Globetracker's Mission: Finding Dewey

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Week of January 12, 2025

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Friday

At the end of our last blog entry, we asked you to help us figure out which cardinal direction we would be traveling from Morocco to New Zealand. The majority of blog readers chose Southeast. And you were correct!! Thank you - you geographical geniuses. Uncle GT, Meri, Mr. Vuhn, and I are traveling from Morocco to New Zealand. This is such a LONG flight! We are on our third flight now and have been traveling well over 24 hours already, and we are not there yet! Mr. Vuhn told me that New Zealand is part of Oceania. Neither Meri nor I had any idea what Oceania meant. Mr. Vuhn told us some fascinating information about Oceania. This all gets very confusing. Some people think that Oceania is a continent. It is really a region because a continent does not usually encompass several land masses. Some people call Australia a "continent," but it is really part of the region of Oceania. Meri and I found this all confusing. We had no idea. Oceania is located in the Pacific Ocean. Oceania is one of the most fascinating and diverse areas in the world. We can't wait to explore this geographical gem (after a long nap!).

Oceania is made up of many islands and countries, which can be confusing. It is divided into four regions, each containing numerous countries and islands. The regions include Australasia, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. We attached a map that shows Oceania@.

The first region (Australasia) includes Australia, New Zealand, and a few smaller islands belonging to Australia. The largest island/country in Oceania is Australia. In fact, the total land area of Oceania is approximately 9,008,000 square kilometers. Australia accounts for 7,600,000 of those square kilometers. So, as you can see, over 75% of Oceania is Australia. Australia is surrounded by both the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Australia is the sixth-largest country in the world. Geography is fascinating.

The region of Polynesia includes numerous island nations; however, many are claimed or are territories of other countries nearby or from around the world, such as New Zealand, France, the United States, or the United Kingdom. Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu are all located in Oceania and are all actually independent nations.

The region of Micronesia consists of the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam (a United States territory), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Northern Mariana Islands (another United States territory), and Palau.

The region of Melanesia includes East Timor, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. New Caledonia is also a country of Melanesia but France's territory. Indonesia is also partly in Micronesia. This is the most fascinating country of all, in my opinion. Indonesia has 17,508 islands (although humans only live on about 6,000 of them).

Okay, our airplane is getting ready to land in Wellington, New Zealand (the capital city). We will write more once we get some rest. I am glad we have a few days to relax before the conference.

- Geo

This is a picture of the yellow-eyed penguin (found in New Zealand).

This is a picture of a really cool bridge in New Zealand - isn't it neat! Would you walk across that bridge?

Map of Oceania
Check out this map of Oceania. All of the countries in Oceania are written in RED.

Oceania Explained
Do you want to learn more about Oceania? This video does a great job explaining all of those many islands.

Sunday

The Dewey saga is really heating up. We are all set to attend the International Conference on Global Warming tomorrow morning. The Equators are second on the agenda as guest speakers. They are talking about the Northwest Passage. The Northwest Passage is a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Canadian Arctic. This passage is a direct route for ships to travel from Europe to Asia across the Arctic Ocean. The passage is becoming ice-free for the first time since satellite records began to be kept in the 1970s. We have been in contact with the security guards for the conference. As soon as the Equators arrive at the conference center, the security guards will take them into custody and demand that they return Dewey, the truth-sniffing dog, to the USA. The Equators must have been using Dewey to discover the truth about the Northwest Passage. Holy Idaho! I am so excited to finally confront the Equators and take Dewey home.

Text Message from Pandora - How R U? RUOK? No news from U? Call or text ASAP. BBFN.

Text Message to Pandora - We R N BTFL N. Zealand. Will Call U 2MORO.

In other news - NEW ZEALAND ROCKS! New Zealand is located in the South Pacific Ocean and is Southwest of Australia. New Zealand is about the same size as the state of Colorado (the home of Denver, The Mile High City). There are many natural resources found in New Zealand: natural gas, iron ore, sand, gold, coal, timber, limestone, and hydropower. Earthquakes are very common in New Zealand but are rarely severe. This country also has numerous volcanoes. Do you suppose earthquakes and volcanoes are related? New Zealand has three national languages (English, Maori, and sign language). I wonder why one country would have three national languages. About 80% of New Zealanders live in major cities. I guess this is because work is easier to find in the cities. Can you think of other reasons why New Zealanders (sometimes known as "kiwis" - not to be confused with kiwifruit!) might live mostly in cities? Most of the major cities are located on New Zealand's coast, making it easier to ship items. Tourism is a major industry in New Zealand, and a reasonable number of New Zealand residents work in the tourism industry. We will update our blog tomorrow - after our encounter with the Equators. Wish us luck!

- Meri

Check out the amazing landscape of New Zealand!

Look at this beautiful pond in the mountains of New Zealand. Wow!

Here is a beautiful picture of a rainforest in New Zealand.

Airpano
This site takes you on a 360-degree virtual tour of New Zealand.

Check out the Botanic Gardens
Check out this amazing place that we saw over the weekend!

What is the Northwest Passage?
Learn more about the Northwest Passage with this up to date site.

Monday

Holy Idaho! I don't know where to begin. Today is the most exciting (and crazy) day of our trip. We arrived at the conference around 8 am. We quickly found the security guards, who told us that the Equators had not checked in. We decided to stay with the security guards until it was "time." The Equators arrived about 20-minutes later. We watched from a few steps away while the security guards approached. We could see Claude and Phoebe both acting confused and throwing their arms up in the air (obviously frustrated). Finally, we decided to walk over and speak to them. Geo told them that stealing Dewey and using his truth-sniffing for their own purposes was wrong and they needed to return the dog to us NOW. Phoebe told us we were too late and that Dewey was gone. Gone? What happened to Dewey? My first thought was that he had run away. What else could have happened to Dewey? What should we do now?

- Meri

Here are the Equators! Can you believe it - we took a screenshot of them during the conference before they went to talk.

Vocabulary Terms:

Australasia - a region of the continent of Oceania. This region includes Australia, New Zealand, and a few smaller islands belonging to Australia.

cardinal direction - a term used to describe all four primary directions (north, south, east and west).

Melanesia - a region of Oceania. It includes the countries of East Timor, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia (territory of France), and Vanuatu. Indonesia is also partly in Micronesia. Indonesia is located on two different continents (Oceania and Asia).

Micronesia - a region of Oceania. This region consists of the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam (a United States territory), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Naura, Northern Mariana Islands (another United States territory), and Palau.

natural resources - any substance that is made by nature and used to enhance the lives of living things. Some examples of natural resources include sunlight, minerals, soil, and water.

Northwest Passage - a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Canadian Arctic. This passage is a direct route for ships to travel from Europe to Asia across the Arctic Ocean. The passage is becoming ice-free for the first time since satellite records began to be kept in the 1970s.

Oceania - A region that is made up of many islands and countries. Oceania is divided into four sub-regions. Each of the regions includes numerous islands. The regions are Australasia, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Australia is the largest country in Oceania.

Polynesia - a region located on the continent of Oceania. Polynesia includes numerous island nations, however many are territories of other countries around the world. The countries in Polynesia include Somoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, French Polynesian, Wallis and Futuna, American Samoa, and the Pitcairn Islands.

Additional Web Resources:

Kiwi Conservation Club
This website provides information about the unique wildlife of New Zealand.

Standards for this episode:

Understands the characteristics and uses of maps, globes, and other geographical tools and technologies.

Grade 3-5: Knows the basic elements of maps and globes (title, legend, cardinal, scale, grid, meridians, time zones, etc.).

Knows the location of places, geographical features, and patterns of the environment.

Grade 3-5: Knows major physical and human features of places as they are represented on maps and globes. Knows how to read different maps: road, relief, globe, etc..

Grade 3-5: Knows the approximate location of major continents, mountain ranges, and bodies of water on Earth.

Grade 6-8: Knows the relative location of, size of, and distances between places.

Grade 3-5: Knows different methods to measure data (miles, kilometers, time, etc..).

Grade 6-8: Understands distributions of physical and human occurrences with respect to spatial patterns, arrangements, and associations (e.g. why some areas are more densely settled than others).

Understands the physical and human characteristics of a place.

Grade 6-8: Knows the human characteristics of places (e.g., cultural characteristics such as religion, language, politics, technology, family structure, gender; population characteristics; land uses; levels of development).

Understands the concept of regions.

Grade 3-5: Knows the characteristics of a variety of regions (climate, housing, religion, language, etc..).

Knows the physical processes that shape patterns on Earth's surfaces.

Grade 3-5: Knows the physical components of Earth's atmosphere (weather and climate), lithosphere (land forms such as mountains), hydrosphere (oceans, lakes and rivers), and biosphere (vegetation and biomes).

Understands the forces of cooperation and conflict that shape the divisions of Earth's surface.

Grade 3-5: Knows how and why people divide Earth's surface into political and/or economic units (e.g., states in the United States and Mexico; provinces in Canada; countries in North and South America; countries linked in cooperative relationships, such as the European Union).

Grade 6-8: Understands the symbolic importance of capital cities (such as Canberra, a planned city, as the capital of Australia).

Understands how physical systems affect human systems.

Grade 3-5: Knows how communities benefit from the physical environment (e.g., people make their living by farming on fertile land, fishing in local water, working in mines; the community is a port located on a natural harbor, a tourist center located in a scenic or historic area, an industrial center with good access to natural resources).

Grade 3-5: Knows natural hazards that occur in the physical environment (floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc..).

Understands the characteristics and uses of spatial organization of Earth's surface.