.nz

Overview

• .nz is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for New Zealand.
• It is administered by InternetNZ with oversight and dispute resolution handled by its subsidiary, the Domain Name Commission Limited (DNCL).
• Intended for entities connected with New Zealand and widely used within the country.
• Registry size: the infobox lists 755,569 registered .nz domains (dateregistereddomains: July 2025).

History

• Introduced: 19 January 1987.
• Early administration: initially maintained informally; the University of Waikato was the first formally recognised administrative organisation.
• InternetNZ assumed responsibility in 1995.
• Registry/Registrar changes:
  • Domainz was the former registry operator and was a subsidiary of InternetNZ; concerns over vertical integration led to structural changes.
  • Domainz was sold to Melbourne IT in August 2003.
• Domain Name Commission Limited (DNCL): formed 1 April 2008 as a subsidiary of InternetNZ (transitioned from the Office of the Domain Name Commissioner).
• Registry software and protocol:
  • The Shared Registry System (SRS) was developed in 2002 and served until November 2022; its source code was released under GPL in January 2004.
  • SRS supported EPP from 2010.
  • InternetNZ announced replacement of SRS in September 2019; the transition to a closed-source commercial registry product provided by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) was completed on 1 November 2022, replacing the public WHOIS service and registrar APIs.
• Internationalised domain support:
  • On 22 July 2010 DNCL announced availability of macron vowels (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū) to allow Māori words to be correctly represented in domain names.
• Second-level domain policy changes:
  • In October 2013 InternetNZ decided to allow registrations directly at the second level (e.g., example.nz).
  • A sunrise period ran from 30 September 2014 to 30 March 2015; from 30 March 2015 second-level .nz registrations were available to everyone.

Usage and Audience

• Intended use: entities connected with New Zealand.
• Actual use: popular within New Zealand for businesses, organisations, educational institutions, government, iwi and Māori groups, and individuals.
• Common second-level domains and typical audiences:
  • Unmoderated:
    • .nz — general use
    • .ac.nz — tertiary education and related organisations
    • .co.nz — commercial organisations
    • .gen.nz — general purpose (individuals and other organisations)
    • .geek.nz — for self-identified geeks and technical communities
    • .kiwi.nz — for people or organisations associating with being 'Kiwi'
    • .maori.nz — Māori people, groups and organisations
    • .net.nz — organisations and service providers related to the NZ Internet
    • .org.nz — not-for-profit organisations
    • .school.nz — primary, secondary and pre-schools and related organisations
  • Moderated (eligibility checked before registration):
    • .cri.nz — Crown Research Institutes
    • .govt.nz — national, regional and local government organisations (registrations controlled by DNS.govt.nz)
    • .health.nz — health organisations
    • .iwi.nz — traditional Māori iwi, hapū or related groups
    • .mil.nz — New Zealand Defence Force
    • .parliament.nz — parliamentary agencies, offices of parliament, political parties and elected members

Registration Rules

• Eligibility:
  • A person can apply to register a .nz domain if they are an identifiable individual over the age of 18 or a lawfully constituted entity.
  • Applicants must warrant they are entitled to register the name, that registration will not infringe others' rights, and that their registration will be governed by New Zealand law.
• Structure and periods:
  • Names may be registered directly at the second level (example.nz) or at the third level within specified second-level categories (example.co.nz, example.org.nz, etc.).
  • Some second-level domains are moderated and require eligibility checks; others are unmoderated and open.
• Characters and format:
  • Allowed characters: lowercase letters (a–z), digits (0–9), and the hyphen (-).
  • Internationalised characters: vowel letters with macrons (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū) are permitted.
  • A domain name must not be longer than 63 characters.
  • A hyphen must not be used as the third or fourth character unless the name is an IDN.
  • A domain must not end in certain suffixes (and their IDN versions) that might mislead or confuse, such as ".gov.nz", ".government.nz", ".com.nz", ".edu.nz", ".nic.nz".

Notable Cases or Examples

• Domainz sale: the former registry operator Domainz was sold to Melbourne IT in August 2003.
• Registry platform migration: the long-running Shared Registry System (SRS) was replaced by a commercial registry product from CIRA, with the transition completed on 1 November 2022.
• Māori language support: macron vowels were introduced (announced 22 July 2010) to allow accurate representation of Māori words.
• Second-level namespace expansion: approval and launch of new second-level domains such as .geek.nz (approved 5 July 2003) and .kiwi.nz (approved 24 August 2012; available 11 September 2012), and the broader decision in 2013 to allow registrations directly at the second level (launched with a sunrise period in 2014–2015).

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       NZ

organisation: InternetNZ
address:      Level 13
address:      18 Willis Street
address:      Wellington Central
address:      Wellington 6011
address:      New Zealand

contact:      administrative
name:         Tumuwhanake | GM Customer and Product
organisation: InternetNZ
address:      Level 13
address:      18 Willis Street
address:      Wellington Central
address:      Wellington 6011
address:      New Zealand
phone:        +64 21 417 903
e-mail:       iana@internetnz.net.nz

contact:      technical
name:         .NZ Operations Manager
organisation: InternetNZ
address:      Level 13
address:      18 Willis Street
address:      Wellington Central
address:      Wellington 6011
address:      New Zealand
phone:        +64 21 783 399
e-mail:       ianatech@internetnz.net.nz

nserver:      NS1.DNS.NET.NZ 2001:dce:2000:2:0:0:0:130 202.46.190.130
nserver:      NS2.DNS.NET.NZ 2001:dce:7000:2:0:0:0:130 202.46.187.130
nserver:      NS3.DNS.NET.NZ 2001:dce:d453:0:0:0:0:53 202.46.188.130
nserver:      NS4.DNS.NET.NZ 2001:dce:d454:0:0:0:0:53 202.46.189.130
nserver:      NS5.DNS.NET.NZ 185.159.197.130 2620:10a:80aa:0:0:0:0:130
nserver:      NS6.DNS.NET.NZ 185.159.198.130 2620:10a:80ab:0:0:0:0:130
nserver:      NS7.DNS.NET.NZ 194.146.106.54 2001:67c:1010:13:0:0:0:53
ds-rdata:     39170 8 2 adb8214ccf90d5a927e27197cb6dae06682358ab25735807c3cd7cd95baa11f7
ds-rdata:     61067 8 2 a58b0396a16fd169b9e3467b5308879b23227adc7c8a5fbab2e830b25503377a

whois:        whois.irs.net.nz

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.dnc.org.nz/

created:      1987-01-19
changed:      2025-08-11
source:       IANA