muller.enterprises.co.nz measures distances

We live down under.
At the end of the World.
Where penguins roam and special whales get hunted.
Where the winds can chill everything down to and below -40 degree Celsius. 
Where the Ice is and central Antarctica is been buried under yet more ice. 

 Where - according to a rumour in Europe - (which btw is completely untrue) we hang on the edge of the world by our fingernails before we fall into the abyss.
Where nothing ever happens. 
Were even the stars look different to anything most northerners know.
We know that D stands for down under  :D
We know.
We know we live down under.

We know how far it is to travel to get anywhere.

We know our next nearest neighbour is some 2000km across the Tasman sea. Actually that may not be strictly true - if you go from Cape Reinga northwards then New Caledonia would be the closest neighbouring Nation.  Fiji and Tonga may be next. When you google distances the following appear
Wellington (NZ to --)

• Sydney (Australia) 2224km
• Tonga 2381 km
• New Caledonia 2388 km
• Fiji 2594 km
• Antarctica 4996 KM - although to be fair - that pointed in the middle of it - I suspect the south pole
• Brisbane (Australia) 2549 km
• Melbourne (Australia) 2581 km

Interestingly - as an aside - if you go from Invercargill to Cape Reinga - that is a journey of 2060km.
If you go eastwards for a loooooooooong time - eventually you may hit Chile and if you go in a east/norht-ish's direction and straight past the pacific islands
e v e n t u a l l y 
you may hit Los Angeles.

So I took Sydney as our nearest neighbour and reference point.  I took a compass and measured the distance from Christchurch to Sydney and then plonked that into Vienna and measured equall distance by comparison and ended up drawing a circle.  Wohhhhhaaaaaa  - you just might make Madrid, miss landfall in most of northern Africa / go right past Cairo / miss all of Ukraine and just miss Moscow and cut right through the middle of Scandinavia and miss all of UK Ireland  BEFORE you cover the same equall distance as going from Christchurch to Sydney. In other words - our nearest neighbourly state and/or major city is further away then almost any place within 100% of Europe if you are were leaving from Vienna. 
Fudge
double fudge

So for us Kiwis - if we want to go ACROSS the border to well really - ANYWHERE in the world - we have to cover huge distances.
That is why some folks here never have a passport as they simply have no intention of doing a cross border raid.
Unlike Europe (ok before the Euro came into place) where a cross border raid was a lot easier.  Especially if you lived near the border which many did and do (like me - I could WALK to and across it from where I used to live).

So please - ponder this: how many European countries you can travel through BEFORE you hit Sydney ( as landfall in equal distance) if you start from Vienna - or Paris - or London - or Berlin??  Just mind-boggling.

Go further - for example if you want to go from New Zealand to Singapore ( - our next nearest western/rich-type major place of importance - with all due respect to the "other" nations in between)  -  it is a equivalent distance as Vienna to well  Pretoria in South Africa / or Miami in USA.
Huge distances. 
Long time travelling.
A looooong way away
A very very long way away
Not exactly a easy cross-border-raid place to live in.

Which - leads us to say that when us Kiwis do travel - we make the most of it.
Unless of course you plan to "chill out" in the Pacific Islands.
Travel anywhere else to - even Australia - and we try and make the most of it - to not do so, would be a waste of time and money spent in getting there.
We have a repudiation of being explorers.
Of inquisitive travellers. 
Why go to Naples and stay there for 4 weeks when you can also see Venice and Vienna and Paris and London and the Alps and Budapest and Stockholm and Berlin and everything else in-between and more.  And more - ok - assuming you can afford it, especially if doing a trip to Europe

Even here in New Zealand - remember the total length is 2060km from north to south?? That's almost the same distance as to Sydney.
Almost.
People make the most of it when going north - or south.  I recently met a couple from Tauranga (North Island) and they spent 3 weeks touring the South Island's major "tourist" places.

But you get my drift. Funnily enough - if you carefully hunt online you can get cheaper air-plane tickets to Australia then regular ticket's to say Christchurch to Auckland.  ^^

Hmmmm - better start saving now for our next trip to Europe.
Mamabear is starting to think of a wish-list of places and people and things to see and do . . . . 

As an aside - most of us do see us on 'top of the world' and the sooner everyone gets "with it" - urm - the better it will be :D
hmmm doesn't change the distances though.
Fudge



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