New Zealand - part 2..........
FACTOIDS: • Invercargill is New Zealand’s Southern most city and came into the spotlight as a location for ‘The world’s Fastest Indian’-the film abut Kiwi motorcycle legend Burt Munro. Invercargill has a strong Scottish Heritage and enjoys a reputation for its hospitality. • On his first trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1962, Burt Munro achieved a speed of 179 mph ... and in 1967 Burt claimed the World Record Class S-A 1000cc with an average speed of 183.586 mph (one way 190.07 mph) , and this record still stands to this day! Burt’s achievements are the most remarkable that motorcycling has ever seen and he has created a legend...... • The Southland Museum in Invercargill is designed in a very distinctive pyramid shape. Among other interesting displays, it is home to the largest public display of live Tuatara in the world. Henry, at over 100 years old, is the oldest! • Queens Park is without doubt the grandest of all the Invercargill Parks. It covers 81 hectares (200 acres) and is now the jewel in the crown of the city’s reserves and is widely acclaimed throughout New Zealand. The aviaries were opened in 1998 with generous funding from the Community Trust of Southland. Here members of the public are able to view exotic and native bird species –close up. The park is also home to the rarest waterfowl in the world-the Campbell Island Teal. • BLUFF – Where the journey begins.....is the oldest European town in New Zealand. The Stirling Point International Signpost is at the beginning of State Highway One – at the Lands End of Bluff. • Dunedin was the winner of New Zealand’s most beautiful City Award in 2008. • Dunedin is New Zealand’s largest city- by area and is widely regarded as the best preserved Victorian and Edwardian heritage city in the southern hemisphere. • Dunedin Railway Station is said to be the most photographed building in New Zealand. • Almost one fifth of Dunedin’s population of 123,000 are students. • Internationally acclaimed environmentalist David Bellamy has described the Otago Peninsula (just by Dunedin) as the ‘finest example of eco-tourism in the world’. • Maori legend says that the Moeraki boulders are food baskets that were washed ashore from the wreck of the ancestors’ canoe that made its epic voyage to New Zealand from Hawaiiki. • The sky above the Mackenzie High Country of New Zealand is renowned for its clarity and beauty. • The Church of the Good Shepherd was built in 1935 to the ‘Glory of God’, as a memorial to the pioneers of the Mackenzie Country. • Close to the Church of the Good Shepherd there is a bronze statue of the sheepdog, a tribute to the hardy dogs ‘ without the help of which the grazing of this mountain country would be impossible’. • Lake Tekapo is still fed today from the remnants of ice age glaciers descending from the South Island’s Southern Alps. It is now the start of a massive hydro scheme which carries the water through an extensive system of upland canals and lakes generating electricity many times over on its journey to the Pacific Ocean hundreds of kilometres away. The region is the hydro powerhouse of New Zealand. • Named after James Mackenzie, a 19th century sheep rustler –Mackenzie Country lies in the shadow of Aoraki/Mt Cook and the giants of the Southern Alps. The Mackenzie country is staggering in its scale and grandeur. James Mackenzie and his dog are said to have stolen a mob of sheep from a South Canterbury run-holder in 1855 and driven them over the mountains to the Mackenzie Basin. He was the first known white man to enter the basin. When he was finally caught, other settlers realised the potential of the land and followed in his footsteps. His exploits in evading the authorities (and escaping arrest on a number of occasions!) led to his name being forever associated with the district. • Mount Cook and Mount Tasman are New Zealand’s highest peaks.
Saturday, 06 June 2009 09:07:02 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  New Zealand