoyable once-in-a-lifetime trip to New Zealand

My 3-week trip to New Zealand took me to every place I had wanted to see and more besides. All of the arrangements for flights, day tours, hotels and traveling between places in New Zealand worked as planned.

Sandy Leach

Overall Great Trip

We loved New Zealand and hope to return! 10 days was not long enough for the amount of public transportation we used. Queenstown was fun and we’re glad we added one day there to our itinerary. Our flight from Queenstown to Christ Church was ca(…)

Vergil Young

Amazing

Beautiful scenery everywhere you turn.
Wonderful friendly people always going out of their way to be helpful .

David and Mary Swinney

Excellent Support

We had a wonderful time. Every portion of the trip was well-planned and we enjoyed every stop along the way. We did have a glitch or two (not bad for 19 days traveling :-), but when we did, Ana was just an email away. Whether it was clearing up (…)

Nicole Lambert

We had an awesome honeymoon! Thank you!

My husband and I booked our honeymoon trip to New Zealand and Fiji through About New Zealand and were fortunate to have a great travel agent, Darin! He organized our entire itinerary with activities, drop offs/pick ups, hotel accommodations etc.(…)

Nancy Goetze

Exceeded expectations!

This was a very well planned trip by About Australia of both the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The included itinerary was terrific and the add ons were of great value. In some cases the rooms were on the small side but adequate and co(…)