The complexity of modern power systems often makes it impractical to model it in its entirety for electromagnetic transient studies. Therefore areas outside the immediate area of interest must be represented by some form of Frequency Dependent Network Equivalent (FDNE). The advantage of using z-domain fitting is that it can be directly implemented in a digital simulation program without any loss of accuracy. Fitting in the s-domain always requires "discretizing" a continuous system and the inherent approximations. This paper presents z-domain rational function formulation and demonstrates the use of it for the assessment of the transient response of the Lower South Island of New Zealand. Moreover by using a well publicized test system and providing complete information on the developed FDNE coefficients other researchers easily benchmark their work against this.