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Updates: 

On 2015-11-27, ISO issued an update to the ISO 3166-2 codes for New Zealand. It recognizes the same seventeen divisions that I have listed. According to ISO, they are all regions except that Chatham Islands is a special island authority. The codes for the North and South Island have been withdrawn.

Auckland has become a unitary authority. On 2014-11-03, an update to ISO 3166-2 showed the new status.

Update 4 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes, the successor to FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2011-04-30. It has a new FIPS code for Tasman unitary authority.

Newsletter II-2, an update to the ISO 3166-2 standard, is dated 2010-06-30. It assigns an ISO code to Chatham Islands. It also gives the status of each subdivision (regional council, etc.), as listed below under Primary subdivisions.

The regions are mainly for purposes of environmental management, and their capitals (the location of the main regional council offices) are not hugely significant. The regional council for Manawatu-Wanganui region is called the Horizons Regional Council, and that for Canterbury is called Environment Canterbury, or ECan for short.

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 10, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2006-03-23. It assigns new FIPS codes to the current divisions of New Zealand, superseding the county codes formerly in effect.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For New Zealand, the draft standard showed 14 regions. The final standard shows 16. This corresponds to an administrative change that took place in 1992. Nelson-Marlborough region was divided into several pieces, which were absorbed into neighboring regions or became new regions. The new regions were Nelson, Marlborough, and Tasman; Tasman also annexed part of West Coast region.

Country overview: 

Short name	NEW ZEALAND
ISO code	NZ
FIPS code	NZ
Language	English (en),Maori
Time zone	+12~ (see note)
Capital	Wellington

 

Note: Chatham Islands are +12:45~ (source [4])

New Zealand was a British colony at the beginning of the century. On 1907-09-26 it became a dominion of the British Empire. Since then it has gained or lost some small island dependencies, but the territory of New Zealand itself has remained unchanged. The Ross Dependency in Antarctica has been administered by New Zealand since 1923-07-30.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: New Zealand
2. Dutch: Nieuw-Zeeland
3. Finnish: Uusi-Seelanti
4. French: Nouvelle-Zélande f
5. German: Neuseeland n
6. Icelandic: Nýja-Sjáland
7. Italian: Nuova Zelanda f
8. Maori: Aotearoa
9. Norwegian: New Zealand (Bokmål), Ny-Zealand (Nynorsk)
10. Portuguese: Nova Zelândia f
11. Russian: Новая Зеландия
12. Spanish: Nueva Zelanda f, Nueva Zelandia (Latin American variant)
13. Swedish: Nya Zeeland
14. Turkish: Yeni Zelanda (formal)

Origin of name: 

after the province of Zeeland (Sea-land) in the Netherlands. The native name, Aotearoa, is said to mean "land of the long white cloud".

Primary subdivisions: 

New Zealand is divided into eleven regional councils, five "unitary authorities" (combining the functions of a regional council and a territorial authority), and one special territorial authority.

Division	Typ	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Isl	Capital
Auckland	u	NZ.AU	AUK	NZE7	1,415,550	5,600	2,162	N	Auckland
Bay of Plenty	r	NZ.BP	BOP	NZE8	267,741	12,447	4,806	N	Whakatane
Canterbury	r	NZ.CA	CAN	NZE9	539,433	45,346	17,508	S	Christchurch
Chatham Islands	a	NZ.CI	CIT	NZ10	600	963	372		Waitangi
Gisborne	u	NZ.GI	GIS	NZF1	43,653	8,351	3,224	N	Gisborne
Hawke's Bay	r	NZ.HB	HKB	NZF2	151,179	14,164	5,469	N	Napier
Manawatu-Wanganui	r	NZ.MW	MWT	NZF3	222,669	22,215	8,577	N	Palmerston North
Marlborough	u	NZ.MA	MBH	NZF4	43,416	12,484	4,820	S	Blenheim
Nelson	u	NZ.NE	NSN	NZF5	46,437	445	172	S	Nelson
Northland	r	NZ.NO	NTL	NZF6	151,689	13,941	5,383	N	Whangarei
Otago	r	NZ.OT	OTA	NZF7	202,470	31,990	12,351	S	Dunedin
Southland	r	NZ.SO	STL	NZF8	93,339	34,347	13,261	S	Invercargill
Taranaki	r	NZ.TK	TKI	NZF9	109,608	7,273	2,808	N	Stratford
Tasman	u	NZ.TS	TAS	NZG4	47,157	9,786	3,778	S	Richmond
Waikato	r	NZ.WK	WKO	NZG1	403,638	25,598	9,883	N	Hamilton
Wellington	r	NZ.WG	WGN	NZG2	471,315	8,124	3,137	N	Wellington
West Coast	r	NZ.WC	WTC	NZG3	32,148	23,336	9,010	S	Greymouth
17 divisions					4,242,048	276,409	106,722
Typ: r = regional council, u = unitary authority, a = territorial authority HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. Population: 2013-03-05 census Isl: Island containing most of the region (using former codes from ISO 3166-2: N = North, S = South)

Postal codes: 

New Zealand uses four-digit postal codes.

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of New Zealand page.

On the secondary level, New Zealand is divided into fifteen cities, 58 districts, and the Chatham Islands, collectively referred to as territorial authorities. There are some territorial authorities that overlap two regions.

A complete explanation of New Zealand's territorial structures would fill a book. North Island and South Island have always been recognized as a partition, although they don't correspond to any of the usual administrative structures. The divisions shown above represent the present state of an evolutionary process. They began as provinces (prior to 1876), became provincial districts, lost their administrative functions, became statistical areas in 1961, local government regions in ~1982, and regions in 1989. The regions are responsible for certain environmental issues, transportation, and civil defense. The New Zealand Department of Statistics also tracks population in statistical divisions and main urban areas, but some parts of New Zealand are not in any statistical division or main urban area; some main urban areas are within a statistical division, and some are not. Since 1876, the secondary administrative divisions have had various statuses: initially counties and cities, currently districts and cities. On the average, the counties/districts have been much smaller than the provinces/regions. However, especially in the North Island, there are overlaps: not every district is entirely contained in one region. There are other local governments, called special purpose authorities. On the level below the counties, there are 159 community boards (only serving some areas of the country), whose function is simply to advise the district councils. There are also wards, some of which coincide with community boards.

Territorial extent: 

The bulk of each region lies on either the North or South Island, as shown in the table above.

1. Auckland includes most of the islands in Hauraki Gulf, such as Great Barrier, Waiheke, Little Barrier, Rangitoto, Motutapu, Ponui, and Kawau.
2. Bay of Plenty includes Motiti, White, and Whale Islands.
3. Chatham Islands includes Chatham Island (Rekohua), Pitt Island (Rangiauria), and some smaller islets.
4. Marlborough includes many small islands in the Cook Strait, such as D'Urville and Arapawa Islands.
5. Northland includes the Hen and Chickens Group, Poor Knights Islands, and some other coastal islets.
6. Southland includes Stewart, Ruapuke, Resolution, Codfish, Solander, and many smaller islands.
7. Tasman includes Rabbit and Adele Islands.
8. Waikato includes the Mercury Islands and Cuvier Island.
9. Wellington includes Kapiti and Mana Islands.

New Zealand includes some remote island groups which are not part of any region. The Kermadec Islands are grouped with North Island for statistical purposes. The Antipodes Islands, Campbell Island, the Auckland Islands, Three Kings, Snares, and Bounty Islands are grouped with South Island. For additional information, see source [3].

New Zealand administers Tokelau as a territory overseas. It maintains a claim to Ross Dependency in Antarctica. It also has relationships of free association with its former territories of Cook Islands and Niue. On this website, following the ISO standard, these all have separate listings (see Antarctica, Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau). Samoa is a former trust territory.

The UN LOCODE page  for New Zealand lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

1. Auckland: named by Captain William Hobson in gratitude to Lord Auckland, former First Lord of the Admiralty
2. Bay of Plenty: named by Captain Cook to mark the Maori inhabitants' successful cultivation of the adjoining land
3. Canterbury: named for Canterbury Cathedral by colonists sponsored in part by the Archbishop of Canterbury
4. Chatham Islands: discovered by Lieutenant W. R. Broughton, commanding the vessel Chatham
5. Hawke's Bay: named by Captain Cook in honor of Edward Hawke, First Lord of the Admiralty
6. Marlborough: after John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), British commander at Blenheim (whence the name of the capital of this region)
7. Nelson: after Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), British commander at Trafalgar
8. Taranaki: the Maori name for Mount Egmont
9. Tasman: after the Tasman Sea, the Tasman Bay, and Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman
10. Waikato: Maori wai: water, kato: strong
11. Wanganui: from Maori wanga: harbor, nui: big
12. Wellington: after Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), British commander at Waterloo

Change history: 

1. 1846: Sir George Grey, the British governor, established two provinces: New Ulster and New Munster. They were separated by the 40th parallel South. Consequently, New Munster contained the entire South Island and part of the North Island.
2. 1853: The New Zealand Constitution Act took effect, dividing New Zealand into six provinces (with capitals): Auckland (Auckland), Canterbury (Christchurch), Nelson (Nelson), New Plymouth (New Plymouth), Otago (Dunedin), and Wellington (Wellington). Auckland, New Plymouth, and part of Wellington replaced New Ulster.
3. 1858-11-01: Hawke's Bay province (capital Napier) split from Wellington.
4. 1859-01-01: Name of New Plymouth province, but not its capital, changed to Taranaki.
5. 1859-11-01: Marlborough province (capital Picton) split from Nelson.
6. 1861-04-01: Southland province (capital Invercargill) split from Otago.
7. 1863: Stewart Island annexed to Southland province.
8. 1865: Capital of New Zealand moved from Auckland to Wellington.
9. 1865-07: Capital of Marlborough province moved from Picton to Blenheim.
10. 1870-10-06: Southland province merged with Otago again.
11. 1873-12-01: Westland province (capital Hokitika) split from Canterbury (it had been a county of Canterbury province since 1868-01-01).
12. 1876: Provinces abolished in favor of the central government.
13. 1911: New Zealand consisted of nine provincial districts, as shown here. Otago was further subdivided into Otago portion and Southland portion. Source [5] calls them provinces in 1960. Source [5] also shows twelve "land districts" whose boundaries lie disconcertingly close to the province boundaries.

District	Population	Area(km.²)	Capital
Auckland	264,520	66,682	Auckland
Canterbury	173,185	36,363	Christchurch
Hawke's Bay	48,546	11,422	Napier
Marlborough	15,985	12,310	Picton
Nelson	48,463	26,597	Nelson
Otago	191,130	66,011	Dunedin
Taranaki	51,569	8,568	New Plymouth
Wellington	199,094	28,498	Wellington
Westland	15,714	12,020	Hokitika
9 regions	1,008,206	268,471
Population: 1911 census

1. 1961: Status of provincial districts changed to statistical areas. Auckland split into Central Auckland, East Coast, Northland, and South Auckland-Bay of Plenty. Parts of Nelson transferred to Canterbury and Westland.
2. 1974: New Zealand reorganized from 13 statistical areas into 22 local government regions, under the Local Government Act of 1974. The local government regions are shown in this table.

Region	Population	Area(km.²)	Isl	Capital
Aorangi	84,772	19,910	S	Timaru
Auckland	827,408	5,201	N	Auckland
Bay of Plenty	172,480	9,126	N	Tauranga
Canterbury	336,846	17,465	S	Christchurch
Clutha-Central Otago	45,402	28,982	S	Balclutha
Coastal-North Otago	138,164	10,590	S	Dunedin
East Cape	53,295	11,461	N	Gisborne
Hawke's Bay	137,840	12,396	N	Napier, Hastings
Horowhenua	49,296	1,614	N	Levin
Manawatu	113,238	6,669	N	Palmerston North
Marlborough	37,557	12,882	S	Blenheim
Nelson Bays	65,934	10,197	S	Nelson
Northland	113,994	12,604	N	Whangarei
Southland	107,905	27,716	S	Invercargill
Taranaki	103,798	7,876	N	New Plymouth
Thames Valley	54,343	4,666	N	Thames-Coromandel
Tongariro	40,089	12,085	N	Taupo
Waikato	221,850	13,241	N	Hamilton
Wairarapa	39,689	6,894	N	Masterton
Wanganui	68,702	9,171	N	Wanganui
Wellington	323,162	1,379	N	Wellington
West Coast	34,178	22,893	S	Greymouth
22 regions	3,169,942	265,018
Population: 1981-03-24 census Isl: (N)orth or (S)outh Island

1. 1989-11-01: New Zealand reorganized from 22 local government regions into 14 regional councils. By comparison with the older statistical areas, Nelson was split, its southern part merging with Westland, its northern part with Marlborough to form Nelson-Marlborough; Manawatu-Wanganui split from Wellington; South Auckland-Bay of Plenty split into Bay of Plenty and Waikato; name of Central Auckland changed to Auckland; name of East Coast changed to Gisborne; and almost all borders were adjusted to conform to major watersheds, since the new regions had environmental responsibilities.
2. 1992: Marlborough district, Nelson city, and Tasman district became regions. At the same time, Nelson-Marlborough region (old ISO code NSB) was abolished; its orphaned areas in Hurunui and Kaikoura districts were transferred to Canterbury region; and West Coast region lost its part of Tasman district.
3. 2010-11-01: Status of Auckland changed from region to unitary authority. At the same time, there was a minor adjustment to its southern boundary.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Gisborne: East Coast (obsolete)
2. Hawke's Bay: Hawkes Bay (variant)
3. Horowhenua: Horohenua (variant)

Population history:

Division	1991-03-05	1996-03-05	2001-03-06	2006-03-07	2013-03-05
Auckland	943,773	1,068,660	1,158,891	1,304,961	1,415,550
Bay of Plenty	203,982	224,364	239,415	257,379	267,741
Canterbury	438,171	468,039	481,431	521,832	539,433
Chatham Islands	741	747	726	609	600
Gisborne	44,265	45,786	43,974	44,496	43,653
Hawke's Bay	138,342	142,791	142,950	147,783	151,179
Manawatu-Wanganui	224,760	228,771	220,089	222,423	222,669
Marlborough	35,148	38,397	39,561	42,558	43,416
Nelson	36,459	40,278	41,568	42,888	46,437
Northland	126,786	137,052	140,130	148,470	151,689
Otago	177,525	185,085	181,542	193,803	202,470
Southland	99,954	97,098	91,002	90,876	93,339
Taranaki	107,124	106,590	102,858	104,124	109,608
Tasman	34,026	37,974	41,352	44,625	47,157
Waikato	331,026	350,112	357,726	380,823	403,638
Wellington	400,284	414,048	423,765	448,959	471,315
West Coast	31,563	32,511	30,303	31,326	32,148
Total	3,373,929	3,618,303	3,737,277	4,027,947	4,242,048

Sources: 

1. [1] "New Zealand Historical Atlas", Malcolm McKinney et al., eds. David Bateman, Auckland, 1997. This is the source for Change history information from 1846 to 1876.
2. [2] 2001 census data are from a page on the Statistics New Zealand website titled 2001 Census final population counts (http://www.stats.govt.nz/products-and-services/Articles/census-2001.htm, dead link, retrieved 2005-02-03).
3. [3] Definition of the North Island and South Island  (PDF) on the University of Canterbury website (retrieved 2007-01-15).
4. [4] New Zealand Time Act  (retrieved 2005-02-03).
5. [5] "A Descriptive Atlas of New Zealand", A.H. McLintock. R.E. Owen, Wellington, 1960.
6. [6] "New Zealand Official 1992 Year Book". Department of Statistics, Auckland, 1992.
7. [7] "New Zealand: A Handbook of Historical Statistics", G.T. Bloomfield. G.K. Hall & Co., Boston, 1984.
8. [8] 2013 Census population and dwelling tables , Table 2: Census usually resident population count and change. Statistics New Zealand (retrieved 2007-01-15). Has 2006 and 2013 census data.