[1][2] The new design released in October 2015 was named "Banknote of the Year" by the International Bank Note Society for 2015.

[4] All the notes of this series had Queen Elizabeth II on the front, and a watermark of Captain James Cook.

[4] The explorer Sir Edmund Hillary was depicted on the front of the five-dollar note, with Aoraki / Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand at 12,316 feet (3,754 m), shown on the left hand side.

One of the Ferguson tractors driven by Hillary to the pole could be seen in the lower left corner, next to the fern motif.

[4] The design also featured a tukutuku pattern known as kaokao that is found at the Tane-Nui-A-Rangi meeting house at Waipapa Marae at the University of Auckland.

The change increased the life of the banknotes and also allowed new and improved security features to prevent counterfeiting.

The note was brighter in colour and featured the Māori translation of Reserve Bank (Te Putea Matua), and "New Zealand, Aotearoa" on the back.

[4] One notable change in relation to the five-dollar note design was that Hillary's tractor was removed, in order to allow room for security features.

The Series 6 security features include that, when the note is shown to the light, a shadow image of Elizabeth II is displayed.

There is an image of a fern located above the see-through window, and the two sides should match perfectly when held up to the light.