Do you know what is on the other side of the world? And do you know the connection between Hawaii and Botswana? If you would dig a hole through the earth starting on the Big Island, you would come out on the other side of the planet in Botswana, Southern Africa.
Namibia and Botswana and on the opposite end of the world compared to Hawaii. Image credit (left): user Martin23230 / CC BY-SA, source. Image credit (right): The Open Street Map Project and this antipode map generator.
An “antipode” is a person that lives on exactly the other side of the planet. Antipodes of Hawaii live in two countries in the south of the African continent: most of Hawaii is opposite of Botswana, while the people living on the southern part of Kauai have Namibians as antipodes. You can see this illustrated in the figure above.
What do Hawaii Antipodal cities look like?
We looked up the antipodes to a couple of popular spots on Hawaii, and linked them to google streetview images so you can see what the other side of the world actually looks like!
- Honolulu (Oahu): Dekar (Botswana, Google street view)
- Kailua Kona (Big Island): Maun (Botswana, Google street view)
- Hilo (Big Island): Gweta (Botswana, Google street view)
- Kahului (Maui): Toteng (Botswana, Google street view)
- Lihue (Kauai): Ghanzi (Botswana, Google street view). The closest images to the real antipodal point we could find are of the border crossing between Botswana and Namibia (Google street view).
Have fun finding your own antipodeans with one of these antipode map tools: