Uzbekistan

Australia and New Zealand are extremely fascinating countries and would make great vacation spots. Located southeast of Asia between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific, they are also surrounded by the Coral, Arafura and Timor Sea. (See pictures 2 and 3) This region has many different kinds of terrain. Australia consists mainly of plains and plateau. The Western plateau consists of desert and semi desert and covers about two-thirds of Australia. The second area is the Central Eastern Lowlands. The average elevation here is only about 150 meters. At Lake Eyre, the lowest point, it falls to about 12 meters below sea level. The third Region in Australia is the Eastern Highlands which stretches from Cape York to Southern Victoria. The average elevation here is over 900 meters. The highlands also contain the Australian Alps and the Snowy Mountains. New Zealand has two distinct Islands, North Island and South Island, simple enough. The two are separated by the Cook Strait. The North has consists of a mountainous center which has many hot springs and volcanic peaks. Similarly, the Southern Island is also mountainous; it contains the Southern Alps, which have approximately 350 glaciers across the island. (Atlapedia)

If you wanted to get away from a cold Minnesota winter, head down under. Australia is generally warm with little rain. There are usually clear skies and sunshine while temperature ranges are moderate. Winters hardly ever get very cold. Climate is highly influenced by the ocean. El NiÐ"±o causes periodic drought in the northwest and the seasonal tropical low pressure system causes cyclones and hurricanes in the northeast Australia. (Wikipedia) New Zealand has a mild climate with cool to warm temperatures. On the west coast of the south island, it tends to be wet and cold. The Mackenzie Basin has a continental climate while the North is a little more subtropical. (Atlapedia)

Australia is a prosperous country with a mixed economy. It was ranked third in the United Nations Human Development Index and sixth in The Economist with a GDP higher than the UK, France and Germany. There has not been a recession in Australia since the early 1990's. Unemployment is now about 5.3% with 69% of the Employed working service

jobs such as tourism, education, and financial service

s. Agriculture contributes 3% and Natural resources contribute 5% of the GDP. Japan, China, The U.S. and South Korea are considered to be some of Australia's largest Export markets. New Zealand has a well developed economy also with a GDP of aproximatly $97.39 billion. It is ranked 19th on the United Nations Human Development Index. (Loughran) New Zealand relies heavily on trade. Almost 20% of their output is exported. If other countries were to slow down and go into a recession, New Zealand would most likely also be affected. Agriculture, fishing, and forestry are very important and make up about half of the exports. Over the years, New Zealand has made a change from exporting over half to the United Kingdom, to exporting to countries such as the U.S, Japan, China and Germany. (Wikipedia)

Most Australians are descendants

of immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland. The percentage of indigenous people in Australia has increased since a 1976 census to about 2.2%. These people have higher rates of unemployment and imprisonment

and lower levels of education. Naturally, this leads to a shorter life, about 17 years less than other Australians. Less than 15% of Australians live in rural areas. New Zealand has about 4.1 million people, which similar to the population of Minnesota. The country consists of mainly people of European decent, mainly Dutch, British and Irish. New Zealand happily invites immigrants and pushes for an increase in population of about 1% each year. East Asians are growing in numbers and just overtook people of thhe Pacific Island origin.

English is the dominant language in both countries. It is the spoken language around the house for around 80% of the people and nearly everyone knows how to speak it. Other common languages are Chinese, Italian, and Greek. (Let's Go Inc) About 50,000 indiginous people use their native language as their main way of speaking. This may sound like a lot, but it is only about 0.02% of the total population and is decreasing. Another interesting language is Auslan, a sign language for the deaf in Australia. Currently, about 6,500 use it regularly, which is around half of Brainerd.

Religion really has no effect on the people of this region. Although Christianity is