[debnjohn]

I was looking through my son's Children's Atlas and came across this picture of NZ superimposed on Europe (i.e. as if the globe had been flattened).
I thought it was quite interesting so have purloined it for your pleasure:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y228/debnjohn/NZandEurope.jpg

John.

PS To appease my guilt I'll list the publication:
Philip's Childrens Atlas by David and Jill Wright 1993 Reed International Books Limited ISBN 0 540 05723 1

[bbq]

I once worked that out myself and still cannot really understand why the weather is not as warm as Spain and N. Africa. By all accounts Dunedin and Invercargill are pretty cold in winter.

I thought it must be to do with NW Europe has the gulf stream and NZ is next stop Antarctic/

cheers

alex

[GeorgeM]

The difference in the strength of the sun, particularly during clear days in the winter, does give some indication of a similar latitude to Spain/N Africa. But there are numerous other factors which cool the place down and make it wetter overall.

Inland Spain can also be very cold in winter - I used to 'commute' through Madrid once a week, arriving about 10pm and leaving at 6am. Often it would be near to zero when I got there.

[Wannaway]

The main reason is because of the vast amount of open sea/ocean that surrounds NZ and prevailing winds from the south. Also the gulf stream does help Western Europe maintain a more temperate climate than its latitude would suggest - it is on the same latitude as Canada which is much colder generally than Mid/Southern Europe.

I have seen a map of Aus superimposed on Europe also. If Perth in WA was in Western Ireland, Sydney would be somewhere in the middle of Turkey and if Northern Aus were in Northern Scandanavia then Southern Australia would be in North Africa.

[Moorf]

That is so cool :nice1 Can you send me a .jpg of it? :P

[GeorgeM]

That is so cool :nice1 Can you send me a .jpg of it? :P

Hover over the picture
Right click with the mouse
Choose 'Save Picture As'

[Moorf]

Yep, had that thought about a millisec after I'd hit submit on that last one :roll:

[GeorgeM]

Yep, had that thought about a millisec after I'd hit submit on that last one :roll:

And there's always some smartarse who jumps in and.... :mrgreen:

[Moorf]

:laugh

[cornerofsilence]

I find this a bit spooky as we are moving from Spain to NZ

regards

[jonSE]

Susan

bring some Rioja with you (pref lots) it's expensive / unobtainable here

Jon

missing Rioja and France

[foolsgold99]

Dunedin and Invercargill are pretty cold in winter

That sounds about right, I've been to Paris in december and struggled through snow storms in Versailles to get to work.

Auckland is on the exact other side of the world from Valencia, according to the enz site, the average summer temps in Akl are about 24 degrees. Whereas in Valencia they are 28 or 29 degrees. So it's a good bit cooler than spain, the average summer temps in Akl are the same as the loire valley in France.

Compared to an average of 18 degrees in Glasgow, it's going to be just fine here. :yes

[Timbo]

If someone could just move NZ physically to the position shown on the map, it would make things a lot simpler with regard to visiting relis and shipping costs etc.
:laugh

[ErwinT]

If someone would dig a tunnel through the center of the earth that would already make a huge difference. :nice1 NZ and Europe are only 12,000 km apart in a straight line, but to get there we have to go around the sphere of the earth unfortunately... ;)

OTOH, I'm not sure how I would feel traveling though a tunnel for 24 hours or so... :?