April 2012

The NASA Discovery crew spent the equivalent of 365 days in space on a range of missions including launching satellites, working on the Hubble Telescope and carrying materials to the international space station in orbit 400km above Earth. The space station travels at 28,000km/h orbiting the planet six times a day - so one can only assume they were quite capable of handling the 100 metre Abseil (rappel) into Waitomo’s Lost World Cave. 

Australian English is also referred to as "Strine". The word derives from saying the word "Australian" through clenched teeth - a local accent that some scholars claim arose from the need to try and keep ones mouth closed when speaking, in order to keep the flies out…….  

True Aussie “Strine” can be quite difficult to understand, especially if you are in rural or outback Australia. To confuse things further, some Australians join several words together as one - like 'waddayareckon' (what do you reckon?) or owyagoin (how are you going?) and so on.

Nelsons Blue Lake at the top of New Zealand's South Island has some of the clearest water in the world, a study has found. The water is considered almost as "optically clear" as distilled water. Niwa aquatic optics specialist Rob Davies-Colley said it was highly significant that the clarity of the water in the lake was close to pure water.