🇳🇿 New Zealand geography game

Guess the distance between two towns, grow the pole, drop it and land its tip on the target. A free daily distance game in New Zealand.

• 64 towns
• Throws of 33 to 1,030 km
• 5 new throws every day
• Free, no sign-up

New here? New Zealand becomes your home country, with its own daily and leaderboard. Already playing somewhere else? The button opens New Zealand for practice, and you can change your home country once a week.

What is PoleGuesser?

PoleGuesser is a geography game about distances. You stand in one of 64 towns and cities in New Zealand, a target town is named, and you grow a red-and-white striped surveyor's pole until it is as long as you think the distance is. Then you drop it: the pole tips over towards the target, and the closer its gold tip lands, the more points you score.

Every day at midnight Swiss time there is a new Daily Pole in New Zealand: the same 5 throws for everyone playing in New Zealand, with a streak, a spoiler-free share text and a daily leaderboard. Practice is unlimited.

How it works

1. Find the target. You stand in one town and a target town is named. In Visible mode it is marked on the map; in Blind mode you only have your geography.
2. Grow the pole. Hold Grow (or the space bar) until the pole is as long as the distance. Every band has the same length, so you can count them.
3. Drop it. The pole tips over towards the target. The closer its gold tip lands, the more points: up to 5,000 per throw.

All the details are in the guide to playing PoleGuesser.

Example throws in New Zealand

Real distances between towns in the game, as the crow flies (great-circle distance), measured the same way the game measures them.

Throw distances in New Zealand

Throws are scaled to the size of the country. In New Zealand they go from 33 km to 1,030 km, and every game mixes all three kinds:

For scale: the two towns farthest apart in the game, Invercargill and Taipa, are 1,339 km apart.

Towns in the game include Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, Dunedin, Tauranga, Palmerston North, Rotorua, Hastings, Nelson, Whangarei, New Plymouth and 52 more.

New Zealand: questions and answers

Is PoleGuesser free?

Yes. Your home country's daily, the leaderboards, friends groups, challenges and practice in every country are free, with no ads and no tracking cookies. PoleGuesser Plus (coming soon) will be an optional one-time purchase for extras: the archive of past dailies, a World Tour through today's daily in all 27 countries, pole skins and a supporter badge.

How is the score computed?

Each throw gives up to 5,000 points, based on how far off you are relative to the distance: 10% off is about 3,000 points, 25% off about 1,400. So a short throw counts as much as a long one. A daily has 5 throws, so the best possible total is 25,000. In Golf scoring (practice) every kilometre you miss by is a stroke.

When is the new New Zealand daily?

Every day at midnight Swiss time (Central European Time), the same moment in every country. Everyone playing in New Zealand gets the same 5 throws that day, and you get one attempt. Your progress is saved after every throw, so you can leave and come back.

Do I need an account?

No. You can play right away. To appear on the leaderboard you only pick a nickname. If you want to keep your progress on all your devices, you can sign in with Google, but you never have to.

Can I play with friends?

Yes. Make a friends group, share the invite link, and the daily leaderboard gets a tab with just your group. After a practice game you can also send a challenge link: your friend plays the same 5 throws and tries to beat your score.

Ready to throw?

More countries

• 🇨🇭 Switzerland
• 🇦🇷 Argentina
• 🇦🇺 Australia
• 🇦🇹 Austria
• 🇧🇪 Belgium
• 🇧🇷 Brazil
• 🇨🇦 Canada
• 🇨🇿 Czechia
• 🇩🇰 Denmark
• 🇫🇮 Finland
• 🇫🇷 France
• 🇩🇪 Germany
• 🇮🇳 India
• 🇮🇪 Ireland
• 🇮🇹 Italy
• 🇯🇵 Japan
• 🇲🇽 Mexico
• 🇳🇱 Netherlands
• 🇳🇴 Norway
• 🇵🇱 Poland
• 🇵🇹 Portugal
• 🇿🇦 South Africa
• 🇪🇸 Spain
• 🇸🇪 Sweden
• 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
• 🇺🇸 United States