Ransom Riggs
Accidental Geography
by Ransom Riggs - March 18, 2010 - 7:34 AM

People find countries in the strangest places. Strangemaps collected a bunch of great examples, including some of these gems:

The United Steaks of America
11-steak

New Zealand: Land of the Long White Cloud
Did you know that the Maori name for New Zealand, Aotearoa, literally means “land of the long white cloud?” Ironic, then, that this accidental geography should appear in the sky.

Michelle Holshue sent in this picture, which she took in Costa Rica some years ago. The cloud formation over the ocean reminded her of New Zealand – and with some justification: the angle of the cloud constellation conforms to that of the New Zealand archipelago’s two main islands on most maps. The top of the cloud is shaped like NZ’s North Island, its bottom like South Island. A break in the cloud formation suggests the Cook Strait, separating both islands.

13-nz

Drown Under
What city is this? Miami? Strangemaps doesn’t say.

5-drown-under

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Comments (8)

  1. Miami doesn’t have MOUNTAINS!!! Plus they have more buildings…

    posted by jefe on 3-18-2010 at 8:33 am

  2. Sydney maybe? That sand bar certainly looks like a sideways Australia.

    posted by Brian on 3-18-2010 at 10:23 am

  3. Oh my gosh, my boyfriend and I do this!!! We find states in random items, and take pictures of them. Currently we have GA ad NH in tortilla chips, and our goal is to get the whole country.

    posted by KerriD on 3-18-2010 at 12:53 pm

  4. It’s Surfer’s Paradise Australia.
    http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-27.95779,153.419695&spn=0.019749,0.038581&t=h&z=15

    The sandbar is dead middle.

    posted by Richard on 3-18-2010 at 2:00 pm

  5. Okay, going over to the linked post, fetching the flickr static image link from there, and using flickr-url-fu led me right to the original photo:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahbaker/289362653/

    According to the tags, it’s Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. That, of course, is hardly enough information, so… the coordinates of the sand island are 27.957° S by 153.417° E, or if you prefer a Google Map:

    http://maps.google.com/maps?q=-27.957,153.417&t=h

    posted by CJ the Seeker on 3-18-2010 at 3:20 pm

  6. Surfer’s Paradise is in Gold Coast, Australia.

    Just wanted to comment on that :)

    posted by Jay-R on 3-19-2010 at 12:10 am

  7. Hey KerryD, if you’ve already got a NH tortilla chip, turn it upside down and you’ll now have a Vermont tortilla chip.

    recaptcha eyesfuls same

    posted by Inverted on 3-19-2010 at 4:41 am

  8. Love the New Zealand one!

    posted by Logan on 3-20-2010 at 7:04 am

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