Latvians?
Latvians are a Baltic ethnic group, coming from a small country in north eastern Europe - Latvia. We are known mostly for our love of potatoes and for being sad all the time. Mix these two and you get the "Latvian Potato Jokes":
Two Latvian look at clouds.
One see potato. Other see impossible dream.
Is same cloud.
The first human settlers arrived in the territory of modern day Latvia with the end of the last glacial period in northern Europe 12000 years ago. But it is believed that the actual ancient Latvian culture dates back mere 5000 years ago - when Balts - our forefathers arrived. There were 10 different tribes and nations in the Baltic realm but most got completely assimilated or annihilated over the course of history and since 15th-17th century only two have survived - Latvians and Lithuanians. Given the centuries of oppression and our ancestors' bloody history, it's no wonder we have inherited a certain degree of sadness and clinging on to our potatoes as they literally saved us from extinction.
In New Zealand?
Latvia is not close to New Zealand at all. Well, nothing is close to NZ, but for Latvians it is the furthest place where we can go. But with WWII some people had had it with all the crusades, wars and occupations constantly ravaging Latvia that they decided to head out as far as possible. The other option would be to stay and face the mass deportations to Siberia but that didn't sound any good.
I don't have any information on Latvians settling here before WWII but we can't rule out the possibility that some adventurer had arrived here earlier, as there were already a couple of hundreds of Latvians in Australia around 1900. But, the history of Latvians in New Zealand that I know about starts with the ship that arrived in Wellington in winter 1949 with 210 Latvians on-board. A year later SS Hellenic Prince brought 192 more and later there was another party of 80. Most of them - 310 began their life in New Zealand in the refugee camps in Christchurch.
Eventually, the Latvian St Mara's Lutheran Church was founded and in year 1971 it finally got it's own property - a community house for Latvian gatherings. The house is still operational today and this is where the second stage will take you.
In 2011 there were around 200 Latvians living permanently in New Zealand. There is an umbrella organization for all the Latvian communities across Australia and New Zealand - Latvian Federation in Australia and New Zealand. The photographer Andris Apse is possibly the best-known Latvian New Zealander. MFAT writes: "New Zealand's relationship with Latvia is friendly and, to the extent that constraints of size and distance allow, we are working towards to strengthening our political and economic ties." What makes the distance seem even greater is the fact the there is no Latvian embassy in NZ nor Australia. Latvia is represented in New Zealand by the Embassy in London that is, well, literally on the other side of the globe.
In the recent years there has been more and more young people who have taken the opportunity to come here for one year in the Working Holiday scheme. Since 2009 Latvia has a quota of 100 such visas per year in NZ; although tiny, the quota was never filled until around 2015. For 2017 it was filled in two weeks time.
The latest feat by three Latvians in New Zealand, of course is putting up the Latvian oak tree sign "Latvia - 18 000 km" on Pitt Island in Chathams, cache author being one of the three. That really is the furthest inhabited place from Latvia, even Antarctica is closer. I've also placed the geocache - GC6J2QG Flower Pot that still has the FTF available on it 9 months later.
That is the brief history of Latvians in New Zealand. I won't make you go to Chathams to find answers for this cache, instead you only need to head to corner of Montreal/Worcester and look for a small memorial plaque.
A: How many acorns are there on the plaque?
B: What Roman numeral is seen on the plaque?
C: What anniversary of Latvian refugee arrival does the plaque mark?
D: Day of the month of unveiling.
E: How many potatoes in the description?
F: How many Baltic nations have survived to this day?
G: How many Latvian refugees did the Prince bring?
H: Sum of the digits of the year when Latvian congregation bought the house.
I: How many thousand kilometres from Pitt Island to Latvia?
XYZ: Sum of all of the above.
The coordinates for the second stage are:
S 43° 3B.ZYZ E 172° 3A.(D-H)(C+6)
(Little checker to see if you got it right: sum of the digits after decimal point of South minute is an even number but the same for East minute - odd.)
You are now standing next to the modest Latvian Community house. Not much to see here but it's the significance of the place in the cache context that is the main reason I've brought you here. Just two quick questions and you can go and find the cache:
JK: What is the street number of the Latvian house?
L: Smallest of the digits seen on the greenish box on the sidewalk right between this property and the next one.
S 43° 3B.(J+E)X(E+L) E 172° 3A.(FKJ*Y)
