Auckland

Auckland (/ˈɔːklənd/ AWK-lənd), in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country. Auckland has a population of 1,454,300, 32 percent of New Zealand's population. It is part of the wider Auckland Region, which includes the rural areas and towns north and south of the urban area, plus the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, resulting in a total population of 1,570,500 that is governed by the Auckland Council. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world. In Māori, Auckland's name is Tāmaki Makaurau and the transliterated version of Auckland is Ākarana.

The Auckland urban area (as defined by Statistics New Zealand) ranges to Waiwera in the north, Kumeu in the northwest, and Runciman in the south. It is not contiguous; the section from Waiwera to Whangaparaoa Peninsula is separate from its nearest neighbouring suburb of Long Bay. Auckland lies between the Hauraki Gulf of the Pacific Ocean to the east, the low Hunua Ranges to the south-east, the Manukau Harbour to the south-west, and the Waitakere Ranges and smaller ranges to the west and north-west. The central part of the urban area occupies a narrow isthmus between the Manukau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitemata Harbour on the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the few cities in the world to have two harbours on two separate major bodies of water.

New Zealand

New Zealand (/njuːˈziːlənd/ new-ZEE-lənd, Māori: Aotearoa [aɔˈtɛaɾɔa]) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses – that of the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu – and numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of animal, fungal and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.

Somewhere between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that were to become New Zealand, and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer, became the first European to sight New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the British Crown and Māori Chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, making New Zealand a British colony. Today, the majority of New Zealand's population of 4.5 million is of European descent; the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealand's culture is mainly derived from Māori and early British settlers, with recent broadening arising from increased immigration. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, with English predominant.

Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways Company Q.C.S.C. (Arabic: القطرية‎, Al Qatariyah), operating as Qatar Airways, is the state-owned flag carrier of Qatar. Headquartered in the Qatar Airways Tower in Doha, the airline operates a hub-and-spoke network, linking over 140 international destinations across Africa, Central Asia, Europe, Far East, South Asia, Middle East, North America, South America and Oceania from its base at Hamad International Airport, using a fleet of more than 150 aircraft.

Qatar Airways Group employs more than 31,000 people, of which 19,000 work directly for Qatar Airways. The carrier has been a member of the Oneworld alliance since October 2013 (2013-10), the first Gulf carrier to sign with one of the three airline alliances.

History

Qatar Airways was established on 22 November 1993 (1993-11-22); operations started on 20 January 1994 (1994-01-20).Amman was first served in May 1994 (1994-05). At April 1995 (1995-04), the airline's CEO was the Sheikh Hamad Bin Ali Bin Jabor Al Thani who employed 75. By this time the fleet consisted of two Airbus A310s that served a route network including Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Cairo, Dubai, Khartoum, Kuwait, London, Madras, Manila, Muscat, Osaka, Sharjah, Taipei, Tokyo and Trivandrum. During 1995, two ex-All Nippon Airways Boeing 747s were bought from Boeing. The airline acquired a second-hand Boeing 747SP from Air Mauritius in 1996 (1996).

Auckland Airport

Auckland Airport (IATA: AKL, ICAO: NZAA) is the largest and busiest airport in New Zealand, with 15,231,802 (8,294,538 international and 7,016,977 domestic) passengers in the year ended November 2014. The airport is located near Mangere, a residential suburb and Airport Oaks, a service hub suburb 21 kilometres (13 mi) south of Auckland city centre. It is both a domestic and international hub for Air New Zealand, and as the New Zealand hubs of Virgin Australia and Jetstar Airways.

Auckland Airport is one of New Zealand’s most important infrastructure assets, providing thousands of jobs for the region. It had 71% of New Zealand's international air passenger arrivals and departures in 2000. It is one of only two airports in New Zealand (the other being Christchurch) capable of handling Boeing 777, Boeing 747 and Airbus A380 aircraft.

The airport is the fourth busiest in Australasia after Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane airports. However, internationally, the airport is the second busiest in Australasia as Melbourne had just 6,213,479 international passengers in 2011. Around 2008, the airport was rated in the top 3 worldwide for airports handling 5–15 million passengers annually. It was also voted the 12th best airport in the world in 2013 at the Skytrax World Airport Awards, as well as being the best airport in the Australia/Pacific region.

Joe Hanson

Joe Hanson (born February 23, 1983) is a writer and comedian living in Los Angeles. He is best known for his work on Current TV, Smash Cuts and Joe Goes.

Hanson made his first TV appearance in 2005, in the first season of the show The Beauty and the Geek. Joe and his partner Erica were eliminated in the second episode.

In 2005, Hanson and his production partner Hassan S. Ali created the Joe Gets series for Current TV, which spanned 50 episodes and was sponsored by T-Mobile. The series involved Joe exploring fish-out-of-water situations, like enteringed trips to California, Indiana, Nevada, Missouri, South Dakota, Alabama and New York. Joe also made the satirical series What's Wrong With, the music video parody Viral Superstar, and interviewed celebrities at Elton John's Oscars Afterparty, including George Lucas, Eddie Van Halen, Prince, Carmen Electra, Carson Daly, John Waters, Salma Hayek and Rick Fox.

In 2008, Hanson started "Bino White Weekly," in which he made a rap song every week as Bino White. The topics ranged from Nintendo to Twitter to Science, and each track was accompanied by a YouTube video. He did this for 52 weeks, breaking Crooked I's record for weekly rap songs.