SNZC Website: adventist.org.nz/about-us/contact-south-island/
The South Island, also officially named Te Waipounamu, is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area; the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, and to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers 150,437 square kilometres (58,084 sq mi), making it the world’s 12th-largest island. It has a temperate climate.
It has a 32 percent larger landmass than the North Island, and as a result is nicknamed the “mainland” of New Zealand, especially by South Island residents, but only 23 percent of New Zealand’s 4.9 million inhabitants live there. In the early stages of European (Pākehā) settlement of the country, the South Island had the majority of the European population and wealth due to the 1860s gold rushes. The North Island population overtook the South in the early 20th century, with 56 per cent of the population living in the North in 1911, and the drift north of people and businesses continued throughout the century.