Posted on by hilaryemersonlay

Hellllllo From The Antipodeeeees……

(It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like the Adele song….)

First off, yes! I got my email subscription to work! Huzzah! Thanks for everyone’s patience while I labored through that annoying WordPress plugin issue.



I’m here today to geek out about a cool concept–and cool word–which I stumbled across a few years ago in my New Zealand research: “antipodes”.

Antipodes (singular: antipode) comes from the Greek word ἀντίποδες, which roughly translates as “those with feet opposite ours” and referred to people living on the other side of the world.

The antipode of any spot on Earth is the point on Earth’s surface diametrically opposite to it. That is, if you chose a spot and dug a hole straight through the center of the earth and came out the other side, you’d find that spot’s antipode. The antipode of Whitianga, New Zealand—where I live—is Malaga, Spain. The antipode of Cape Cod, Massachusetts—where I grew up—is several hundred miles off the coast of Perth, Australia.

The antipode of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Australia and New Zealand are (apparently; I’ve never personally heard it) sometimes called “The Antipodes” by inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere, and Australians and New Zealanders are (again, I’ve never heard this) sometimes called “Antipodeans.” A quick google search of “antipodes New Zealand” brings up a number of NZ companies with the word “antipodes” in the name, including a line of skin exfoliants, a chemist, and a company that sells water, so it seems like the word is not entirely uncommon here, at least in the skin exfoliant/chemistry/bottled water industries.

Because 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water, only about 15% of any given point of land has an antipode that’s also on the land. And there’s a good chance everything else has an antipode in the Pacific Ocean, since it’s so massive. In fact, the Pacific Ocean is so massive that it contains a number of its own antipodes. Out of the 15% of land that has other land as its antipode, the biggest examples are certain sections of eastern/southeastern China, Mongolia, and Russia, whose antipodes are in Argentina and Chile; the Malay Archiapelago (between Southeast Asia and Australia) whose antipode is in the Amazon basin; Greenland, whose antipode is in east Antarctica; and New Zealand’s North Island, whose antipode is in southern Spain.

For my friends back home: before you go racing to this cool website to determine your antipode: the antipode of nearly every point in the United States is in the Indian Ocean, with the exception of two tiny, remote spots in eastern Colorado which are each the antipode to two tiny, uninhabited, volcanic islands: St. Paul Island and Amsterdam Island.

Other cool facts about antipodes!

* At any given moment, there exist two antipodal points with the same temperature and barometric pressure. This is known as the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem, which is also known as the most intellectually advanced thing to which I have, and likely will, ever hyperlink.

* There is archipelago of uninhabitable volcanic islands, called the Antipodean Islands, about 500 miles southwest of Stewart Island, which is just off the southern coats of the South Island of NZ.

* In 2020, a guy in Spain and a guy in New Zealand made an “Earth sandwich” by each placing a slice of bread at the exact antipode of one another at the exact same time (in case you’re wondering: yes. Yes, they found each other on Reddit. Of course they found each other on Reddit).

And lastly, here is a list from Wikipedia of the only cities who have exact or nearly exact antipodes (look how many are in New Zealand! 😍):

8 Replies to “Hellllllo From The Antipodeeeees……”

  1. that’s cool–but kind of depressing that our antipodal point is just water. Maybe I’ll go there one day on our boat!

    Reply

  4. I know I am no geography ace, but no way would I have picked NZ as antipodational(?) to….Spain? Will have to go paw through the attic to find the globe and give it a twirl once a day and pick a point and guess what’s directly across. Thanks for the tip my first guess will always be “the Pacific Ocean.” From there I’ll see if I can get the nearest continent.

    Reply

  5. Your antipodal blog has sent confabulation waves throughout my brain. Initially I tried to make sense of it and see how it related to me, then, I thought in generalities about how I could intelligently use this in my cocktail conversations, and finally I decided just to pour more wine.

    I do, however, have to vehemently force a book on you which I know you will enjoy. It’s historical fiction and the author has a FABULOUS
    way of describing things, much like you do. It involves WW1 which piques your families interest. It’s called Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn. Perhaps you’ve already read it. Which begs the question, why didn’t you tell me about it?!?

    Reply

    1. “Confabulation”–!! I had to google that one! And I’ve never heard of that book, but it sounds wonderful (and I love the title). I’ll see if our little town library can get a copy. You’re the best….thank you. xo

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *