Why is New Zealand not part of the continent of Australia?
The Tasman sea was created around 60-80 MILLION years ago, so New Zealand has been set adrift for rather a long time and is why there are lots of unique things here. The reason being that NZ lies between two tectonic plates (Pacific and Indo-Australian) and there is movement of the plates in different directions, with an increase in distance between NZ and Australia. New Zealand is MAINLY made up of sediment from Australian rivers….so NZ is made up of the dregs of Australia (a lot of countries are made up of igneous and metamorphic rock, but NZ is mainly made up of sedimentary rock), so in reality NZ was not really a major part (in the same way Antarctica, Australia etc were)of Gondwana, although it was there. There is actually a large area that technically makes up NZ that is under water ( the greater New Zealand land mass…like a plateau) and this at various times has been above ground ( during ices ages, uplift and then has been subsequently worn down or drowned by increased sea
