What do Auckland, New Zealand and Seville, Spain have in common? They are regarded as antipodes. An antipode is referring to two points on the opposite side of the globe from each other. If you were to drill straight through the earth from Auckland you would come out the other side right near Seville.
To carry this craziness a little further residents of New Zealand are sometimes called “antipodeans” because they live in one of the few places on earth where the antipodean point is on land. Most antipodean points are in the oceans mainly because so much of the earth’s surface, especially the southern hemisphere, is covered by water. So you’ll generally find land-to-land antipodes between New Zealand and Spain and then between China and Chile/Argentina. If you can’t get enough of this subject then you’ll enjoy visiting here.
One of those odd little factoids about this place we’re going in a few days. Here’s something else that’s marvelous:
“God Defend New Zealand” is the national anthem of New Zealand. Now that wasn’t English you heard (or strained to hear) in the first verse! That’s because the first verse is sung in Maori before the anthem switched into English. Charming isn’t it?
Speaking of English one of the less-than-exotic things about this trip is that the local languages will be English. We’re so accustomed to going places where people don’t speak English that to now be going to English-speaking countries seems odd. And a little less challenging. But just when you think you’ve got Australia pegged, here are some odd and random factoids about where we’re going:
Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia (mostly for meat production).
Kangaroos and emus cannot walk backward, one of the reasons that they’re on the Australian coat of arms.
Melbourne has the world’s largest Greek population outside of Athens.
Wombat poop is cube shaped! This helps it mark its territory.
If all the sails of the Opera House roof were combined, they would create a perfect sphere.
No native Australian animals have hooves.
And lastly despite sharing the same verbal language, Australian, British and American sign language are all completely different languages.
Lots to see and learn even if it does seem familiar. And of course we’re getting there comfortably. We booked this trip a year ago and managed to confirm two seats on Singapore Airlines in their First Suites on the A380 segments and in First on the 777. A sneak peak at the cabin:
We’re flying nearly 33,000 miles on this trip with nearly 30,000 of them in Singapore Airline First Class. It’s going to be amazing. Our full flying itinerary:
