Post by Lux on Jan 8, 2009 6:50:39 GMT 12
The Dominion Post | Thursday, 08 January 2009
Franz Josef Glacier, Milford Sound and the Ross Ice Shelf will vie with some of the world's most spectacular scenery in a search to find seven new natural wonders of the world.
The three New Zealand sites are among 261 nominees from across the globe to make it through to the quarterfinal phase of the New Seven Wonders of Nature competition, run by a Swiss-based non-profit foundation.
New Zealand's scenery is up against some tough competition - the Grand Canyon, the Dead Sea and Mt Everest are all on the list, while across the Tasman, nominations include Great Barrier Reef and Uluru.
The public can help to whittle down the list to 77 semifinalists through online voting, open till July 7.
A panel of nature experts chaired by Federico Mayor, former chief of Unesco, will then cull the list to 21 finalists.
The seven winners will then be chosen in another round of public voting lasting till 2011, this time by Internet, telephone and text messages.
The competition follows a search to find seven manmade wonders, which were announced 18 months ago.
The winners were the Colosseum, Italy; the Great Wall of China; the Taj Mahal, India; Petra, Jordan; Christ the Redeemer Statue, Brazil; Machu Picchu, Peru; and Chichen Itza, Mexico.
