The @tourism_nz account had some of its 88,500 followers fooled as many assumed it was Tourism New Zealand's official account.
But, despite having nothing to do with the organisation, Tourism New Zealand had been unsuccessful in convincing Instagram to remove it .
Tourism New Zealand has close to a million followers on its official Instagram account, @purenewzealand, which also has a badge verifying it is run by the organisation.
Some of the images posted on the @tourism_nz account had been met with criticism and prompted users to "unfollow" the page.
Instagrammer @goldenbayhideaway said: "Boring, or are we promoting sex-tourism now? @tourism_nz? Unfollowing".
Another user, @nando_azevedo, questioned how "objectification" was being used to "promote tourism in NZ".
"Whereabouts is this? Oh wait, it's a photo of an ass, not New Zealand. Who's the ass who keeps allowing pictures of asses on a page about New Zealand? All humans have asses not just Kiwis," user @nickielake wrote.
Rebecca Ingram, general manager New Zealand and government relations at Tourism New Zealand, told the Weekend Herald the organisation contacted Instagram last February to have the @tourism_nz account removed but Instagram said it did not claim to be an official account so had not broken the rules.
"We believed it was misrepresenting itself as Tourism New Zealand. Unfortunately, Instagram were not able to remove the account as it was not in breach of their terms of use.
"We then contacted Instagram about a complaint we received from a member of the public in April this year who was concerned about questionable content (half-naked people) posted on the page. This person was under the impression the account was an official Tourism New Zealand account," said Ingram.
She said photos of tourists sitting on the road and scantily clad women had nothing to do with New Zealand's clean and green image.
Photos of tourists posing in the middle of the road also riled the New Zealand police, who said it was dangerous and illegal.
In a statement, a police spokesperson said it was an offence for pedestrians to loiter on a public road.
"Police urge pedestrians to keep themselves and others safe by not lingering on the road. A holiday snap is not worth your life".
An Instagram spokesperson said its community guidelines clearly defined what content and accounts were not allowed and @tourism_nz did not breach any of them.
"In this instance, we've reviewed the account and confirmed that it does not violate our policies and does not make any claim to be the verified or official tourism account of New Zealand."
Community guidelines also did not allow nudity, the company said.
"This includes photos, videos, and some digitally–created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks.
"We do not make judgments on images of women (or men) wearing swimwear as 'inappropriate' or 'questionable'. We will take action on any content that violates our community guidelines around nudity by showing sexual intercourse, genitals and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks - which the content on this account does not."
Asked about the images of people sitting on roads, the social media giant said it did not allow "content that contains serious threats of harm to the public and personal safety".
The person behind the @tourism_nz Instagram account could not be reached for comment.
