New Zealand has been separated from other landmasses for over 100 million years enabling many ancient plants and animals to survive and evolve in isolation. Animals and plants that exist nowhere else in the world can be seen here.
    Native species of flower such as the bright red Pohutukawa, the yellow kowhai and the delicate Mount Cook “lily” can be seen in numerous parts of the country. About a quarter of New Zealand is forested in areas which are largely protected from commercialisation in national and forest parks. The characteristic of the New Zealand forest is warm-temperate, evergreen rain forest or podocarps (rimu, totara, matai, miro and kahikatea) with associated broad-leaved evergreen tree species. Evergreen beach forest tends to dominate in the high country and the cooler southern regions of the South Island. Giant Kauri trees appear in forest pockets in Northland and the Coromandel Peninsula.
    New Zealand is a land of unique birds. In the wildlife of New Zealand one can find many creatures which are not found anywhere else in the world, the most peculiar of which is perhaps a roundish, flightless bird known as the kiwi. It is New Zealand's national bird as well as its symbol. New Zealand's rugby team takes the bird's name and also New Zealanders themselves are sometimes known as kiwis. The kiwi is one of a number of flightless birds which are believed to have been able to survive in New Zealand because there are no animals native to the country, so the bird's nests were safe. The kiwi is now in great danger of becoming extinct (nebezpečí vyhynutí) because of the thread posed by animals brought to the islands by humans.
    Other species include the inquisitive Kea and Weka which have little fear of humans, and the endangered Kakapo, the world’s largest parrot. New Zealand’s long coastline makes in an ideal home for numerous species of sea bird including the majestic royal albatross, gannets and many varieties of penguin. The waters off the coastline teem with fish and plant life and are also the home to whales, seals and dolphins. Virtually all of New Zealand’s native insects and reptiles are not found anywhere else in the world. The world’s largest insect – the giant weta – and the tuatara – a reptile with lineage extending back to the age of the dinosaurs – can both be found only in New Zealand.