Hi friends,
This is my first ever blog post. I know this picture is not very clear and many of you must be wondering why I used this one. My reason for this would be: This is the view of Sunrise over Mount Hikurangi.
I really appreciate General Knowledge of people who understood my reason already. But for those of you who do not know anything about Mt. Hikurangi, here is the explanation:
Mount Hikurangi (or Te Ara ki Hikurangi) is a 1754 meter (5755 feet) peak in the northeastern corner of New Zealand's North Island, 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of East Cape. It is North Island's highest non-volcanic peak.
Isn’t it great? No, the interesting part is that the peak is traditionally regarded as the first land in the world to catch the rays of the new day's sun. Both Fiji and Tonga are to the east of this place, therefore, above claim is not completely true. Certainly it is not true at any time of the year other than the southern hemisphere summer. In summer, however, because of the tilt of the Earth's axis, it does receive the sun's rays earlier than these places. Still it does not receive them earlier than the Chatham Islands (or, of course, Antarctica) and in mid-summer, some of the hills of the southeastern South Island receive the sunrays fractionally earlier. But this does not stop this mountain gaining world prominence in the celebrations for the New Year.
New Zealand is one of the first places in the world to see the new day, 12 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). In summer New Zealand uses ‘daylight saving', with clocks put forward one hour to GMT+13. Daylight saving begins on the first Sunday in October and ends on the third Sunday of the following March, when clocks are put back to GMT+12.
Because of this reason I thought this would be the topic of my first post. Hope you all like this post and will visit my blog site in future as well. Feel free to comment on any of my posts.
More information about Mount Hikurangi:
Coordinates: 37° 55′ 1.07′′ S, 178° 3′ 36.08′′ E
5 to 7 hour walk and climb from the car park on the Pakihiroa station Raukumara Forest Park.
External Links:
1. http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/PlaceProfile.aspx?id=34830
