Day 52: The Tasman Sea

The Tasman Sea is the body of water that separates Australia and New Zealand. We're crossing it now - which takes about 70 hours on a cruise ship. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 was the first known person to cross it. Tasmania was later named after him, and he also christened Nieue Zeeland when he discovered those islands. British explorer Lieutenant James Cook later extensively navigated the Tasman Sea in the 1770s during his three voyages of exploration

Geographically, the Sea is over 1400 miles wide and has an area of almost 900,000 square miles. It's defined as a marginal sea, meaning it's bounded by other seas and oceans. Although not quite as deep as the Pacific, ocean depth gets down to 19,500 feet (5900m), and its seafloor is eloquently stated to be "ooze." That depth is quite impressive when you realize that New Zealand, as part of an ancient continent called Zealandia, broke away from Australia over 80 million years ago and headed east.  That ex-continent is now deep underwater except for NZ and a few random islands. 

The Tasman Sea is now colloquially referred to as "The Ditch." Much as the North Atlantic between the US and the UK is "The Pond". The first telegraph cable was laid between NZ and Oz in 1876 and was not obsoleted until 1963 when the Continental Pacific Cable was laid. Communications in NZ are, in my view, pretty damn good, with cell phone service almost everywhere and 5G being prominent in the cities and suburbs. 

The final Tasman Sea thought. We've now been underway for 21 hours after leaving Wellington, and although it's sunny outside, it's windy (22 mph) and cold-ish (65F/18C). Looking forward to getting to Sydney, where we'll hit a mini heatwave and encounter 100F / 38C temperatures. Another shrimp on the barby. Although no Aussie ever says that.