Predicting tides, making maps, managing red zone properties: it's all in a day's work for government department Land Information New Zealand.
Now it has put together a list of some of the quirkier Kiwi facts it has come across in doing its jobs.
1. NZ is moving at about the same speed as your fingernails grow
Because the country lies across the boundary of two tectonic plates, it's always moving in two different directions and twisting too.
LINZ geodesy expert Graeme Blick said this movement averaged about 5cm to 6cm a year - which is about how fast your fingernails grow.
2. George St is the most common street name in New Zealand
LINZ keeps the official database of street addresses, which includes a whopping 74 George streets.
A good reason to make sure you put the postcode on any letters you send this year.
3. There are at least 8683 islands around our coastline
LINZ's topographic maps show this many islands around the coastlines of the North, South, Stewart and the Chathams Islands, and other coastal islands.
Of these 166 are the size of Wellington's Matiu/Somes Island (250,000m2) or larger.
If this number sounds high, bear in mind that this doesn't even count the islands in lakes or other inland bodies of water nor islands like the Snares and Kermadecs.
4. Most of New Zealand's place names are not official
Just because a place has a name doesn't mean it's official.
Official place names are those that have been through the New Zealand Geographic Board.
They run a process to make sure that place names follow a consistent and standardised approach, taking into account original Maori place names, history, spelling, and other factors in deciding on an official place name.
Place names that are commonly used and shown in publications such as maps and charts, and which haven't been made official, are known as ``recorded'' names and include many of our major towns and cities such as Taupo, Timaru, New Plymouth, Greymouth, Whangarei, Wellington and many more.
There are currently nearly 16,000 official place names and about 33,000 recorded place names.
Check out the board's gazetteer, the board's record of all New Zealand's place names.
5. Pine trees and gold fish bowl weed are two of New Zealand's biggest plant pests
Pine trees play an important part of our economy, but when they spread to areas where they are unwanted, they're known as wilding pines and become an invasive pest.
Six percent of New Zealand is now choked by these wilding pines, and LINZ is part of a national wildings management programme for getting rid of them.
Lagarosiphon, or oxygen weed, is another import that has inflicted our waterways.
It was brought here in the 1950s to be used in gold fish bowls, but has since found its way into many lakes and rivers and grows like, well, a weed.
LINZ is managing lagarosiphon, and other invasive aquatic weeds in several lakes including Lake Wanaka and Lake Dunstan.
