Shocking: New Zealand and Australia are out of their place on the map

originally posted by: GogoVicMorrow
I have explained what I believe causes this phenomenon in peoples minds on several of these threads.
I'll explain it again once more real quick.

Our first introduction to Australia is usually in elementary school printout maps that are teaching us NOT COUNTRIES but CONTINENTS therefore there is very little detail and sometimes entire island chains (indonesia for example) are left out because at that age for some reason in America they aren't pertinent especially when teaching solely the continents. So our first impression of Australia is a sole continent sitting very lonely in the ocean. They need to throw out those half penny worksheets and have kids looking at detailed world maps from the start so they don't think they are going crazy when they pay attention to a map against 30 years later.

That's plausible but I was never using a printed maps, I had an atlas. Proper details, reference my own atlases at home and encyclopedias. I was really into geography as a child. How on earth I became confused is beyond me.

a reply to: violet

If you read back on some posts here, I pointed out, RISK especially the 1980s maps, put New Zealand in the wrong place, to the north east.

i.imgur.com...

Let me assure you as a fourth generation Kiwi, its in about the same place as always. Barring tectonic shift

originally posted by: Noinden
a reply to: violet

If you read back on some posts here, I pointed out, RISK especially the 1980s maps, put New Zealand in the wrong place, to the north east.

i.imgur.com...

Let me assure you as a fourth generation Kiwi, its in about the same place as always. Barring tectonic shift

Ok then that would be around the first time I played Risk. Could very well have been that, that did it but I was certain it was from school. I didn't know risk messed up though! I threw that old game out long ago.

a reply to: violet

No reputable map gets it wrong.

The fact that even is an instance out there with it's placement wrong is a slam dunk win for the "tin-foils" imo who where adamant they saw it somewhere in a different location.

Guess the deniers will just move the goalposts to well "those examples are not reputable anyway" or something along those lines.

a reply to: Noinden

Thank you for the link, it explains everything. Geography is no longer taught in American schools, so the Risk game board may be the only map some people have ever seen. The graphic designers took geographical liberties in order to fill the visual space more evenly. (The Pacific Basin is mostly devoid of land, as a quick look at a globe will reveal.)

its my opinion - that this and other such threads are a sad indictment :

people are no longer prepared to imply admit they were wrong and move on

instead - they concoct this fantasy of " alternate realities " where they were correct

a reply to: ignorant_ape

Indeed.

Like Berenstain Bears.

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
its my opinion - that this and other such threads are a sad indictment :

people are no longer prepared to imply admit they were wrong and move on

instead - they concoct this fantasy of " alternate realities " where they were correct

I will admit I was wrong, was just chiming in I was mistaken as well.

Not everyone who thought it, lives in an alternate reality or wears tin foil hats !

When I was younger, I always thought Australia was much more isolated. Was a shock to realise just how close it was to Indonesia. Clearly I just hadn't paid enough attention to maps.

a reply to: igor_ats

What gets me, is these tin foils wearing folk, argue with people who actually LIVE here. I mean we are tectonically active, but hell not quite that active

I understand New Zealand is a mostly harmless little nation, long may it be that way, but if we examine the "conspiracy" why would the map have changed or been wrong to begin with or now? I'm a skeptic (and pagan, and scientist, and ....) and logic should always win when we are not talking a matter of faith

a reply to: Noinden

What gets me is the ignorance of some about what is being discussed

Like kiwis who think that because they live in new Zealand that they know that their country is not out of place

When the truth is these ignorant people don't understand alternate time lines and or dimensions

It's sad really

I am back in NZ no earthquakes or land shifts here in Auckland I'm aware of

risk map huh!! yes....
but one more thing....I always post the land down under is now just about belt high....

originally posted by: Another_Nut
a reply to: Noinden

What gets me is the ignorance of some about what is being discussed

Like kiwis who think that because they live in new Zealand that they know that their country is not out of place

When the truth is these ignorant people don't understand alternate time lines and or dimensions

It's sad really

And you do understand alternate time lines and/or dimensions?

Perhaps you could give us all a primer on that then, and how it means we are all wrong??

a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

Honestly I think only a properly trained physicist could do that. The answer we are likely to give you around here is that you New Zealanders from THIS timeline can only know the details of this timeline, so those of us with memories of it being different are going to seem hopelessly wrong and deluded to you.

Now I myself remember Australia looking way out by itself on the maps. Whatever, I don't think too much about it. It's there and full of mausupials and creepy spiders as always, that's all I care about as a potential tourist someday. As long as the pilot knows where to land the plane, I'm good.

Oh and by the way, Australia's significance to WW2 has remained consistent across all proposed timelines as far as I know. I can't see how that could be if Australia actually had been as isolated geographically as people believe. So I believe my memory or the maps I was presented with in school were at fault for my perceptions being off.

As for New Zealand, I never noted carefully where it was or was shaped like in any versions of the universe I may have found myself in, like the one where Nelson Mandela died in the late 80's or the one where he was alive until a couple of years ago. What I do remember is what the country looked like on documentaries and shows and what it is known for in terms of agriculture and overall culture and that has been consistent all my life.

I just think it highly unlikely it has flip flopped apparently as far as some people believe it has on the map, yet retained the same name and history and culture and climate and flora and fauna and agriculture consistently across these incredible differences in tectonic and geological and geographical history that would have had to take place to explain vastly different locations in people's minds.

a reply to: Another_Nut

Neighbour you are either trolling poorly, or ignorant of plate tectonics A different timeline is not going to have different tectonics and ONLY New Zealand out of place.

If for even a second I were to entertain your comments as viable, I'd not entertain you knew anymore than I did over "alternative time lines".

a reply to: SheeplFlavoredAgain

See you make the the most important point here. You never took much notice of New Zealand IF the others thought long and hard, if that is possible, they might remember, New Zealand, as "mostly harmless". Not what it looked like or exactly where it was. The mind plays interesting tricks for these sort of things.

But no lets insist its' "different", that makes the most sense. Occam and his shaving instrument and all that jazz.

I read a little of this thread and thought it funny, until I checked Google Maps and found that Australia and New Zealand aren't where I remember them being, either. I remember Australia being further out in the ocean away from other landmasses, and I remember New Zealand being to the North and East of Australia about where the Solomon Islands are. "Remember" as in "taught in school" in the 1970's and "looked it up" back around 2000 when I heard that Hercules and Xena were filmed there and I was considering vacation destinations. Probably a combination of bad maps and bad memory.

It's global warming. OK, this is getting really unnerving, I'm an Aussie and have been interested in world maps since they had one on the front of our writing books in grade 3. New Zealand is exactly where I remember it being, also as far as I know it was always a 3-4 hour plane trip from Melbourne to Auckland and it still seems to be right distance now.

What is unnerving is the number of people who remember it different, this is like I just walked in to the twighlight zone, if it had only been a dozen or so non-ANZ people then I would have just written it off, but the number here saying they remember it different is astounding. 73 pages of posts?

As for Australia being closer to PNG, I have noticed that they have been including the Torres Strait Islands in the maps more now days than they used to, it makes it look closer. And the pointy thing at the top of Australia (Cape York Peninsula) seems shorter than it used to, but that is just bad memory.

My theory is that they have moved Australia a bit further north each year so that it is closer to the equator, so that the weather stations that dont seem to be moving are actually moving to a warmer zone each year = global warming. So that's how they are doing it!