A is for:

Aotearoa, the Maori name for NZ.

All Blacks, the national rugby team.

Albatross, near Dunedin is the only mainland breeding colony of Royal Albatross in the world.

Alexander Aitken - The Human Computer. He was one of the world's most brilliant mathematical minds. His extraordinary abilities were studied by psychologists in Britain during the 1920s. B is for:

Bungy Jumping, pioneered in New Zealand by A.J. Hackett.

John Britten - Motorbike designer extrordinaire. He built a motor bike in his backyard shed from scratch. Britten not only developed an entirely new fabrication system using space age kevlar and carbon fibre, but designed the complete engine, making the patterns for casting himself. The result was the fastest motorbike in the world.

Robert Burchfield - Dictionary Don. Dr Robert Burchfield is regarded as the pre-eminent lexicographer and linguistic scholar of our age. As editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, Burchfield has played a crucial role in the study of the sources and development of the English language.

C is for:

Crowe, Russell, Acadamy Award winning actor born in NZ.

Crowded House, probably NZ's most successful pop music export.

Climate; NZ is the only country in the world to have every type of climate.

D is for:

Dunedin Sound; bands from the Flying Nun record label influenced a generation of alternative rock musicians around the world. E is for:

Ed Hilary and Everest. F is for:

Flight of the Conchords; musical comedy duo with an HBO show, Grammy Award and album intop 5 of US charts.

Fishing, NZ is famous for it's deep sea and freshwater game-fishing, the Tongariro river is one of the most famous rainbow trout rivers in the world.

Flightless birds; NZ has more species of flightless birds than any other country.

Footrot Flats - A famous cartoon strip from Murray Ball. Set in rural New Zealand on Wal's farm in a small town called Rangipo. G is for:

Green; NZ is known for its green and environmentally friendly image.

Greenpeace; in 1985 the Greenpeace flagship 'Rainbow Warrior' was bombed and sunk in Auckland Harbour by agents of the French secret service. H is for:

Haast's Eagle, now extinct this is the largest bird of prey to have ever lived.

I is for: J is for Jetboat, invented by NZ'er William Hamilton for NZ's shallow rivers.

Jogging; Arthur Lydiard invented jogging for fitness a craze that would sweep the world.

Peter Jackson - Film director. Films include King Kong and the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. The Return of the King" set an Oscar record by winning all 11 awards for which it had been nominated, including best picture of the year.

K is for:

Kiwi; a unique bird, it is quite un bird-like, with hairy feathers, nostrils at the tip of it's long beak, a highly sensitive sense of smell, and only the most vestigial of wings.

Kea; an alpine parrot that is one of the world's most intelligent animals.

L is for:

Lord of the Rings; utilised NZ talent from director down and was packed with NZ scenery.

Lemon & Paeroa -- World Famous in New Zealand. Paeroa is a little town on the North Island of New Zealand. It is the birthplace of L&P.

M is for:

Maori; and their unique culture.

Moa; now extinct, the moa was the tallest bird to have ever lived.

McDiarmid, Alan; won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 2000 for his work on the conductivity of plastics.

Katherine Mansfield - Novelist. Famous for writing books in France. She revolutionised the 20th Century English short story.

N is for:

Nuclear free Zone; in 1985 NZ became the first country in the world to declare itself nuclear free.

O is for: P is for:

Paua; the black abalone is famous as a delicacy and for its brightly iridescent shell.

Pavlova New Zealands national desert.

Richard Pearse - First Man to 'Fly' a Mechanically Powered Aeroplane. His achievements were remarkable in that, unlike the Wright Brothers who employed skilled engineers and who later enjoyed the luxury of American Government sponsorship, Pearse designed, financed, and built everything himself. Dating suggest a first flight on 31st March, 1902.

Q is for Queenstown; famous adventure tourism destination. R is for:

Rutherford, ernest; famous for his work splitting the atom, he won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1908.

Rotorua; famous tourist destination known for its thermal springs, geysers and boiling mud pools.

S is for:

Sam Neil; internationally famous actor.

Kate Sheppard - Suffragist. The leader and main figurehead of the suffragist movement in New Zealand, the first country in the world to grant universal adult suffrage to men and women equally.

T is for:

Tuatara; a species of lizard so ancient it is known as a living fossil.

Tattooing;

Kiri Te Kanawa - Opera singer. Highlights of her career include singing at Prince Charles and Diana's royal wedding.

U is for:

Upham, Charles; the only combat soldier to have been awarded the Victoria Cross twice. He received the VC for action in Crete and again in Egypt in WW2.

V is for:

Votes for women; NZ became the first country in the world to give women the vote.

W is for:

Weta; the giant weta is one of the largest insects in the world.

Wine; NZ is becoming increasingly well-known for the quality of the wine produced there.

Harold Williams - Voice of the world. He is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's greatest linguist, said to have spoken over 58 languages fluently.

Nancy Wake - The White Mouse. She was the Allies' most decorated servicewoman of WWII, and the Gestapo's most wanted person. They code-named her 'The White Mouse'. She led an army of 7,000 Maquis troops in guerrilla warfare to sabotage the Nazis. Nancy Wake was born in Wellington in 1912.

X is for:

Xena the warrior princess.

Y is for:

Y2k; NZ was one of the first countries in the world to see the dawn of the new millenium.

Z is for:

Zoological uniqueness; because of NZ's isolation its fauna developed in a unique way. There are virtually no native terrestrial mammals in NZ ( a species of bat is the only one) so birds evolved to occupy niches that are usually filled by mammals.