New Zealand is not on the Australian continental landmass. It is commonly grouped with Australia in the broader region of Oceania, which includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. In scientific and geographic discussions, many scholars recognize Zealandia as a largely submerged continental crust that includes New Zealand and New Caledonia as its above-water remnants. This makes New Zealand part of a broader continental context (Oceania) rather than the Australian continent proper, and Zealandia is often cited as a distinct, mostly submerged continent in modern geoscience discussions.
