New Zealand has no national daily newspaper but it does have three pretenders: Auckland's New Zealand Herald , which can be found throughout the northern half of the North Island, Wellington's The Dominion which covers the rest of the North Island, and Christchurch's The Press which has widespread readership in the South Island. Each contains local and national stories, editorial comment and limited international news - usually gleaned from news agencies, with only a limited amount of original journalism. Of the three, The Press is probably the most highly regarded, though the difference between them is negligible. Most areas also have their own regional paper with extensive (and often entertainingly parochial) local detail but international coverage that ranges from fair to woeful. There are two nationwide Sunday papers : the tabloid Sunday News , and the broadsheet Sunday Star-Times , which usually has a few worthwhile articles, music and film reviews. Foreign weekly news digests (such as The Guardian Weekly , The Weekly Telegraph and one or two incarnations of the less esteemed UK tabloids) are reasonably widely available through newsagents and supermarkets, though most international dailies aren't stocked outside big-city specialist shops. The bigger city libraries usually have a good selection.

For more in-depth analysis of international news, pick-up a copy of Newsweek Time or The Economist magazines , which are all widely available in New Zealand. To keep abreast of Kiwi current affairs, pick up The Listener , which carries in-depth articles as well as international and national news, entertainment reviews, and TV and radio listings. Visiting nature buffs might want to take a look at the quarterly New Zealand Geographic , and outdoor enthusiasts should keep an eye out for the sporadically published New Zealand Adventure . To tap into the edgier end of the Kiwi fashion, music and arts scene, read the bi-monthly Pavement , a kind of Kiwi version of The Face .