Last night – at 8.30pm on 28th March – 80 countries took part in Earth Hour by turning off lights and other things which use electricity. The idea began in Sydney in 2007. Last year, Christchurch was the only New Zealand city to observe Earth Hour but this year 44 districts in New Zealand took part. The Beehive in Wellington where our MPs have their offices, and Sky City in Auckland turned off their lights for one hour. Both Wellington and Christchurch had a concert or other activities in the city for people to attend.

Not much electricity was saved. However, the idea was to make people think about the future of the Earth. It was the idea of the WWF, the World Wide Fund.

New Zealand was the first country in the world to turn off the lights because we are so close to the international dateline so 28th March 8.30pm was first in New Zealand.