Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand

Australia
Australia is the smallest, and the youngest continent. It is the largest island in the world. It is divided from other continents by large distances. This is the reason why it was discovered as late as 20th April 1770 by the English Captain James Cook.
Australia is situated in the southern hemisphere, it means that the Australians has summer when we have winter. Australia is washed by the Indian Ocean in west and the south Pacific in east. Along the eastern coast are the Australian Alps. Here is the highest top of the continent – Mount Kosciusko. The longest river is the Murray Rivers. There are three big lakes here: Lake Eyre, Lake Torrens and Lake Gairdner. The nearest island are Tasmania and King Island. The animals of Australia are numerous and some of them, like the kangaroo which is also the emblem of Australia, koala bear, dingo or Tasmanian devil can’t be found elsewhere.
This continent is often visited by destructive hurricanes.
The official title is The Commonwealth of Australia and it is a dominion of the United Kingdom. It has a democratic, federal system. The official head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, represented by the Governor General. Actual power is exercised by the Parliament and the Prime Minister. The Federal Parliament has its seat in the capital city of Canberra and is divided into the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The Commonwealth of Australia consists of 6 states – New South Wales (capital Sydney), Victoria (capital Melbourne), Queensland (capital Brisbane), South Australia (capital Adelaide), Western Australia (capital Perth), Tasmania (capital Hobart), and three territories – the Northern Territory, Coral Sea Islands Territory and Australian Capital Territory.
The capital of Australia is Canberra, but the oldest and biggest one is Sydney. The Olympic games took place there. There are two interesting and very well known places in Sydney: The Sydney Opera House and The Harbour Bridge. The third largest city is Brisbane. Melbourne is one of the most beautiful cities and you can swin with dolphins there and there are a lot of museums, galleries and parks.


New Zealand
Lies near Australia and consist of two large islands (north and south). The North Island is famous for its hot springs, geysers and watering places. The South Island has high mountains, the Southern Alps. Same as Australia belongs to the B. C. and the head of state is the British queen. The parliament has only one chamber – the House of Representatives.
Officially language is English, but some people still speak Maori.
Also New Zealand is larger than Great Britain, its population is relatively very small, only about 3,500,000.
New Zealand’s climate is quite pleasant. There is a lot of sun and it often rains there. Summers are not too hot and winters are mild.
The capital city is Wellington that lies on the North Island. It is the most important city in the country.
Auckland is the largest city in NZ there are many modern shopping centres with a lot of cafeterias and restaurants.