Gribi's Travels

GRIBI VISITS NEW ZEALAND! This is my first time in New Zealand! I have two new friends to show me around. Good Day! We're Daniel and Joel. I'm 11 and my brother, Joel, is 8. We live in Auckland, New Zealand. We both attend Kadimah College. That's like a junior high school in America. Our favorite subjects are math and reading. We enjoy basketball after school. A cool place to visit in New Zealand are the geysers at Rootarola National Park. Also fun is the Kelly Tarton, Auckland's aquarium. It has underwater viewing tunnels in the fish tanks.

One of the famous animals living on the islands, which you may know of, is the kiwi - a little bird with no tail and only stumps for wings.

New Zealand is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean. It is located near the continent of Australia. The islands of New Zealand were first settled in the 1300's by the Maoris, who came from Polynesia. They called the islands, Aotearoa, the long white cloud - because of the strange looking cloud formations over the islands. The Europeans arrived later in the 1700's. The name, New Zealand, comes from a place in the country of Holland by the name of Zeeland. These islands are made up of mountains, glaciers, beautiful waterfalls and beaches. There are two principal islands - the North Island and the South Island. The two largest cities, Auckland and the capital, Wellington, are located on the North Island. New Zealand, as with most of the pacific islands, including Hawaii, was formed by volcanoes. There are still active volcanoes and geysers in New Zealand. Most of the countryside is green and hilly, with mild summers and cool, yet stormy winters.

GRIBI VISITS PERU! Have you ever been to Peru? Me neither! I have a new friend who will tell me about its wonderful history. That's right! I'm Jose Casada, and I'm a newspaper publisher. I am always interested in events of people and places, both current and especially historical. My job keeps me very busy. In fact most of the time I'm traveling looking for stories. My favorite pastime is archeology!

Peru is located along the Pacific Ocean on the west side of South America. A land of amazing contrasts, with its long narrow coast, consisting of a desert even drier than the Sahara, and its famous snow-capped Andes Mountains, extending down the entire length of the country. The ancient cultures of Peru started about 12,000 years ago. The people learned to farm and cultivate the potato, which grew in the highlands. Potatoes became an important food in Peru long before they were known around the world.

The Inca was the last empire in Peru. They were master architects, road builders and accurate astronomers. They built irrigation networks in the coastal desert. In the highlands, they cut terraces into the hillsides to reduce erosion and make irrigation easier. The name, Inca, was originally the title of the God emperor but was later used to describe their entire culture. Archeological remains are a major source of information about the Inca civilization. The Inca did not develop writing. Rather they used string, with knots in different colors known as Kipus. That is why there are no sources of information about them written before the Spanish invasion. One of the most fascinating Inca remains is in the city of the clouds, Machu Picchu. Because of its remote location high in the Andes Mountains, its architecture was able to survive time and the arrival of modern civilization. Though Peru is well known for its Inca history, it was also the home of many other ancient cultures such as Paracas, Chimu, Moche, and the Nazca. The Nazca people left the mysterious and immense Nazca Lines in Peru's desert regions. Lines, when viewed at a great distance, show unusual figures and animals. The reasons for these lines are still unknown today.

Ancient cultures are fun to explore and learn about. I encourage all of you to explore your cultural heritage -- and a good place to start is at your library! Thank you Jose and yournewspaper "PERU do los 90"

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Word Search

HELP GRIBI FIND THESE HIDDEN WORDS

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AGO, ART, CHINA, DOLL,

FARM, GO, GREAT, OIL,

PAL, PET, RAT, RICE,

TAG, TOE, WALL, WORLD

Gribi's Maze

HELP GRIBI FIND PLANET DOOG

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More Gribi's Travels

GRIBI VISITS ASIA! Greetings from Asia! The country of Asia? No, the continent of Asia. What's a continent? It's a great body of land. There are seven continents - Africa, Australia, Europe, North American, South America, Antarctic and Asia. Asia is the largest of them all.

Asia is divided into five regions. The Far East includes China, the Koreas and Japan. Southeast Asia includes Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the islands of Indonesia. The third group forms a triangle on the continent, and consists of India and Pakistan. The desert countries, or the Middle East, consists of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Israel and Syria. Siberia is the fifth one and is located way up in the northern regions of Russia. Did you know that more than half of the Earth's people live in Asia? About two-thirds of Asia's population make their living by farming. Most of the world's rice is grown in the Far East and Southeast regions of Asia. The world's greatest oil reserves can be found in the Middle East.

One of the largest man made structures in the world can be found in the Asia. It is called the Great Wall. The Great Wall is so long, I can see it from space. Construction of the wall first began around 400 BC. The purpose of it was to defend China from the northern Mongolian tribes. The wall was finally completed during the Ming Dynasty around 1300 to 1600 AD. The Great Wall is nearly 4,000 miles long, 25 feet high and 30 feet thick. It is made up of earth and rubble with a stone exterior. It's been recorded that it took 300,000 men 10 years just to complete only one section of the wall. The wall even crosses mountains and hills. When it does go up a mountainside, one has to climb huge steps - steps that seem to have been made for giants!

GRIBI VISITS AFRICA! Hi everybody, my friend L. E. Phant is giving me a ride here in Africa. Africa is one of the seven continents - Africa, Australia, Europe, North America, South America, Antarctica and Asia. Africa is the second largest land-mass, or continent, in the world, after Asia. One of the oldest continents is Africa. It was once the core of an ancient land-mass called Gondawaland. Gondawaland also included the continents of Australia, South America and Antarctica, before they broke apart and drifted away.

Africa's history is filled with great kingdoms with great rulers. The Pharaohs of ancient Egypt had the great pyramids built. They are one of the world's wonders. The snow capped Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest mountain. Africa's Great Rift Valley is one of the world's longest. This valley is about 4,000 miles long and about 35 miles wide. Africa also has the great Sahara desert, the vast grasslands called Savannas, and the dense rain forests. Its rain forests contain as many as 3,000 different types of trees and plants. Many of the world's minerals, such as copper, gold and uranium, are in Africa.

Africa is also home to all kinds of animals. It's wildlife population is the largest in the world. From the mountain gorillas to the Savanna's zebras, lions, elephants, giraffes, hippopotamuses and rhinoceroses. A lot of art, language and music in North and South America have been influenced by African culture. Jazz has its roots in Central and West African rhythms. Today, there are more than 50 countries in Africa and the islands off its coast. The people and cultures are as diverse as its geography. There are almost 3,000 different ethnic groups speaking over 1,000 languages in Africa.

Gribi's Secret Message

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Brain Boggler

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