Most importantly, the new notes will continue to be the same sizes as the current ones – meaning visually impaired people can continue to use size to differentiate the denominations. In addition, the note value is shown in larger print and there is greater colour contrast between notes. New Zealand’s Māori culture is also better represented on our new notes.
In particular, they incorporate more te reo Māori – notably Aotearoa, the Māori name for New Zealand, and Te Pūtea Matua, the Māori name for the Reserve Bank. As with the current notes, the names of the native birds on the reverse of the notes (hoiho, whio, kārearea, kōkako and mohua) continue to be written in Māori.