First, I'll talk about Cyclone. It rarely come to New Zealand. Recent reserch shows that northern New Zealand is hit by an average of a little over one storm each year.Every year between December and April, storms move south toward New Zealand. You can understand that storms is rare in New Zealand to compare Japanese typhoons with New Zealand storms. In Japan, about thirty typhoons form each year over the Northwest Pacific Ocean, of which typically about seven to eight pass over Okinawa Prefecture, and about three hit the Japanese main islands,especially Kyushu and Shikoku. Most typhoons hit Japan between May and October with August and September being the peak season tend to be stronger than typhoons earlier in the season. But New Zealand peaple had suffered big damege in the past by Cyclone more denger than storm. This cyclone says the worst storm recorded in New Zealand's history. This Cyclone's name is Giselle. The storm appeared in the Coral Sea near the Solomon Islands on 5 Aplil, 1968. Next day, the storm warnings were issued throughout New Zealand. Then, the cyclone was 3,000 kilometres away. Early in the moring of 9 Aplil, Cyclone Giselle hit Cape Reinga. The wind of 160 kilometres an hour caused damege to houses and other buildings. The heavy rain made flood. The farmlands of Northland were dameged by flooding and hundreds of farm animals drowned. The cyclone moved south, repeating the pattern of damege as it went across the North Island and down the East Coast. By the time Cyclone Giselle hit Wellington on the moring of 10 Aplil, another storm had driven up the West Coast of the South Island from Antarctica. The two storms met over the capital city. The two storms caused huge amouts of damege and wrecking the inter-island ferry, the Wahine, with the loss of 51 lives. The winds in Wellington were the strongest ever recorded by the New Zealand Meteorogical Servise. At one point they reached a speed of 275 kilometres an hour. As the storm moved on to the South Island, in Christchurch hundreds of houses lost their roofs and both the Avon and the Heathcote rivers flooded. Throughout Canterbury over 500 hectares of forest were deatroyed. In Southland the flooding was the worst since 1913. The Cyclone Giselle finally blew out some where in the Southern Ocean. This cyclone affected New Zealand-wide. A cyclone haven't been happened more dengerous than the Giselle.
Next, let's move on to the accident in disaster. This disaster was the cause of Volcanic ash from the crater of the Volcano. It drew the accident to get many the dead. The accident says Tangiwai Railway Disaster. It happened with the express train number 949 that was travelling from Wellington to Auckland. It was Christmas eve, 24 of December 1953. The train carried the 285 people. Many families were travelling to meet the relatives for the festive season. As the train was reaching the town of Waiouru, an avalanche of mud mixed with rocks and Volcanic ash coming from the crater of the Volcano Ruapehu. A giant wave of water, mud and rocks 6 meters high hit and swept away one concrete support of the rail dridge at Tangiwai, almost 10 kilometres from Waiouru. Without knowing of the collapse of the bridge, At 10:21 pm the express, consisting of one engine, nine carriages and two vans, and travelling at about 60 kilometres per hour, nose-dived deep into the river. Of the 285 people on the train that nignt, 134 surrived and 151 died most drowned in the floodwaters. Becouse no newspapers were produced on Christmas Day, the first detailed news of what had happened was given in a radio broadcast by the Prime Minister, Sidney Holland, from Waiouru Camp. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were visiting New Zealand when the disaster at Tangiwai happened. Queen Elizabeth made her Chistmas broadcast from Auckland, finishing with a message of sympathy to the people of the New Zealand. Prince Philip attended a state funeral for many of the victims. At the time, Tangiwai was the eighth biggest railway disaster the world had seen. It is still the fifth worst disaster in New Zealand's recorded history. On Christmas Eve each year the express train slows as it crosses the new bridge across the whangaehu River, and the driver throws a bunch of flowers into the water.
Finally, I also mention that we talked to you about natural disasters. Each disaster is very dengerous happning but it rarely happens in New Zealand. therefore, you don't think not go to New Zealand. This country has various attractions, nature, culture and so on. We can recommend the New Zealand as a good sightseeing.
