Niue

Niue is an island located in the Pacific Ocean, Niue is in a free association with New Zealand. All Niueans are New Zeleands. The land area is 260 square kilometres (100 sq mi) with about 1,400 people who are predominantly Polynesian.


In 2003 Niue became the world's first Wi Fi nation.


Niue is one of the world's larrgest coral islands. A coral reef surrounds the island, with only a major break near Alofi (the capital). A notable feature is the number of limestone caves found close to the coast.


Some soils are geochemically very unusual.


Agriculture is very important to the lifestyle of Niueans and the economy, and around 204 square kilometres of Niue's total land area are available for agriculture. 



Tapioca or cassava, yams and kumaras also grow very well, as do different varieties of bananas. Copra, passionfruit and limes dominated exports in the 1970s, but in 2008 vanilla, noni and taro are Niue's main export crops. 



Tourism, Fishery and Agriculture are Niue's 3 priority economic sectors.


Niue only counts with two broadcast media stations: television Niue and Radio sunshine, since it's really small size. And only with the "Niue star" as a newspaper.


The European Union is helping Niue convert to using renewable energy. 


Despite Niue being a small country, a number of different sports are popular. Rugby union is the most popular sport in Niue, played by both men and women; Niue were the 2008 FORU Oceania Cup champions. 
Niue money is awesome:

 I'm not kidding those are real C:


And here's Niue's landscapes

And an image of whales, because an image of whales is always good C:

And this is it, since Niue is really small and there isn't much to talk about C:

Manchester, England.

Manchester is one of the largest metropolitan areas and the second most visited city in the UK. It is also the third most visited city in the UK by foreigners. It is situated in the south-central part of North West England. The city is notable for it's culture, music scene and media links, as well as it's sports clubs. 


Culture
Manchester's culture is known for being artistical, architectural and theatrical. 
The city's architecture has Neoclassical and Victorian styles, as well as modern ones; various warehouses now are used for other uses but their external appearances are still the same so the city can keep it's vibe. Manchester is home for various skyscrapers that where built back in the 60's and 70's. 


Manchester is also home of a lot of museums, for example:
Manchester Museum: Owned by the University of Manchester, has various collections divided in different categories form which we can mention Worldwide, New World, Eurasia and Africa, Oceania, etc.


Manchester Museum of Transport: This museum aims to preserve and promote the public transportation herritage of the country, owning around 100 buses, but keeping only 70 in the building, due to their size.


Art Galleries:
Cube Gallery: The Centre for the Urban Built Environment Gallery, or the Cube Gallery in Manchester regularly hosts exhibitions with mostly photography and architectural models; it also contains a book shop.


Whitworth Art Gallery: It contains about 55,000 items in it's collection including watercolors, sculptures, wallpapers and textiles. The gallery mainly focuses on modern artists.


Manchester annually hosts a Gay Pride festival called Manchester Pride, attracting thousands of visitors to the Gay Village. It is a ten day festival with a series of art, music and cultural events; it also includes poetry readings and film showings, finishing with The Big Weekend, a party that lasts 72 hours.

Manila (məˈnɪlə), Philippines

Manila is the capital of the Philippines, is the second most populated cities of Philippines, just behind Quezon City. 
The city is divided in six districts, where you cand find the very distinctive areas of commerce, and some of the most historic and important landmarks of the country.



Culture
Manila is the host of notable cultural events, The Feast of the Black Nazarene draws millions of devotees. Also, each district has its own festivals.
In addition, Manila houses a number of notable museums. Bahay Tsinoy documents the Chinese lives & contributions in the history of the Philippines. 


Interesting Sights
A large number of recreational areas are found scattered within the city, both public & privaate. Also, several playground, sport facilities & gardens are being developed in a commercial area.
Nightlife in Manila centres around Ermita and Malate, along with Intramuros. Areas in Binondo, the city's Chinatown, also atrract many people, while other notable areas such as Quiapo & Divisoria are known for being one of the shopping center of bargain goods. Ermita & Malate are popular tourist destinations, they showcase a wide variety of hotels, restaurants, clubs, art & antique shops. 

Top 3 things to throw yourself off!

1.Skydiving over Lake Taupo, New Zealand

Thinking about opening that emergency exit? See if you can make it happen over Lake Taupo, one of the last remaining active-volcano regions in New Zealand. Snow-capped volcanoes beckon flyers from all over the world. Tandem skydives here are made at around 15,00ft, with over one minute in freefall. Notably, it's one of the cheapest adventure falls around.

2.Paragliding Sedona Red Rocks, USA

Pray that the rain has stopped by the time you reach Sedona, and breath in the scent of the desert-juniper, red clay, limestone and wildflowers. Arizona's premier New Age destination, Sedona has also become incredibly popular among flying and adventure enthusiasts. Flying over the rocks here is like looking down over a landscape of hellish delight, burnt rocks on the edge of the middle of nowhere. Hang-gliders and paragliders both share a love for the place.

  3.BASE jumping from the Sky Tower, New Zealand

       If you want a city view before you take the big plunge, make your way back to New Zealand. In Auckland, one of the NZ's most bustling cities, jumpers from all corners of the world come here to BASE jump from the Sky Tower, one of the tallest, free-standing structures in the southern hemisphere. At 328m above ground level, the jumper can reach up to 85km/h. Just to be safe, the jumo is guide-cable-controlled to prevent jumpers from colliding with the tower, in case of gusts. Now, that's bravery for you.

    Hope you like it.

     S.C.

     

Hope you like it.

S. C.

Gold Coast Australia


Gold Coast is a  is a coastal city located in South East Queensland, Australia. Gold Coast is famous for literally being a place full of fun.


Gold Coast had been a place for film productions; Scooby Doo movies and House of Wax are examples of this.


Gold Coast has more than 70km of fantastic beaches.


Gold coast main industry is tourism; and is well known for its beaches and attractions, such as Broadbeach, Surfers Paradise, Burleigh heights and Main beach.


This amaizing city in Australia has waterways prevent longshore drift and the bar from silting up. It includes suburbs, localities, towns and rural districts.


Since 2007 Gold Coast has been the sixth largest city in Australia and the largest non-capital city.


Gold Coast City’s unemployment rate (5.6 per cent) is below the national level (5.9 per cent).


Around 10 million tourists visit the Gold Coast area every year: of 849,114 international visitors, 3,468,000 domestic overnight visitors and 5,366,000 daytrip visitors. Tourism is the region’s biggest industry, directly contributing more than $4.4 billion into the city economy every year and directly accounting for one in four jobs in the city


Recreational activities on the Gold Coast include surfing, fishing, boating and golf.


Now I know Gold Coast seems like the best place ever (and certainly it is, at least for me)


But it gets better.


Did you know Gold Coast is the first city to have a water park where there's a loop? No? Well then check it out: 

Now I shall show you all the Wonderland that is Gold Coast:

Infinity is a mind blowing journey into spectacular futuristic maze-like world of wonder. Made up of an extraordinary series of around 20 multi-sensual environments filled with unique special effects, atmospheric sound fields, ultra groovy music and illusions.

Take a walk on the wild side and get closer to Australia’s native wildlife in a natural environment and experience spellbinding Aboriginal music, dance and culture - seven nights a week. All together in a unique buffet and tour package you must experience at least once in your life, a truly memorable time for young and old.

reamworld is home to the greatest number of traditional theme park rides on the Coast with all the kid friendly rides, roller coasters, water slides, bumper cars and more gravity defying, stomach churning contraptions than you could want. There's even an Imax theatre and the famous Tiger Island. If it's a quintessential theme park you're after then Dreamworld is the one for you. 

Crocodiles, wallabies, kangaroos, koalas and almost all of the other famous Australian native animals have representatives living in Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. You can look at them in natural habitats, feed and pat some of them or just experience the fantastic 27 hectare bushland setting - an oasis of wildlife amidst the Gold Coast bustle. Join the lorikeets for breakfast for a truly wonderul, once in a life time experience.

Part theme park, part movie studio, Movie World is the only movie-related theme park in Australia. With one of the best roller coasters on the coast and a good handful of movie related rides (think Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo, Superman, Batman and more), you'll experience a fun-filled adventure with the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Get 'behind the scenes' movie info and stunt shows to keep the whole family entertained for the best part of a day.

Home to the world's largest variety of tropical fruit, it's free to get in and shop for gourmet varieties of bizarre and wonderful fruits. You can also pay to check out the plantation safaris, mini train rides, jungle cruises and fruit tasting shows. Admission is about $32 for adults and $15 for kids. Tropical Fruit World is located about 10 minutes south of the border in NSW, you'll see the turn-off on the Pacific Highway.

O'Reilly's Tree Top Walk allows you to walk through the canopy to see flowering and fruiting trees and vines, the epiphytic orchids and ferns, and the birds and animals that inhabit the tree tops. (And it's free)

Gold Coast also has a nightlife full of clubs and adult stuff, but considering this is made by an underage student I better not write about that :)

Now you may be thinking: Can Gold Coast be even more spectacular?
The answer is yes, yes it can.

Gold Coast Hitherland

South East Queensland’s best-kept secret is the picturesque mountain rainforest region to the west of the Gold Coast. Often referred to as the green behind the gold, the Gold Coast Hinterland and the Scenic Rim, the region around Tamborine Mountain (or Mt Tamborine) and the beautiful and extensiveLamington National Park, all part of the Border Ranges.

Be amazed:

So I know this is all you can take without thinking about killing me for showing you this amazing place when we're still in school and can't take a vacation to Gold Coast. -sigh-

Osaka (大阪), Japan.

Osaka is the third largest and second most important city of Japan, it is located in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu. It's name literally means "large hill" or "large slope". The city was formerly known as  Naniwa, and was once Japan's capital city, the first one ever known.

Osaka works as one of the comand centers for the Japanese economy, being the commercial center of Japan.

Culture

Osaka is knwon as the capital of theatrical arts, you can enjoy manzai, kabuki and drama performances, as well as enka concerts. Manzai is a stage perfomance of comedy between two or three people, and it was born in this city. Kabuki is a a classical dance-drama, known for it's stylization and performers with elaborated make-up. Enka is a Japanese music genre that resembles traditional Japanese music in a stylistic way. 

The city is home for various theatres: National Bunraku Theatre (the fourth national theatre of the country), Umeda Arts Theatre, Osaka Shiki Theatre, and much more. 

It is also home for the largest shontegai in the country. Shōtengai are commercial districts that run along a certain street, they include: supermarkets, game centers, restaurants, book shops, clothes shops, covenience stores, etc.

Amog the various festivals held in Osaka, the Tenjin Matsuri is one of the most important and colorful ones. It is one of Japan's three major festivals, and the world's greatest boat festival. The Tenjin Matsuri is held to drive out evil spirits of summer and as a requiem for Sugawara-no-Michizane, a leading court scholar of the Heian era.

Interesting sites

Kaiyukan (Osaka Aquiarium). One of Japan's most spectacular aquariums; it displays marine life in 15 tanks, each representing a specific region of the Pacific Rim.

Osaka Castle. This castle was built back in 1583, but destroyed 13 years later. It was intended to become the center of a unified Japan. It was later rebuilt in the 1620's, and now holds a museum about the castle's history.

National Bunraku Theater. Osaka has been the capital for bunraku for many centuries. Bunraku is a form of traditional japanese puppet theater.This theater is one of the few places to view the fascinating art from today.

Bangkok (กรุงเทพมหานคร), Thailand

Bangkok is the capital & most populated city of Thailand. The origin of the name Bangkok is not crearly known, they're different theories of the source of the name; it is implied that the name "Bangkok" is a name adopted by foreigns. Also, the ceremonial name of Bangkok has the record guiness for the longest place name in the world. 
Culture

Bangkok is known as the cultural city of Thailand, so it helds many festivals each year. Many of the festivals involve the royal family of Thailand; they celebrate the king's & queen's birthday with big and colorful costumes and decorations all over the city. As well as being the cultural city, it is also known as the capital of the contemporary art; while people are still able to find traditional art in many commercial areas in the city, as well as temples & palaces around the city.

Gastronomy
Thai dishes are well known for the spiciness, so many of their popular dishes are made with chili. Also, in Thai cuisine is important to stand a balance between taste senses in each dish, they need to include a sour, sweet, salty & sometimes bitter flavour to their dishes; this is a very important topic for Thai chefs.


Interesting Sigths
Bangkok is known as one of the favorite spots for tourism. Some of the favorite places to visit are the palaces that Bangkok has. Some are used by the royal family while other are open to public. One of the popular ones is the Wat Pho, which is the biggest buddhist temple in Bangkok, it has a huge reclining Buddha figure that is 46 meters long & is covered with gold leaf. Also, many museums are popular, for their collections of artifacts & contemporary art. One of those Museums is the National Gallery Museum.
Bangkok offers a widely variety of nightlife. The city is famous for its massage parlos, different bars & karaoke venues.