New Zealand - Christchurch and onwards.....
FACTOIDS: • Christchurch is known as ‘The Garden City’ and is a place where Old English elegance and contemporary New Zealand living are entwined. • Christchurch is home to a huge complex built for the administration of the New Zealand, US and Italian Antarctic programmes • In January 1957, the first building of the Scott Base was built. This was the first base built by New Zealand in Antarctica and the New Zealand flag was raised there. • Antarctic Fish which live under the ice (in places such as McMurdo Sound), have very few blood cells so that the blood is very thick and flows better in the cold. The ‘Ice Fish’ is the only known vertebrate to have NO red blood cells. • An Antarctic fish’s body temperature is the same as the water temperature minus 1.9 degrees C. Normally blood freezes at minus 1.1 degrees C, but Antarctic fish have an antifreeze chemical called glycoprotein in their blood. Their kidneys have also been adapted to conserve the antifreeze. • The United Kingdom was one of the twelve nations that initialled the Antarctic Treaty in December 1959. Today, the UK is a Consultative Party to the Treaty with 3 year –round research stations in Antarctica. • The Colossal squid at Te Papa is 4.2 metres long and weighs nearly half a tonne! • For Maori, the marae is a focal point for all groups and their kinship. Here, they can meet to discuss and debate, to celebrate, to welcome the living, and to farewell those who have passed on. There are more than one thousand such places throughout New Zealand. • The Boar War was 1899-1902. It was to be New Zealand’s first war under the British Empire. • 103,000 Kiwis went to the 1st world war. 18,500 died and 50,000 people were injured..... • New Zealand has approximately 70 million Opossums (none of which we have witnessed alive) and it is said that they eat through a staggering 21,000 tonnes of foliage each night. This is creating an ecological nightmare for New Zealand and there are many control operations in progress throughout the country. • Gisborne is the first city in the world to see the sun rise each day. The Maori name for the district is Tairawhiti –which means “The coast upon which the sun shines across the water”. • Gisborne is the first European landing place in New Zealand -Captain Cook sailed into what is now known as Poverty Bay in 1769. • Gisborne also has an infamous lookout at Cook’s Plaza , with a ‘Captain Cook’ statue –only the man in question does not have a British Uniform –nor does he resemble Cook in any way........As the plaque embassasingly reads today “Who is he? – We have no idea! .........” • The Large Region East and North East of Wellington is known as the Wairarapa, named after Lake Wairarapa (shimmering waters), a shallow but vast 8000 hectare lake. This region is a sheep-raising district and it boasts 3 million sheep within a 16 kilometre radius of Masterton (the region’s main town).
Monday, 22 June 2009 10:01:38 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  New Zealand