New Zealand lizard name required.

Now I'm not sure of the "K" forget the above. Do you have an 8 letter word for any New Zealand lizard?

Do they have lizards? Sorry just speculating. I'm pretty sure they don't have snakes (good for them).

Tuatara.

I forgot. Reminds me of a small iguana.

Hi DonI

The name you are looking for is HATTERIA. Below is the reference:

ARTFL Project: Webster Dictionary, 1913
Check out our new site which features an updated interface for Webster's Dictionary, Roget's Thesaurus, the French-English Dictionary, and the French Verb Conjugator.
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Searching for: hatteria
Found 1 hit(s).
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Hatteria (Page: 674)
Hat*te"ri*a (?), n. [NL.] (Zoöl.) A New Zealand lizard, which, in anatomical character, differs widely from all other existing lizards. It is the only living representative of the order Rhynchocephala, of which many Mesozoic fossil species are known; -- called also Sphenodon, and Tuatera.
Regards Dutchy

I can't count either.

Thanks dutchy

Well at least the next time I am in NZ I know that among the roadkill (the dead possums on the roads are pitiful) might be lizards. Lizards with names of seven letters and lizards with names of eight letters.

But no snakes.

This has been instructive. Thank you.

Hi Goodfielder

A word of advice, don't go swimming in New Zealand......a SNAKE might get you!

Q. Are there any snakes in New Zealand?

A. Yes and no. New Zealand has no terrestrial (land) snakes either native or introduced. However due to New Zealand'sa sub tropical climate it is visited irregularly by two species of sea snake. The yellow-bellied sea snake, Plumis platurnus, (the most widely distributed of all sea snakes) is an infrequent visitor to our shores with more than 35 sightings around New Zealand shores since 1930. An even more unusual visitor is the banded sea krait, Laticauda coumarin. The banded sea krait is distributed from India and South-east Asia through New Guinea, Australia and the Pacific Islands. Both species of snakes are highly venomous but, due to their size, are highly unlikely to be able to penetrate human skin.

Thanks for the info Dutchy.

I've only ever visited NZ in winter so swimming definitely wasn't on the agenda.

I know as a rough rule of thumb that if (a) it's a snake and (b) it looks like it's at home in water then (c) it means big trouble.

Those big tiger snakes that like swimming down at Ewens Ponds in the SE near Mount Gambier - brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr - don't want to come across one of those.

Know the various sink holes well down Mt. Gambier way, never spotted a tiger snake, only red bellied black snakes.