General

The mountainous nature of New Zealand has made the development of rail and road communications difficult and expensive, particularly on the South Island. In 2002, 3,908 km (2,428 mi) of state-owned railways were operative. New Zealand has electrified some 506 km (314 mi) of its rail lines in order to reduce dependence on imported fuel.

Capital investment in roads exceeds that for all other forms of transport service. As of 2000, registered motor vehicles included 1,719,077 passenger cars and 479,281 commercial vehicles. The 1,609 km (999 mi) of waterways are of little importance in satisfying total transportation requirements.

New Zealand is largely dependent on the shipping of other nations for its overseas trade. In 1974, a government-owned firm, the Shipping Corp. of New Zealand, was set up to operate shipping services; its trade name, the New Zealand Line, was adopted in 1985. Auckland and Wellington, the two main ports, have good natural harbours with deepwater facilities and modern port equipment. Other ports capable of efficiently handling overseas shipping are Whangarei, Tauranga, Lyttelton (serving Christchurch), Bluff, Napier, Nelson, Dunedin, and Timaru.

New Zealand had 118 airports in 2006, 46 with paved runways. Thirteen are major air facilities, of which those at Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington are international airports. The government-owned Air New Zealand Ltd. operates air services throughout the Pacific region to Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Honolulu, and Los Angeles, among other destinations.

Overview

Airports :
118 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways :
total: 45
over 3,047 m: 2
2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
914 to 1,523 m: 27
under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways :
total: 73
1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
914 to 1,523 m: 31
under 914 m: 40 (2006)

Pipelines :
condensate 224 km; gas 1,693 km; liquid petroleum gas 45 km; oil 280 km; refined products 288 km (2006)

Railways :
total: 4,128 km
narrow gauge: 4,128 km 1.067-m gauge (506 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways :
total: 92,931 km
paved: 59,783 km (including 171 km of expressways)
unpaved: 33,148 km (2003)

Merchant marine :
total: 13 ships (1000 GRT or over) 136,361 GRT/124,972 DWT
by type: bulk carrier 3, cargo 1, passenger/cargo 5, petroleum tanker 2, roll on/roll off 2
foreign-owned: 4 (Australia 2, Germany 1, Isle of Man 1)
registered in other countries: 8 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Cook Islands 1, Dominica 4, France 1, UK 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals :
Auckland, Lyttelton, Tauranga, Wellington, Whangarei