Silver fern on ePassport released today

New Zealand travellers will soon be carrying a stylish new ePassport with the iconic silver fern at borders around the world.

Internal Affairs Minister Nathan Guy announced the release of the new ePassport from today to enhance security and better reflect New Zealand's identity.

"The new security features will help to future-proof our passport against fraudsters and maintain visa-free entry for New Zealanders into more than 50 countries," said Mr Guy.

"The New Zealand passport has an outstanding reputation around the world and these changes will further enhance that. As a country we need to take advantage of the latest advances in technology to maintain international confidence in our passport."

With English and Te Reo Maori throughout, the new ePassport has a navigation theme with artwork of specific locations in the country. It contains images of travel tools used by explorers in the past and present, and the journey of early migrants from north to south.

Each page is different, making the new ePassport difficult to counterfeit.

The artwork was chosen by a group of New Zealand artists as well as officials in government. A design firm was responsible for developing the art. Over the next few months, the Department of Internal Affairs will be slowly introducing the new ePassport, while using up its existing stock of books.

It has been tested with international border agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security in the United States.

New Zealand's ePassports, introduced in November 2005, have an embedded microchip holding the holder's biometric information and digitised photograph, enhancing security and making it difficult to counterfeit.

The new ePassport books and machines will cost just under $100 million over five years.

The price for a new passport will remain unchanged at $150 for adult standard service.

- NZPA