science

High country (New Zealand)

High country (New Zealand) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand High country (New Zealand) rather than just read about it. In short: In New Zealand, high country is a term for the elevated pastoral land of the South Island and – to a lesser extent – North Island. This terrain, which can be compared loosely with the outback of Australia, high veldt of South Africa and pampas of Argentina, lies in the rain shadow of the country's mountain ranges and tends to be extensively farmed land with a continental climate consisting of low rainfall, cold wint…

Key takeaways

High country (New Zealand) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect High country (New Zealand) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of High country (New Zealand) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In New Zealand, high country is a term for the elevated pastoral land of the South Island and – to a lesser extent – North Island. This terrain, which can be compared loosely with the outback of Australia, high veldt of South Africa and pampas of Argentina, lies in the rain shadow of the country's mountain ranges and tends to be extensively farmed land with a continental climate consisting of low rainfall, cold winters and hot summers. Livestock farmed in these regions include sheep and – increasingly – deer and alpaca, and a major ground-covering plant of the area is tussock. Regions of New Zealand closely associated with the high country include Central Otago and the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island, and parts of the North Island Volcanic Plateau. Much of the land is at a high altitude (hence its name), with the majority of the high country being more than 600 metres (2000 feet) above sea level. The land is marked with geological features associated with glaciation from the last ice age, with deep finger-shaped lakes such as Lake Wānaka and Lake Tekapo.

In popular culture The South Island's high country was featured extensively in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, where it stood in for Gondor and Rohan.

References

Further reading Steeg, Antonia (2012). High country New Zealand: the land, the people, the seasons. Wellington, N.Z: Te Papa Press. ISBN 9781877385896.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with High country (New Zealand)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what High country (New Zealand) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to High country (New Zealand) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about High country (New Zealand) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of High country (New Zealand)

In research: High country (New Zealand) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses High country (New Zealand) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: High country (New Zealand) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Agricultural regions, Agriculture in New Zealand, Geography of New Zealand, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for High country (New Zealand) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study High country (New Zealand) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what High country (New Zealand) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain High country (New Zealand) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is High country (New Zealand) in simple terms?

Why does High country (New Zealand) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study High country (New Zealand)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on High country (New Zealand).