Sometimes known s "New Zild", New Zealand English (NZE) is most similar to English in Southern England and Australia. It is also influenced by Irish English, Scottish English and Maori.
New Zealand spelling is similar to British (UK) English - for instance colour, centre, grey, dialogue, plough and travelled.
There are also some words and phrases that are uniquely New Zealand such as "jandals" and "tramping". Adding to these are a handful of Maori (Te Reo) words and phrases which are in common use. I have included a brief glossary.
But it is NZ pronunciation that is most associated with New Zild. Some people have commented that NZers don't open their mouths when they speak. The effect is the vowel sounds have drifted (how far depends on whether the speaker has a broad, general or cultivated NZ accent). In the extremes the short 'i' sounds like a short 'u' and the short 'a' sounds like a short 'e'.
Among those with a broad accent many diphthongs are stretched out. While for most NZers other diphthongs have merged. For example there is no difference in NZE between "bear" and "beer" or "here", "hear" or "hair". Similarly l's have disappeared and r's are often dropped - especially at the end of words. For example, "milk" becomes "muk" and "butter" becomes bu-tah.
And finally there is the rising inflection at the end of a sentence?
