Photo of the Day 368

Islands, Wellington, New Zealand, 2002

Photograph by Frans Lanting

New Zealand is one of the world's richest and most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life. Today more than a third of the country's land, including offshore islands, is protected as parks and reserves.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Hotspots: New Zealand," October 2002, National Geographic magazine)