Happy New Zealand Day
in [Cobol]
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From: HeyBub on 19 Dec 2007 12:19 SkippyPB wrote: > > Those pesky Vikings! They are also credited with discovering North > America long before Christopher Columbus landed here. In fact there > is plenty of historical evidence that Eric the Red landed in Greenland > in 982 AD. He was outlawed from Iceland and exiled to a great land to > the north. Eric spent three years exploring the country where he and > his men marked sites for their future farms. He called it Greenland > and sailed with 25 ships to settle there. But in the 1400s, the > settlers left because it became too cold. There is some evidence and > speculation that they sailed south and discovered the rest of North > America, but nothing concrete. However, there is some archeological > evidence they may have gone to Newfoundland. Dr. Helge Ingstad and > his wife Anne Stine Ingstad discovered the remains of an 11th-Century > Norse community at L'anse Aux Meadows on the northern peninsula of > Newfoundland. They were working from a 16th-Century Icelandic map > showing part of North America. > That was during the last "global warming" period. Then it got cold again and nobody left the house for a few hundred years.
From: Pete Dashwood on 19 Dec 2007 17:31 "billious" <billious_1954(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message news:47687182$0$22418$a82e2bb9(a)reader.athenanews.com... > > "Pete Dashwood" <dashwood(a)removethis.enternet.co.nz> wrote in message > news:5sqqusF1a9fjsU1(a)mid.individual.net... > [sn] > it was left to Captain James Cook to circumnavigate and properly map >> the three main islands of New Zealand over 100 years later > [sn] > Cheers! >> >> Pete. >> > So that'd be North Island, South Island and er, "West Island" no doubt? :) > > West Island is sometimes called "Australia"... :-) No, the third island is Stewart Island, located just South of the South Island, across Foveaux Strait. Actually. NZ adminsters and/or is responsible for, or has a "special relationship" with, quite a large number of islands, many of which are just rocks in the Southern Ocean (Disappointment Island, the Antipodes Islands, http://www.fotw.us/flags/nz-.html#lesser etc.). I have never been to Stewart Island, although it is on my list of places to go... there is a permanent population of around 600 people, and I understand the oysters make it worth the trip...:-) Pete. -- "I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."
From: donald tees on 20 Dec 2007 09:46
SkippyPB wrote: > On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:04:27 +1300, "Pete Dashwood" > <dashwood(a)removethis.enternet.co.nz> wrote: > >> >> "SkippyPB" <swiegand(a)nospam.neo.rr.com> wrote in message >> news:ggvfm3ho7codaf8llki5nnahmh7h5s8n46(a)4ax.com... >>> This message is aimed at Pete Dashwood who I bet is celebrating and, >>> if not, now has a reason to. >>> >>> On this day (I know it is tomorrow in New Zealand, but humor me) Dec. >>> 18th, in 1642, the first European discovered New Zealand by accident >>> like most great discoveries. >> (I'm afraid you lose your bet; it is too early for serious celebrating... >> :-) I have a house guest from Germany staying here for a few weeks and it is >> her first visit to the Southern hemisphere so we have been relaxing and >> enjoying local food, wine, beaches and hot pools, rather than celebrating. >> However, serious clebrating will start from New Year...:-)) >> >> Thanks Steve for the thought. We don't celebrate New Zealand Day (or >> Waitangi Day) until the 6th February, and poor old Abel Tasman's achievement >> goes largely unrecognised. (To be fair, he only contributed a line on the >> map and it was left to Captain James Cook to circumnavigate and properly map >> the three main islands of New Zealand over 100 years later.) >> >> >>> Dutch seafarer and explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to >>> reach New Zealand. >> He may have been the first European RECORDED as reaching New Zealand. There >> is some ambivalent evidence that Viking ships may have been here around the >> 4th Century AD... It has to do with fossilized rat bones which could only >> have been brought on ships from Europe and which have been carbon dated to >> that time. Definitely not definitive but an interesting idea. If it's true >> it would pre-date the arrival of Maori by 5 - 6 hundred years. >> >> > > Those pesky Vikings! They are also credited with discovering North > America long before Christopher Columbus landed here. In fact there > is plenty of historical evidence that Eric the Red landed in Greenland > in 982 AD. He was outlawed from Iceland and exiled to a great land to > the north. Eric spent three years exploring the country where he and > his men marked sites for their future farms. He called it Greenland > and sailed with 25 ships to settle there. But in the 1400s, the > settlers left because it became too cold. There is some evidence and > speculation that they sailed south and discovered the rest of North > America, but nothing concrete. However, there is some archeological > evidence they may have gone to Newfoundland. Dr. Helge Ingstad and > his wife Anne Stine Ingstad discovered the remains of an 11th-Century > Norse community at L'anse Aux Meadows on the northern peninsula of > Newfoundland. They were working from a 16th-Century Icelandic map > showing part of North America. > Newfoundland is another island that was eventually mapped by James Cook. Now *there* was a fellow that really got around. Donald |