I know the last trivia post I did was only half finished, but I wanted to mix it up a bit. I’ll get back to the history of New Zealand a bit later. I thought since I’ve just arrived in the country, the appropriate trivia topic would be geography. The little town where I’ll be living is in a pretty flat area as most of the country is not flat, so it will be pretty interesting to go and travel around to see the less flat areas when I get a chance.
- New Zealand was the last major landmass to be populated (with the exception of the polar regions).
- New Zealand is 1600 kilometres north to south with an area of 268,000 sq km (103,483 sq mi). It comprises two major islands: the North Island (115,000 sq km) and the South Island (151,000 sq km), and a number of small islands.
- This country is the size of Colorado or the UK and would fit into the Caspian or Baltic Seas.
- New Zealand has 6000 kilometers (3728 mi) of coast line and nowhere is more than 120km (175 mi) from the coast.
- New Zealand is actually some 1,609 km (1000 miles) from Australia.
- In the US, you can take several roads to get out of just about any town, no matter how small. Here, every place has basically two ways to go if you are trying to get to the next city.
- Population: 4,115,771
- The city of New York has twice as many people as the whole of NZ.
- Total area: 268,680 sq km (103,737 sq mi)
- Frying Pan Lake, in the north island, is the world’s largest hot water spring.
Frying Pan Lake
- Curio Bay in Southland has one of the world’s largest petrified forests.
Curio Bay Petrified Forest partially submerged in Pacific
- Lake Taupo, the big lake in the middle of the North Island, is the worlds largest volcanic crater.
Lake Taupo
- The only place in the world where two different sea levels can be seen at the same time is at French Pass, on the northern side of the south island.
French Pass
- Each year New Zealand has about 100 to 150 quakes that are big enough to be felt.
- If you live in Gisborne, you are living in the first city to see the light of a new day.
Gisborne first to see dawn
LIKE! Love the posts, Katherine! Keep ‘em coming!
Katherine, We miss you so much! I LOVED reading all about teh geography. The pictures you posted are incredible. We are so proud of you, I hope the transition is going well. Please e-mail me with details of how you are doing, and keep those posts coming! Love you from the Zorn Zoo!
So glad you thought it was interesting. On my flight over the country, I actually saw Lake Taupo! It was pretty cool to see from the air.
Yes Keep them coming! You are going to have SO much fun exploring this place.. It seems like heaven on earth.
I will try! I think I’ll try to do one a week for a while. Next week I’ll be going on a camping trip to the beach with the year 9 class. It should be fun. I’ll try to post some pictures from there when I get back.