New Zealand and Australia are really far apart

I think I had the general impression that New Zealand basically hugged the southeastern coast of Australia, but in fact the Kiwis are quite a bit further away from Australia than I thought. The closest points between New Zealand and Tasmania are almost 1,500 km apart (and mainland Australia is even further away).

This is about the same as the straight line distance between Toronto and Winnipeg (for Canadians), Atlanta and Boston (for Americans), or London and Warsaw (for Europeans).

The two closest major cities (i.e., cities everyone would know) are even further apart: Auckland to Sydney is about 2,150 km! This is like Toronto to St. John’s, Newfoundland, Los Angeles to Kansas City, or Rome to Helsinki.

Map by DI2000 (CC BY-SA 4.0).