New Zealand (NZL)

This section defines the supported geocoding datasets, operations, and input and output field information for New Zealand.

Supported Geocoding Datasets

The following table lists the supported geocoding dataset(s) with the available geocoding levels for New Zealand.

Note: Custom User Dictionaries are supported.
Geocoding Dataset City Centroid Suburb/Village Centroid Postal Centroid Street Centroid Interpolated Street Address Point-level Address Point of Interest
Critchlow English Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TomTom English Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Supported Operations

The following operations are supported for New Zealand:
  • Geocoding—Takes one or more addresses as input and returns latitude/longitude coordinates and other information.
  • Reverse Geocoding—Takes one or more latitude and longitude coordinates as input and returns the address of the location.
  • Interactive Geocoding— Returns potential match candidates as the adddress is typed in.
  • Global Key Lookup—Returns geocode candidates when given a unique key as input. USA MLD and AUS GNAF data only.

Input Fields

The input address may contain some or all of the following address elements.

Parameter Type Description
placeName String Specifies the building name, place name, Point of Interest (POI), company or firm name associated with the input address. Optional.
mainAddress String Single Line Input—If no other address field is populated, then the mainAddress entry will be treated as a single line input. Single line input can consist of multiple input address fields ; these should be entered in the typical address order for the country. For more details, refer to the section "Single Line Input" below.

Street Address—If the post address components (city, postalCode, etc.) are provided separately or in the lastLine field, then the contents of mainAddress will be treated as the street address part and can include company name, house number, building names and street names. Optional.

Street Intersection Input—To enter an intersection, specify the two street names separated by a double ampersand (&&).
lastLine String The last line of the address. Optional. For example:

56 Namata Road
One Tree Hill
Auckland 2001
areaName1 String Specifies the region. A region is an administrative division of the country. Optional.
areaName2 String Not used.
areaName3 String Specifies the city or town. Optional.
areaName4 String Specifies the suburb. Optional.
postalCode String The four-digit postal code. The first digit represents the geographic region. The second and third digits represent the postal sort area. The last digit represents a specific urban area, rural delivery or PO box lobby. Optional.
country String The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For New Zealand, the country code is NZL. Required for forward geocoding.

Address Guidelines for New Zealand

Follow these suggestions to ensure that your input address data is in the best format possible for optimum matching and geocoding. For additional information on New Zealand addresses, see the New Zealand Post website: www.nzpost.co.nz.

  • Required fields—Addresses must contain either a city or a postal code.
  • Aliases for suburbs—The geocoder supports locally used suburb names in addition to the officially recognized suburb names. For example, Rosedale is an alias of the official suburb name of Hargest.
  • Thoroughfare types—Thoroughfare types and their common abbreviations are recognized and fully supported on input and output.
  • Common words and abbreviations—The geocoder recognizes common words, directionals, house number indicators, and abbreviations used in addresses and can geocode these addresses successfully.
  • Numbers, numeric equivalents, and ordinals—Numbered streets are mapped to the named equivalents. Ordinals are also recognized in input addresses.

Single Line Input

Instead of entering each address component in separate fields, you can enter the entire address in the mainAddress input field with the address elements ordered as follows:

[unit_info][address_number][street_info][areaName4][areaName3][postal_code]

Where:
  • [unit_info] is the unit type and/or value. Optional.
  • [address_number] is optional.
  • [street_info] consists of the street name, street type and any pre- or post-directional information (for example, East, West, etc.).
  • [areaName4] is the suburb.
  • [areaName3] is the city.
  • [postal_code] is the 4-digit postal code.
  • Either [areaName3] or [postal_code] is required.

For best results, put a comma between the street information and the last address line information.

Custom Options

The following table lists the option that is unique for New Zealand. This custom field is applicable to the Geocoding operation and is an optional input parameter. For the standard set of options available to all countries and their definitions, see the chapters covering Geocode Service and Reverse Geocode Service.

Option Name Description
ReturnOriginalCoordinates When set to true, returns the ORIGINAL_LONGITUDE and ORIGINAL_LATITUDE values in the candidate's custom output fields.

Output Fields

The following table lists the address fields returned for a candidate located in New Zealand.

Note: The placeName, addressNumber, unitType and unitValue field values are only returned when a geocoding dataset that supports street address interpolation is installed.
Field Name Description
mainAddressLine The street address which may include company name, house number, building names and street names.
addressLastLine The last line of the address.
placeName The building name, place name, Point of Interest (POI), company or firm name associated with the address.
areaName1 The region.
areaName2 Not used.
areaName3 The city or town.
areaName4 The suburb.
postCode1 The 4-digit postal code.
postCode2 Not used.
country The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For New Zealand, the country code is NZL.
addressNumber The address number.
streetName The street or road name.
unitType The unit type such as APT, STE, etc.
unitValue The unit value/number, such as "3B".
customFields The following table lists the custom fields for New Zealand.

Custom Output Fields

The following table lists the output fields that are unique for New Zealand. Unless otherwise noted, these fields can be returned for both forward and reverse geocoding.

Name Description
ALIASED_SUBURB New Zealand Aliased suburb. An alternative to the officially-recognized suburb name.
KEY_UFI New Zealand UFI. The Unique Identifier (UFI) identifies the street segment that the geocoded address belongs to. UFIs are up to 7-digit numbers, assigned by New Zealand Post, that uniquely identify each postal delivery point. The UFI is always returned if available, but you cannot use the UFI for input.
NZL_MESHBLOCK_ID New Zealand Meshblock identifier. A Meshblock is the smallest geographic unit for which statistical data is collected by Statistics New Zealand. Meshblocks vary in size from part of a city block to large areas of rural land.
ORIGINAL_LATITUDE The original latitude value.
ORIGINAL_LONGITUDE The original longitude value.