New Zealand is not part of any continent: it is made up of two large islands and numerous smaller islands, and much of this territory sits on the Australian tectonic plate, but straddles the plate boundary. It is considered part of the region of Australasia, which comprises New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea and some small Pacific Islands. It is in the region of Oceania which, by geographical definition, is not a continent.Australia and Oceania are two completely different things. Australia (a continent) lies within the political region known as Oceania, which comprises also the islands of New Guinea, New Zealand and various other island nations in the South Pacific.New Zealand is the above-water part of a continental mass called Zealandia, about the size of India, and most of which has never been above the waves.New Zealand once was joined to and part of Australia, but the spreading of the Tasman Sea put an end to that.Continents are defined by their landmass block, which is generally taken to be out to the edge of the Continental Shelf, where the contours drop off steeply to the abyssal deeps.New Zealand is a separate group of islands, lying to the East of Australia.They are astride the boundary of the Pacific and Australian Plates, and we have our own continental mass known as Zealandia, about the area of the Indian sub-continent. This is mostly submerged, and has probably never been all above the water.Ocenia or Australasia
