As a New Day Dawns Trivia Quiz

New Zealand is the first large country located to the left of the International Date Line (IDL) and, although I've given Auckland as the city to represent the country, it is Gisborne, on the east coast of the North Island which claims the honour of seeing the sun rise first for the mainland.

The Chatham Islands, part of New Zealand, are even closer to the IDL and Pacific Islands such as Samoa and Kiribati also lay claims to being the first to see the dawn. This varies according to the time of year and daylight-saving time, so New Zealand has been chosen to represent the start of the sun's journey.

As we're heading west, North Korea is the next large country on our list and our first Asian country on the journey. It lies around 6,000 miles (10,000 km) to the north-west and sees the sun later than New Zealand.

North Korea has only one time zone, Korea Standard Time, and makes no adjustments to its clocks for daylight saving.

To see our next sunrise, we need to travel south west from North Korea to Thailand, still in Asia. Thailand is another country which doesn't have daylight saving time, and shares the same time zone as Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, among others.

The 'as the bird flies' distance between North Korea and Thailand is around 3,700 km or 2,300 miles.

A trip to the northwest means we can see our next sunrise in Nepal, and also view the Himalayas. Mount Everest is located on the border of Nepal and China and is visible from parts of Kathmandu if the weather is clear and at certain times of the year.

The distance from Thailand is around 2,200 km or 1,400 miles in a straight line.

From Nepal to Afghanistan is a relatively short distance, but we are, of course, travelling west and crossing India and Pakistan. We have to keep going west to see the sun rise over a different country. In distance, Nepal to Afghanistan is a journey of 1,700 km or just over 1,000 miles.

Afghanistan is the last Asian country on the list as the sun is going to be seen from Europe in our next stop.

Heading to Athens from Kabul is a long journey, but in almost a straight westerly direction of 2,500 miles or 4,000 km. If you drove it, though, you'd be facing a trip of over 4,000 miles (6,500 km), so it's best to hitch a lift with a passing bird to stay ahead of the sunrise.

Athens is one of the oldest cities on our route, with many ancient ruins and artefacts to see such as the Parthenon and the Acropolis. If you want to keep ahead of the sun, you'll need to move quickly, though.

Because of the Mediterranean Sea, driving from Athens to Lisbon means crossing to Italy, heading up to France and driving through Spain to reach Portugal's capital city. In a straight line, the distance is shorter at just under 1,800 miles or 2,800 km.

Lisbon is located on Portugal's western coast, adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, making it the most westerly capital city of mainland Europe.

To reach Brazil from Portugal entails a trip across the Atlantic Ocean and heading in a generally southerly direction and over to the west. The distance is around 4,800 miles or 7,700 km.

Rio de Janeiro is another city located on the Atlantic coast, this time in the east of its country. Brazil was colonised by the Portuguese, and it was they who established Rio back in the sixteenth century.

Travelling from Rio to Halifax does, as you'd expect, take us in a generally northwest direction. Of all the places covered in the quiz, these two places are the closest together in longitude, with Halifax being only 20 degrees west of Rio de Janeiro.

The distance between the two cities is 4,800 miles or 7,800 km in a straight line. Halifax also borders the Atlantic Ocean and is the capital city of Nova Scotia.

We're well over to the west now, so Los Angeles has been picked to represent the final destination, being a large city of the mainland of the USA. Hawaii is, of course, even further west and there are islands such as Howland Island which can be considered, but they are uninhabited. In case you had any doubts about the size of North America, the distance between Halifax on Canada's east coast to Los Angeles on the United States of America's west coast is nearly 3,000 miles or just under 6,000 km.

Of inhabited islands, American Samoa and Niue are very close to the International Date Line, making them among the last to see the rising sun. Samoa, among the first to see the sun rise, is just the other side. Despite this, there are times during the winter months when Alaska is a candidate for seeing the last sunrise.