- Alexander Aitken – mathematician / soldier
- Rewi Alley - friend of China
- Peter Arnett - TV journalist
- Jean Batten - Aviator
- Georgina Beyer - world's first transsexual MP
- Sir Peter Blake - champion yachtsman
- Possum Bourne - rally driver
- John Britten - engineer extraordinaire
- Jane Campion - film director
- Ian Brackenbury Channell - The Wizard of Christchurch and of New Zealand
- Helen Clark - New Zealand Prime Minister (1999 - )
- Don Clarke - rugby player
- Russell Crowe - actor (born in New Zealand, but moved to Australia at age 4)
- Scott Dixon - racing driver
- Ian Ferguson - kayaker
- Neil Finn - singer
- Tim Finn - singer
- Bernard, Lord Freyberg of Wellington - General, and Victoria Cross winner
- Harold Gillies - plastic surgeon
- Charles Goldie - artist
- Bill Hamilton - developed the modern jetboat
- Sir Edmund Hillary - mountaineer
- Denny Hulme - world champion racing driver
- Rachel Hunter - supermodel
- Peter Jackson - film director
- Vaughan Jones - mathematician (Field's medallist)
- "Cobber" Kain - RAF fighter ace (first pilot to win a DFC in WW II)
- Phil Keoghan - TV presenter (born in New Zealand)
- Lucy Lawless - actress (Xena Warrior Princess)
- Jonah Lomu - rugby player
- Jack Lovelock - athlete
- Len Lye - artist/film maker
- Katherine Mansfield - author
- Ngaio Marsh - author and theatrical director
- Don McKinnon - Secretary General of the Commonwealth
- Bruce McLaren - racing driver
- Colin Meads - rugby player
- Stan Meads - rugby player
- Sam Neill - actor
- Sir Keith Park- RAF sector commander during the Battle of Britain
- Richard Pearse - outstanding early aviator/inventor
- Ernest, Lord Rutherford of Nelson - scientist and winner of the Nobel Prize
- Michael Joseph Savage - politician
- Maurice Shadbolt - author
- Kate Sheppard - suffragist
- Jenny Shipley - Prime Minister 1997 - 1999 (NZ's first female prime minister)
- Peter Snell - athlete
- Dame Kiri Te Kanawa - opera singer
- Te Kooti - Māori leader
- Mark Todd - horseman
- Lloyd Alan Trigg - World War II pilot, (only person awarded the VC on recommendation of the enemy)
- Charles Upham - World War II soldier (only combat soldier to win the Victoria Cross twice)
- Nancy Wake - the most decorated servicewoman of World War II
- John Walker - athlete
Other Lists
