20 Amazing Facts About New Zealand You Never Would Have Guessed

On a small field outside of the town of Cromwell in the South Island of New Zealand is a beetle called the Cromwell Chafer (Prodontria lewisi). The beetle is found nowhere else on the planet. The entire species can be found on an 81-hectare nature reserve.

In Auckland, New Zealand, 62% of the rivers and lakes are graded as poor by the Ministry for the Environment for swimming, and 0% of the rivers and lakes are graded as good.

The Dawn Raids in Auckland, New Zealand back in the mid-'70s to early 1980s involved special police squads conducting raids on the homes and workplaces of overstayers throughout New Zealand usually at dawn. Overstayers and their families were often prosecuted.

The world's steepest street is Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand. At its maximum slope, it measures 19° or 35%.

The 2011 Christchurch earthquake caused a shortage of Marmite sandwich spread in New Zealand for more than a year. The crisis was named "Marmageddon."

Gisborne Airport in New Zealand is one of the very few airports in the world that has an active railway line intersecting the runway.

On the 2001 New Zealand census, 53,715 people listed their religion as “Jedi.”

New Zealand's first tank was the Bob Semple tank. It used corrugated iron armor on a tractor base, with 6 machine guns as armament. After public ridicule, Bob Semple stood by his design, saying "I don’t see anyone else coming up with any better ideas."

As of 2017, Whanganui River, New Zealand's third-largest river is legally a person.

New Zealand was the last Navy in the world to stop the traditional midday rum ration.