1.
Ashburton, New Zealand
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Ashburton is a large town in the Canterbury Region, on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. The town is the seat of the Ashburton District, a territorial authority encompassing the town and the rural area. It is 85 kilometres south west of Christchurch and is regarded as a satellite town of Christchurch. Ashburton township has a population of 19,850, with an additional 12,400 living in the wider district, the town is the 23rd largest urban area in New Zealand and the third-largest urban area in the Canterbury Region, after Christchurch and Timaru. Ashburton was named by the surveyor Captain Joseph Thomas of the New Zealand Land Association, after Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton, the town is laid out around two central squares either side of the railway line and main highway, Baring Square East and Baring Square West. Ashvegas, Ashburtons common nickname, is an allusion to Las Vegas. Ashburton is on State Highway 186 kilometres south of Christchurch, the Main South Line railway line runs through the centre of town, but passenger trains ceased on 10 February 2002. The town is the centre of an agricultural and pastoral farming district and it has one large suburb, Tinwald, south of the town and the Ashburton River. Tinwald was the junction for the now-closed Mount Somers Branch railway line, the town has three other suburbs, Allenton, Hampstead and Netherby. The Ashburton District extends from the Pacific Ocean to the Southern Alps, and from the Rangitata River to the Rakaia River, including the towns of Methven, Mount Somers, on the whole, Ashburton shares a similar climate to Christchurch i. e. a dry temperate climate. However, since it lies further inland at an altitude to Christchurch. During summer Ashburton can exceed 30 °C, whilst winter can see regular frosts, Ashburtons heaviest snowfall was 60 centimetres on 12 June 2006. Ashburton lies in the middle of the fertile alluvial Canterbury Plains which permits agricultural activity such as dairying provided irrigation is used, radio Port FM is based in Timaru, Newstalk ZB and Classic Hits ZEFM are re-broadcast from other out-of-town stations. There is a recreational airport, Ashburton Aerodrome, serving the town. There are seven schools, an intermediate school, a secondary school. All rolls are as of July 2016, Allenton School is a state contributing primary school. It has a roll of 348 students, Ashburton Borough School is a state full primary school. It has a roll of 415 students, Ashburton Christian School is a state-integrated evangelical Christian composite school
2.
Christchurch
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Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. The Christchurch urban area lies on the South Islands east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula and it is home to 389,700 residents, making it New Zealands third most-populous urban area behind Auckland and Wellington. The city was named by the Canterbury Association, which settled the province of Canterbury. The name of Christchurch was agreed on at the first meeting of the association on 27 March 1848 and it was suggested by John Robert Godley, who had attended Christ Church, Oxford. Some early writers called the town Christ Church, but it was recorded as Christchurch in the minutes of the management committee of the association, Christchurch became a city by Royal Charter on 31 July 1856, making it officially the oldest established city in New Zealand. The Avon River flows through the centre of the city, with a park located along its banks. At the request of the Deans brothers, the river was named after the River Avon in Scotland, the usual Māori name for Christchurch is Ōtautahi. This was originally the name of a site by the Avon River near present-day Kilmore Street. The site was a dwelling of Ngāi Tahu chief Te Potiki Tautahi. The Ōtautahi name was adopted in the 1930s, prior to that the Ngāi Tahu generally referred to the Christchurch area as Karaitiana, a transliteration of the English word Christian. The citys name is abbreviated by New Zealanders to Chch. In New Zealand Sign Language, the name is the fingerspelled letter C signed twice, with the second to the right of the first. Archaeological evidence found in a cave at Redcliffs in 1876 has indicated that the Christchurch area was first settled by moa-hunting tribes about 1250 CE. These first inhabitants were thought to have followed by the Waitaha tribe. Following tribal warfare, the Waitaha were dispossessed by the Ngati Mamoe tribe and they were in turn subjugated by the Ngāi Tahu tribe, who remained in control until the arrival of European settlers. Their abandoned holdings were taken over by the Deans brothers in 1843 who stayed, the First Four Ships were chartered by the Canterbury Association and brought the first 792 of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton Harbour. These sailing vessels were the Randolph, Charlotte Jane, Sir George Seymour, the Charlotte Jane was the first to arrive on 16 December 1850. The Canterbury Pilgrims had aspirations of building a city around a cathedral and college, the name Christ Church was decided prior to the ships arrival, at the Associations first meeting, on 27 March 1848
3.
Canterbury, New Zealand
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Canterbury is a region of New Zealand, located in the central-eastern South Island. The region covers an area of 44,508 square kilometres, the region in its current form was established in 1989 during nationwide local government reforms. The Kaikoura District joined the region in 1992 following the abolition of the Nelson-Marlborough Regional Council, Christchurch, the South Islands largest city and the countrys third-largest urban area, is the seat of the region and home to 65 percent of the regions population. Other major towns and cities include Timaru, Ashburton, Rangiora, in 1848, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a Briton, and John Robert Godley, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, founded the Canterbury Association to establish an Anglican colony in the South Island. The colony was based upon theories developed by Wakefield while in prison for eloping with a woman not-of-age, due to ties to the prestigious Oxford University, the Canterbury Association succeeded in raising sufficient funds and recruiting middle-class and upper-class settlers. In April 1850, a group led by Godley landed at Port Cooper—modern-day Lyttelton Harbour—and established a port, housing. In December 1850, the first wave of 750 settlers arrived at Lyttelton in a fleet of four ships, following 1850, the provinces economy developed with the introduction of sheep farming. The Canterbury regions tussock plains in particular were suitable for sheep farming. Since they were valued by settlers for their meat and wool. By the 1860s, this figure had risen to three million, during this period, the architect Benjamin Mountfort designed many civic and ecclesiastical buildings in the Gothic Revival style. The Canterbury Province was formed in 1853 following the passing of the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 and it was formed from part of New Munster Province and covered the middle part of the South Island, stretching from the east coast to the west coast. The province was abolished, along with provinces of New Zealand. The modern Canterbury Region has slightly different boundaries, particularly in the north and it is New Zealands largest region by area, with an area of 45,346 km2. Canterbury was traditionally bounded in the north by the Conway River, to the west by the Southern Alps, the area is commonly divided into North Canterbury, Mid Canterbury, South Canterbury and Christchurch City. Canterbury is home to 600,100 people according to Statistics New Zealands June 2016,13 percent of New Zealands population and it the most populous in the South Island and the second most populous region in New Zealand. The median age of Canterburys population is 39.9 years, around 15.5 percent of the population is aged 65 or over while 18.7 percent is aged under 15. There are 97.5 males for every hundred females in Canterbury, just under 20 percent of Canterburys population was born overseas, compared to 25 percent for New Zealand as a whole. The British Isles remains the largest region of origin, accounting for 36.5 percent of the population in Canterbury
4.
Hurunui District
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The Hurunui District is a political district on the east coast of New Zealands South Island, north of Christchurch, New Zealand. It forms part of the Canterbury region and stretches from the east coast to the main divide and its land area is 8,660.43 square kilometres. The district had a resident population of 12,700 as of June 2016. Local populations could even recognise the identities of every local Maori or Asian recorded in the census, during the period,1853 to 1876, the area north of the Hurunui River was administrated as part of the Nelson Province. After the abolition of the provinces in 1876 the Amuri and Cheviot counties were formed, in 1989, these counties were merged with the Ashley and Waipara counties to form the present district. The current district mayor is Winton Dalley, who was elected in 2010 upon the retirement of previous mayor Gary Jackson, media related to Hurunui District at Wikimedia Commons Hurunui District Council website
5.
North Otago
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The district of North Otago in New Zealand covers the area of Otago between Shag Point and the Waitaki River, and extends inland to the west as far as the village of Omarama. Prominent rivers include the Shag, the Waianakarua, the Kakanui, the Kakanui Mountains form the principal cordillera, rising at their highest point, Mount Pisgah, to 1,643 metres. These are separated from the lower, parallel Horse Range by the valleys of the Waianakarua. The large east-coast town of Oamaru serves as North Otagos main centre, other towns and settlements in the region include Alma, Maheno, Kakanui, Herbert, Waianakarua, Hampden, and Moeraki, all close to the coast south of Oamaru. The coastal plain north of Oamaru has the settlements of Hilderthorpe, inland settlements include Weston, Ardgowan, Windsor, Five Forks, Peebles, Papakaio, Duntroon, Kurow, Omarama, and Otematata. The area aspired to provincial status in the 19th century, most of its territory belonged to the Waitaki County, and today is officially part of the Waitaki District. Some sense of regional identity survives in support of sport, notably the North Otago rugby team, the rolling, tussock-clad hill country of North Otago provides the important agricultural base, particularly through sheep-farming. The generation of hydro-electricity in the Waitaki Valley has also drawn attention to the area, benmore Peak Observatory website Omarama Gliding Club website World Altitude Record Attempt website
6.
Waitaki River
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It starts at the confluence of the Ohau River and the Tekapo River, now in the head of the artificial Lake Benmore, these rivers being fed by three large glacial lakes, Pukaki, Tekapo, and Ohau. The Waitaki flows through Lake Benmore, Lake Aviemore and Lake Waitaki, the Waitaki has several tributaries, notably the Ahuriri River and the Hakataramea River. It passes Kurow and Glenavy before entering the Pacific Ocean, the median flow of the Waitaki River at Kurow is 356 cubic metres per second. The middle of the bed formed a traditional political boundary between Canterbury and Otago. As such, the term South of the Waitaki is often used to refer to the Otago, the river is popular for recreational fishing and jetboating. In 2001 a proposal for a series of canals and dams was made by Meridian Energy for irrigation and electricity generation on the river. This scheme, known as Project Aqua, planned to divert up to 77 percent of the rivers flow to create a hydroelectric scheme. Lack of commercial viability was given as the reason for the schemes shelving. List of rivers of New Zealand Reservoirs and dams in New Zealand Nordmeyer, Waitaki – The River and its Lakes, The Land and its People. Waitaki Valley website Meridian energy Waitaki hydro scheme Hydrologic webmap of the Waitaki river basin
7.
Quaternary
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Quaternary is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy. It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.588 ±0.005 million years ago to the present, the Quaternary Period is divided into two epochs, the Pleistocene and the Holocene. The informal term Late Quaternary refers to the past 0. 5–1.0 million years, the Quaternary Period is typically defined by the cyclic growth and decay of continental ice sheets driven by Milankovitch cycles and the associated climate and environmental changes that occurred. The term Quaternary was proposed by Giovanni Arduino in 1759 for alluvial deposits in the Po River valley in northern Italy and it was introduced by Jules Desnoyers in 1829 for sediments of Frances Seine Basin that seemed clearly to be younger than Tertiary Period rocks. The Quaternary Period follows the Neogene Period and extends to the present, the Quaternary covers the time span of glaciations classified as the Pleistocene, and includes the present interglacial time-period, the Holocene. This places the start of the Quaternary at the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation approximately 2.6 million years ago, Quaternary stratigraphers usually worked with regional subdivisions. From the 1970s, the International Commission on Stratigraphy tried to make a single geologic time scale based on GSSPs, the Quaternary subdivisions were defined based on biostratigraphy instead of paleoclimate. This led to the problem that the base of the Pleistocene was at 1.805 Mya. The ICS then proposed to use of the name Quaternary altogether. The Anthropocene has been proposed as an epoch as a mark of the anthropogenic impact on the global environment starting with the Industrial Revolution. The Anthropocene is not officially designated by the ICS, however, the 2.6 million years of the Quaternary represents the time during which recognizable humans existed. Over this short period, there has been relatively little change in the distribution of the continents due to plate tectonics. The Quaternary geological record is preserved in detail than that for earlier periods. The climate was one of periodic glaciations with continental glaciers moving as far from the poles as 40 degrees latitude, there was a major extinction of large mammals in Northern areas at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch. Many forms such as saber-toothed cats, mammoths, mastodons, glyptodonts, others, including horses, camels and American cheetahs became extinct in North America. Glaciation took place repeatedly during the Quaternary Ice Age – a term coined by Schimper in 1839 that began with the start of the Quaternary about 2.58 Mya and continues to the present-day. In 1821, a Swiss engineer, Ignaz Venetz, presented an article in which he suggested the presence of traces of the passage of a glacier at a distance from the Alps. This idea was initially disputed by another Swiss scientist, Louis Agassiz, a year later, Agassiz raised the hypothesis of a great glacial period that would have had long-reaching general effects
8.
Moraine
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A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions on Earth, through geomorphological processes. Moraines are formed from debris previously carried along by a glacier, lateral moraines are formed at the side of the ice flow and terminal moraines at the foot, marking the maximum advance of the glacier. Other types of moraine include ground moraines, till-covered areas with irregular topography, moraines may be composed of debris ranging in size from silt-sized glacial flour to large boulders. The debris is typically sub-angular to rounded in shape, moraines may be on the glacier’s surface or deposited as piles or sheets of debris where the glacier has melted. Moraines may form through a number of processes, depending on the characteristics of sediment, the dynamics on the ice, moraine forming processes may be loosely divided into passive and active. Passive processes involve the placing of chaotic supraglacial sediments onto the landscape with limited reworking and these moraines are composed of supraglacial sediments from the ice surface. Active processes form or rework moraine sediment directly by the movement of ice and these form push moraines and thrust-block moraines, which are often composed of till and reworked proglacial sediment. Moraine may also form by the accumulation of sand and gravel deposits from glacial streams emanating from the ice margin and these fan deposits may coalesce to form a long moraine bank marking the ice margin. Several processes may combine to form and rework a single moraine, moraines can be classified either by origin, location with respect to a glacier or former glacier, or by shape. Some moraine types are only from ancient glaciers, while medial moraines of valley glaciers are poorly preserved. Lateral moraines are parallel ridges of debris deposited along the sides of a glacier, the unconsolidated debris can be deposited on top of the glacier by frost shattering of the valley walls and/or from tributary streams flowing into the valley. The till is carried along the glacial margin until the glacier melts, lateral moraines stand high because they protect the ice under them from the elements, causing it to melt or sublime less than the uncovered parts of the glacier. Multiple lateral moraines may develop as the glacier advances and retreats, ground moraines are till-covered areas with irregular topography and no ridges, often forming gently rolling hills or plains. They are accumulated at the base of the ice as lodgment till, in alpine glaciers, ground moraines are often found between the two lateral moraines. Ground moraines may be modified into drumlins by the overriding ice, Rogen moraines or ribbed moraines are a type of basal moraines that form a series of ribs perpendicular to the ice flow in an ice sheet. The depressions between the ribs are sometimes filled with water, making the Rogen moraines look like tigerstripes on aerial photographs, Rogen moraines are named after Lake Rogen in Härjedalen, Sweden, the landform’s type locality. End moraines, or terminal moraines, are ridges of unconsolidated debris deposited at the snout or end of the glacier and they usually reflect the shape of the glaciers terminus. Glaciers act much like a belt, carrying debris from the top of the glacier to the bottom where it deposits it in end moraines
9.
Alluvial plain
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An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. As the highlands due to weathering and water flow, the sediment from the hills is transported to the lower plain. Various creeks will carry the water further to a river, lake, bay, as the sediments are deposited during flood conditions in the floodplain of a creek, the elevation of the floodplain will be raised. As this reduces the channel capacity, the creek will, over time, seek new, lower paths. These processes, over time, will form the plain. The NCSS glossary instead suggests flood plain
10.
Waimakariri River
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The Waimakariri River, formerly briefly known as the Courtenay River, is one of the largest of the North Canterbury rivers, in the South Island of New Zealand. It flows for 151 kilometres in a southeastward direction from the Southern Alps across the Canterbury Plains to the Pacific Ocean. In Māori, Waimakariri has several meanings, one of which is river of cold rushing water, the river is known colloquially in Canterbury as The Waimak. The river rises on the flanks of the Southern Alps. For much of its reaches, the river is braided. As the river approaches the Canterbury Plains, it passes through a belt of mountains and it finally enters the Pacific north of Christchurch, near the town of Kaiapoi. In 1849, the surveyor of the Canterbury Association, Joseph Thomas, gave the river the name Courtenay River after Lord Courtenay. Instead of being unoccupied crown land as are most New Zealand river beds, chinook salmon were introduced from California in the 1900s and persist today. In 1923 the river was investigated for a hydroelectric dam to supply electricity to Christchurch. It received support from the community but the dam was never built since the Government offered inexpensive electricity from the Lake Coleridge scheme. The Central Plains Water Trust is proposing to take 40 cubic metres per second of water from two points on the Waimakariri River as part of the Central Plains Water enhancement scheme. In 2007 the Waimakariri was ranked as one of the ten most polluted of the rivers in New Zealand. Some of the pollution was caused by liquid wastes from industries such as a processing plant. The wastes were discharged directly into it but as of 2012 it was piped to the sewage treatment plant. There had been some issues with the resource consents for water discharge. Waimakariri River Regional Plan at Environment Canterbury
11.
Rakaia River
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The Rakaia River is in the Canterbury Plains in New Zealands South Island. The Rakaia River is one of the largest braided rivers in New Zealand, the Rakaia River has a mean flow of 203 cubic metres per second and a mean annual seven-day low flow of 87 cubic metres per second. In the 1850s, European settlers named it the Cholmondeley River and it rises in the Southern Alps, travelling 150 kilometres in a generally easterly or southeasterly direction before entering the Pacific Ocean 50 kilometres south of Christchurch. As it reaches the river-coast interface, a hapua forms, for much of its journey, the river is a braided river, running through a wide shingle bed. Close to Mount Hutt, however, it is confined to a narrow canyon known as the Rakaia Gorge. The Rakaia River is bridged in two places, the busiest crossing is at the small town of Rakaia,20 kilometres from the river mouth, where State Highway 1 and the South Island Main Trunk Railway cross the river using separate bridges. These two bridges are New Zealands longest road and rail bridges respectively, approximately 1.75 kilometres long, a second bridge, much shorter and less used, spans the Rakaia Gorge. The Central Plains Water Trust is proposing to take up to 40 cubic metres per second of water from the Rakaia River as part of the Central Plains Water enhancement scheme, the Rakaia River is a celebrated Chinook salmon fishery. It has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it supports breeding colonies of the endangered black-billed gull, the river is also known for its large wrybill population which represents 73 percent of the total population. Other important bird species using the riverbed are black-fronted tern and banded dotterel, selwyn District Council page for the Rakaia River Te Ara website page for the Rakaia River Salmon fishing on the Rakaia River
12.
Rangitata River
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The Rangitata River is one of the braided rivers that helped form the Canterbury Plains in southern New Zealand. It flows southeast for 120 kilometres from the Southern Alps, entering the Pacific Ocean 30 kilometres northeast of Timaru, the river has a catchment area of 1,773 square kilometres, and a mean annual flow of 95 cubic metres per second at Klondyke. The Māori name Rangitata has been translated as day of lowering clouds, close sky. Several remote sheep stations are located near Mount Sunday and these include Mesopotamia, Mt Potts, and Erewhon. Erewhon was named by Samuel Butler who was the first white settler to live at the Mesopotamia sheep station, Erewhon is also the name of a novel written by Butler anonymously in 1872. Before the river enters the Canterbury Plains, part of it is diverted to the Rangitata Diversion Race for irrigation, the RDR was built between 2 April 1937 and 1944, and supplies water to the Montalto and Highbank schemes before joining the Rakaia River. The entry point has New Zealands first acoustic fish fence, keeping salmon smolt in the river, towards its mouth, the river originally split into two streams, forming a large delta island. However, the branch of this split has since been blocked. Its course remains as a plain, but water does not normally flow here any longer. The Rangitata is the most fished river in the Central South Island Region, the salmon account for about 75 percent of angler activity on the river, other species fished are brown trout, rainbow trout and brook char. On 23 December 1999, Fish and Game New Zealand lodged an application for a conservation order on the Rangitata River. In June 2006, the water conservation order was gazetted, a locomotive, DC4686, ended up completely submerged in the river on 4 January 2002, after floodwater undermined a stopbank supporting the railway line, causing a derailment
13.
Canterbury-Otago tussock grasslands
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The Canterbury-Otago tussock grasslands are an ecoregion of South Island, New Zealand. This ecoregion is an area of dry grassy plains between the east coast and the Southern Alps that form the spine of South Island, in the regions of Canterbury. The area includes the Canterbury Plains along the coast, uplands such as the mountains of Central Otago and the Hawkdun Range and mountain basins such as the Mackenzie Basin, the grasslands altogether form the largest flat plain of New Zealand and are largely used for grazing livestock. Less rain falls on this side of the Southern Alps so the climate is dry with a warm summer and cold winter. The upland areas of Canterbury, such as the Craigieburn are higher and wetter than those of Old Man Range and the other flat-topped blocks of Otago, which are colder and often covered in wet bogs. A number of rivers including the Rangitata, Rakaia, Ashburton and Waimakariri cross the Canterbury Plains in a web of braids that weave in. The rivers of Otago are deeper and include New Zealands largest, there are few endemic plants on these grassy plains. The endemic tussock grasses such as slim snow tussock have now replaced by introduced pasture grasses in many areas. In some places there are patches of original or replanted beech forest, finally plants of the Canterbury riverine areas include lichens, Raoulia daisies, willowherbs, and shrubs like Muehlenbeckia. The dry grasslands are home to a number of insects including beetles, grasshoppers, cicadas, moths. One particular insect is the Prodontria lewisi which only remains in a area of sand dunes around Cromwell. Endemic reptiles include two lizards, the Otago skink and the grand skink. Another endemic species of the Canterbury plains is the Canterbury mudfish which has adapted to burying itself in the mud of riverbeds during the dry season, finally the Otago Peninsula is an important breeding ground for the New Zealand fur seal and New Zealand sea lion. These grasslands are now utilised as pasture with overgrazing, increased occurrence of fire and urban development all causing damage. Introduced species of animals that cause damage including possums, goats, red-necked wallaby, protection of the tussock grassland is an ongoing concern and a project of the Department of Conservation working with local communities to establish protected areas and restrict grazing. A number of areas have already set aside and formal protection is being established in Rock and Pillar Range, Lammermoor Range, Old Man Range, Old Woman Range, Pisa Range. However these are all areas and the original habitats of the lowlands are in a much more precarious state having almost entirely disappeared. Separate initiatives have set up to preserve habitats in the Canterbury lowland riverbeds
14.
Nor'west arch
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The Norwest arch is a weather pattern peculiar to the east coast of New Zealands South Island. For this reason, it is often referred to as the Canterbury arch. Closer to the Canterbury coast, some distance from the mountains of the Southern Alps, it appears as an area of blue above the mountains. The phenomenon is similar to the Chinook arch seen in the Pacific regions of the United States, the northwesterly wind in the South Island is a foehn wind. Warm moist air from over the Tasman Sea is pushed up by the presence of the Southern Alps, causing it to cool rapidly. The area to the east of the divide is in the shadow of the Alps, much of the moisture is dumped on the West Coast. As the air passes over the alps, the water vapour remaining becomes visible in a band of cloud over the mountains at the top of each wave of air, from the perspective of a viewer on the eastern side, this appears as an arch of cloud. The standing wave or arch is caused by the condensing and becoming visible towards the top of the wave. The Norwester can blow at any time of year, but is common in winter. Many of the strongest northerly and northwesterly winds blow ahead of cold fronts, a front lying across the South Island will often extend from northwest to southeast, reaching northern parts of the West Coast before it reaches corresponding areas on the east coast. Once every few years, a norwester will approach hurricane strength, norwesters caused by cold fronts will often change within a day or two to a cool southerly wind accompanied by rain showers, as the front passes through. In mid-winter, a Norwester is often followed by a brief but intense cold snap, frequently bringing thunder, hail, the heat and lack of moisture characteristic of norwesters play a major role in the intermittent droughts experienced by Canterbury and other regions on New Zealands eastern coasts. The Norwester has a psychological effect on many people subjected to its hot. It has been linked to increases in suicide and domestic violence. Chinook arch Lee waves Meteorological explanations of the Norwester New Zealand Meteorological Service Learning Centre
15.
2010 Canterbury earthquake
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Some damaging aftershocks followed the main event, the strongest of which was a magnitude 6.3 shock known as the Christchurch earthquake that occurred nearly six months later on 22 February 2011. Because this aftershock was centred very close to Christchurch, it was more destructive. The main shock on 4 September caused widespread damage and several power outages, particularly in the city of Christchurch, two residents were seriously injured, one by a collapsing chimney and a second by flying glass. One person died of a heart attack suffered during the quake, the earthquakes epicentre was 40 kilometres west of Christchurch, near the town of Darfield. The hypocentre was at a depth of 10 km. A foreshock of roughly magnitude 5.8 hit five seconds before the main quake, the initial quake lasted about 40 seconds, and was felt widely across the South Island, and in the North Island as far north as New Plymouth. As the epicentre was on away from the coast, no tsunami occurred. Initially, a curfew was established for parts of Christchurch Central City from 7,00 pm to 7,00 am in response to the earthquake, the New Zealand Army was deployed to the worst affected areas in Canterbury. The latest estimated total damage bill may be as high as $40 billion NZD, in the first eighty years of European settlement in Christchurch, four earthquakes caused significant damage, the last of them centred at Motunau on the North Canterbury coast in 1922. Modelling conducted for the New Zealand Earthquake Commission in 1991 found that earthquakes with a Mercalli intensity of VIII could recur on average in the Christchurch area every 55 years. The study also highlighted the dangers of soil liquefaction of the sediments underlying the city. About 100 faults and fault segments have been recognised around the region, the closest faults to Christchurch capable of producing powerful earthquakes are found in the Rangiora-Cust area, near Hororata, and near Darfield. The earthquake epicentre is located about 80–90 km to the south, the peak ground acceleration measured near Darfield was 1. 26g, recorded near Darfield. This was considered by GNS scientists as an extremely rare recording made near a fault rupture. However, the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake experienced PGA of 2.2 g, as of 7 August 2012,11, 000+ aftershocks of magnitude 2 or more have been recorded, including 26 over 5.0 magnitude, and 2 over 6.0 magnitude. Many have caused damage to buildings in the central business district. Notable aftershocks in order include, On 8 September 2010, there was a large 5.1 magnitude aftershock with an epicentre just 7 km from the city centre. On 19 October 2010 a magnitude 5.0 aftershock with a depth of just 9 km which caused surface shaking reported at the time to be the worst since the original earthquake
16.
Fault (geology)
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In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movement. Large faults within the Earths crust result from the action of tectonic forces. Energy release associated with movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes. A fault plane is the plane that represents the surface of a fault. A fault trace or fault line is the intersection of a plane with the ground surface. A fault trace is also the line commonly plotted on maps to represent a fault. Since faults do not usually consist of a single, clean fracture, the two sides of a non-vertical fault are known as the hanging wall and footwall. By definition, the wall occurs above the fault plane. This terminology comes from mining, when working a tabular ore body, because of friction and the rigidity of rocks, they cannot glide or flow past each other easily, and occasionally all movement stops. A fault in ductile rocks can also release instantaneously when the rate is too great. The energy released by instantaneous strain-release causes earthquakes, a common phenomenon along transform boundaries, slip is defined as the relative movement of geological features present on either side of a fault plane, and is a displacement vector. A faults sense of slip is defined as the motion of the rock on each side of the fault with respect to the other side. In practice, it is only possible to find the slip direction of faults. Based on direction of slip, faults can be categorized as, strike-slip. Dip-slip, offset is predominantly vertical and/or perpendicular to the fault trace, oblique-slip, combining significant strike and dip slip. The fault surface is usually vertical and the footwall moves either left or right or laterally with very little vertical motion. Strike-slip faults with left-lateral motion are known as sinistral faults. Those with right-lateral motion are known as dextral faults
17.
Braided river
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Not to be confused with the River Braid, Ballymena, Northern Ireland. Braided streams occur in rivers with high slope and/or large sediment load, braided channels are also typical of environments that dramatically decrease channel depth, and consequently channel velocity, such as river deltas, alluvial fans and peneplains. Braided rivers, as distinct from meandering rivers, occur when a level of sediment load or slope is reached whilst a steep gradient is also maintained. A threshold slope was experimentally determined to be 0.016 for a 0.15 cu ft/s stream with poorly sorted coarse sand. Any slope over this threshold created a stream, while any slope under the threshold created a meandering stream or— for very low slopes—a straight channel. Also important to development is the proportion of suspended load sediment to bed load. The channels and braid bars are highly mobile, with the river layout often changing significantly during flood events. Channels move sideways via differential velocity, On the outside of a curve, deeper, swift water picks up sediment, the braided channels may flow within an area defined by relatively stable banks or may occupy an entire valley floor. The Rakaia River in Canterbury, New Zealand has cut a channel 100 metres wide into the surrounding plains, extensive braided river systems are found in Alaska, Canada, New Zealands South Island, and the Himalayas, which all contain young, rapidly eroding mountains. The enormous Brahmaputra-Jamuna River in Asia is an example of a braided river. Braided river systems are present in Africa, for example in the Touat Valley, a notable example of a large braided stream in the contiguous United States is the Platte River in central and western Nebraska. The sediment of the arid Great Plains is augmented by the presence of the nearby Sandhills region north of the river, a portion of the lower Yellow River takes a braided form. Others have interpreted the depositional environment for this unit as a tidal delta, ait Anabranch Lagoon Shoal Hibbert, Barry, Brown, Kerry, eds
18.
New Zealand State Highway 1
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State Highway 1 is the longest and most significant road in the New Zealand roading network, running the length of both main islands. It appears on maps as SH1 and on road signs as a white number 1 on a red shield. SH1 is 2,033 kilometres long,1,081 km in the North Island and 952 km in the South Island, for the majority of its length it is a two-lane single carriageway, with at-grade intersections and property accesses, in both rural and urban areas. These sections have some passing lanes, around 215 km of SH1 is of motorway or expressway standard as of February 2017,191 km in the North Island and 23 km in the South Island. Current road construction will see an extra 102 km in the North Island and 11 km in the South Island upgraded to motorway or expressway standard by 2022. SH1 starts at Cape Reinga, at the tip of the Aupouri Peninsula. The highway crosses into the Auckland Region, and passes through Wellsford and Warkworth, near Puhoi, on the Hibiscus Coast, SH1 becomes the Auckland Northern Motorway, the main road north of New Zealands largest urban area. The first 7.5 km of the motorway is a toll road. At Orewa, the motorway becomes toll-free, crossing farmland to the North Shore of Auckland, the road crosses through suburbs to the Waitemata Harbour, which it briefly follows before crossing it by the Auckland Harbour Bridge. The motorway comes off the bridge into Aucklands city centre, at this junction, SH1 becomes the Auckland Southern Motorway, and, after sweeping around the southern end of central Auckland, proceeds in a south-easterly direction. The motorway continues in a broadly southeast direction across the Auckland isthmus, then through Manukau and Papakura to the top of the Bombay Hills, at Bombay, SH1 becomes the Waikato Expressway, a four-lane dual-carriageway expressway. The expressway takes the highway down the Bombay Hills to Mercer, where SH1 meets the Waikato River, the Waikato Expressway temporarily ends at Longswamp and becomes a three-laned dual carriageway, resuming at Te Kauwhata before reverting to single carriageway just south of Ohinewai. SH1 runs as a single carriageway through Huntly to Taupiri, the expressway ends in north-western Hamilton. The highway bypasses the city centre to the west, before crossing to the east side, the expressway resumes at Tamahere, bypassing Cambridge to the north before reverting to a single carriageway east of the town. The highway continues eastward to the town of Tirau, where it turns south to pass through Putaruru and Tokoroa, at Wairakei, SH1 takes an eastern route to bypass Taupo and meet the Lake Taupo shoreline south of the town near the airport. SH1 follows the shore of the lake for 50 km to Turangi. The road between Rangipo and Waiouru is commonly known as the Desert Road, and is closed by snow during winter. At km 794 on the Desert Road, SH1 is 1,074 metres above sea level - the highest point on the New Zealand State Highway network
19.
Main South Line
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It is one of the most important railway lines in New Zealand and was one of the first to be built, with construction commencing in the 1860s. At Christchurch it connects with the Main North Line to Picton, construction of the first section of the line began in 1865 and the whole line was completed on 22 January 1879. The Canterbury provincial government built and opened the first public railway in New Zealand, a line south to connect with major South Canterbury centres, northern Otago and Dunedin was desired, and on 24 May 1865 construction of what was then termed the Canterbury Great South Railway began. The Canterbury Provincial Railways were broad gauge,1,600 mm, the first section of the line was opened to Rolleston on 13 October 1866. Beyond Rolleston, three routes south were considered, A route well inland to cross rivers in narrower places. A coastal line through fertile country, a compromise between the two, following the most direct route and crossing major rivers at more reasonable places than the coastal route. The third option was chosen and the line was built through an at times relatively barren part of the Canterbury Plains towards Rakaia. By the time the line reached Selwyn in October 1867,35 km from central Christchurch the provincial government was so short of finances that construction was temporarily halted. In 1870 Julius Vogel announced his Great Public Works Policy and placed a priority on the completion of a line between Christchurch and Dunedin. Soon after this, the government recognised the need to conform with the uniform gauge. Construction not only progressed south from the Christchurch end and north from Dunedin, construction was swift through the 1870s, and on 4 February 1876, Christchurch was linked with Timaru. Just under a later, on 1 February 1877, the line was complete all the way from Christchurch to Oamaru in north Otago. At the southern end, the Dunedin and Port Chalmers Railway opened on 1 January 1873, most of this line became part of the Main South Line, with construction progressing north from a junction at Sawyers Bay, leaving the final two kilometres to become the Port Chalmers Branch. A difficult hillside climb out of Dunedin was encountered, with taking a significant length of time. The construction south from Oamaru included the creation of two branch lines along the way, the Moeraki Branch and the Shag Point Branch. On 7 September 1878 the route from Christchurch to Dunedin was opened in its entirety, in 1871, the Dunedin and Clutha Railway was one of the first authorised railways under Vogels Great Public Works Policy, and construction was rapid. This was the first major line constructed to 1,067 mm gauge, on 1 September 1875 the line opened to Balclutha, the major town of the lower Clutha River region,84 kilometres from Dunedin. At the Invercargill end, construction was swift, and Gore was reached on 30 August 1875, from here, undulating countryside necessitated heavier earthworks to Balclutha, completing the route from Dunedin to Invercargill, and construction was completed on 22 January 1879
20.
Timaru
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The Timaru urban area is home to 28,800 people, and is the largest urban area in South Canterbury, and the second largest in the Canterbury Region overall, after Christchurch. The city is the seat of the Timaru District, which includes the rural area and the towns of Geraldine, Pleasant Point and Temuka. Caroline Bay beach is a recreational area located close to Timarus city centre. Beyond Caroline Bay, the suburb of Washdyke is at a major junction with State Highway 8. This provides a link to Fairlie, Twizel, Lake Tekapo, Aoraki / Mount Cook. Timaru has been built on rolling hills created from the flows of the extinct Mt Horrible volcano. The result is that most of the streets are undulating. This volcanic rock is used for the construction of local bluestone buildings, the origin of the name Timaru is disputed. Some believe that it derives from Māori Te Maru, which can mean a place of shelter, however, other authorities allege that Timaru originates from a literal translation of the combination of ti, a cabbage tree and maru, meaning shady. Māori canoes seem to have employed the site of Timaru as a place to rest on journeys up and down the eastern coastline for many years before the arrival of the first Europeans in the 19th century. The area includes over 500 sites with traces of Māori rock art, particularly in the rock overhangs and caves of the Opuha and Opihi river valleys, archaeologists have suggested that Māori tribes were permanently settled in the district before 1400 AD. During the 17th or 18th century the resident Ngāti Mamoe were driven southwards into Fiordland by an invasion of the Ngāi Tahu, European settlement began with the construction of a whaling station in 1839 by the Weller brothers of Otago at Patiti Point, close to the present town centre. A supply ship, The Caroline, provided the name for a local bay, later a sheep station, known as The Levels, was set up on land obtained by the Rhodes brothers, and run by George Rhodes. One of the earliest settlers was Captain Henry Cain, who set up a store in 1857 on behalf of Henry Le Cren of Lyttelton, few lived in Timaru until 1859 when the ship SS Strathallan arrived from England, carrying a party of 120 immigrants. Persistent land disputes arose between the brothers and local government officials with the result that two townships were established in the area, Government Town and Rhodestown. These eventually merged into a community in 1868. Given this division, until none of the main north-south streets lined up. Stafford Street, which became the thoroughfare, was formed along the early bullock wagon trail
21.
Kaiapoi
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Kaiapoi is a town in the Waimakariri District of the Canterbury region, in the South Island of New Zealand. The town is located approximately 17 kilometres north of central Christchurch and it is considered to be a satellite town of Christchurch, although in the Waimakariri for statistical purposes it is part of the Christchurch urban area. In the 2006 census, the population of the town was 10,200 and this represents a growth rate of 11% over the previous five years. Kaiapoi suffered extensive damage in the 2010 Canterbury and also the February 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, Kaiapoi takes its name from the Māori pā which was built just north of the site of the current town around the year 1700 by the Ngāi Tahu chief Turakautahi. Eventually to become the largest fortified village in the South Island it lay on the site of a stronghold of a tribe, Waitaha whose history. Tūrākautahi was the son of Tūāhuriri, consequently Ngāi Tūāhuriri is the name of the hapu of this area. In selecting the pā site, Tūrākautahi determined that kai would need to be poi from other places hence the name Kaiapoi which it is said can be translated as a metaphor for economics, the first attack made against Ngāi Tahu was at Kaikōura during 1827–28. Instead, they found the fleet of canoes belonging to Ngāti Toa who, armed with muskets, Te Rauparaha and his tribes then visited Ngāi Tahu of Kaiapoi to trade muskets for pounamu. Already angered by the desecration of his dead aunts grave Te Maiharanui ordered a retaliatory attack the following day, killing the leading Ngāti Toa chiefs. The only prominent Ngāti Toa leader not slain was Te Rauparaha, Te Rauparaha returned to Kapiti Island to plan his revenge. In early November 1830, he persuaded Captain John Stewart of the brig Elizabeth to hide him and they then visited the Ngāi Tahu people of Akaroa under the ruse of trading for flax. Captain Stewart persuaded Te Maiharanui to board the brig and be taken below deck, Te Rauparahas men then surged ashore to sack Te Maiharanuis settlement, Takapuneke. The brig returned to Kapiti with Te Maiharanui and his family held captive and it is said that rather than see his daughter enslaved, Te Maiharanui strangled her and threw her overboard. Te Rauparaha then gave Te Maiharanui to the wife of the Ngāti Toa chief Te Pehi and his wife suffered the same fate. Te Rauparaha then mounted an expedition against Kaiapoi Ngāi Tahu in the summer of 1831–32. Ngāi Tahu, lacking muskets to repel the armed Ngāti Toa, took a defensive strategy, the ensuing siege lasted for three months. However, during a skirmish between the two tribes, a shelter caught fire, fanned by the norwester, the palisades quickly ignited, allowing Ngāti Toa warriors to enter the village, capture its leaders and kill the people. Ngāti Toa then attacked the Banks Peninsula tribes, taking the fort at Ōnawe
22.
Rakaia
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Immediately north of the township are New Zealands longest road bridge and longest rail bridge, both of which cross the wide shingle beds of the braided river at this point. Both bridges are approximately 1750 metres in length, rakaia was also the junction of the Methven Branch, a branch line railway to Methven that operated from 1880 until its closure in 1976. An accident at the station in 1899 killed four people. A township of under 1000 people, its most obvious feature is a large fibreglass salmon, the river from which the town takes its name is known for its salmon fishing and jetboating
23.
Temuka
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Temuka is a town on New Zealands Canterbury Plains,15 kilometres north of Timaru and 142 km south of Christchurch. It is located at the centre of a sheep and dairy farming region. At one time it supported wool scouring plants, it had a flour mill, the name Te umu kaha means long-lasting ovens, from the earth ovens that Māori people used to cook the plentifully-growing cabbage trees. Temuka was a stop on the Main South Line until passenger services were discontinued, Temuka previously had its own council system in place, but since then has been under the administration of TDC, Timaru District Council. With a population of 4,047 people in 2013, it is the second largest town in South Canterbury, Temuka is home to three schools, two primary schools and one secondary school. Temuka is accessed by New Zealands State Highway Number 1 and the Main South Line railway allowing for major cargo handling, Temuka is north of the Opihi and Temuka rivers. The local secondary school, Opihi College, takes its name from the Opihi River, both rivers are popular with locals and tourists. Almost all traffic passing north or south goes through or around Temuka, there are also rugby and football fields, a stadium complex and a holiday park. There are currently three primary and secondary schools in Temuka, Opihi College was originally called Temuka High School until 2005 when the name was changed. Temuka is home to a large trucking company, Temuka Transport. This company is hired throughout South Canterbury and has about 40 trucks which are used to service the South Canterbury area, also located in the town is, Temuka Homeware. Currently, the older and traditional items are undergoing an increase of demand from collectors, located in Temuka are many businesses, supermarkets, takeaways, collectors, hardware stores, office supply stores, art galleries, and others. Temuka is home to New Zealand Insulators, the supplier of Insulators to New Zealands power industry. Temuka Houses NZIs corporate Headquarters, South Island warehouse and Temuka factory, Temuka is also home to the only bagpipe bag manufacturing business in New Zealand, Gannaway New Zealand, manufacturing cowhide, goatskin and sheepskin bagpipe bags exported worldwide
24.
Rangiora
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Rangiora is the largest town and seat of the Waimakariri District, in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is 29 kilometres north of Christchurch, and is considered a town of the city. With a population of 17,350, Rangiora is the 25th largest urban area in New Zealand, Rangiora is 29 kilometres north of Christchurchs Cathedral Square or 20 minutes drive north of the Christchurch International Airport. It is close to the end of Canterburys Inland Scenic Route. The Ashley River is just to the north of the town, as of the 2006 census the population of the urban area was 11,871. There were approximately 4,500 more people living in the rural area. The urban area has seen a rate of over 10% in the last five years. The highest official temperature recorded in New Zealand was 42.4 °C at Rangiora on 7 February 1973. The town has primary schools and two secondary schools. They are, Ashgrove School, a full primary school in the north-west of the town with a roll of 488 students. The current principal is Christine Chadwick, Rangiora Borough School, a state full primary school in the centre of the town with a roll of 571 students. The current principal is Alan Sutton, St Josephs School, a state-integrated Catholic full primary school in the centre of the town with a roll of 158 students. The school opened in 1887 as a school and integrated into the state education system in the early 1980s. The current principal is Ben Gormen, Rangiora High School, a state co-educational secondary school, which serves Rangiora and the surrounding area, with a roll of 1768 students. The school opened in 1884, and the current acting principal is Julia Malcolm, Rangiora New Life School, a state-integrated Christian Area School situated in the Rangiora suburb of Southbrook. The school opened in 1979 as a school and integrated into the state education system in the early 1990s. A school roll of apx.400 students and growing, the current principal is Stephen Walters. Population growth in the Rangiora area since the mid-2000s, especially following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, has seen the towns primary schools start to approach capacity
25.
Leeston
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Leeston is a town on the Canterbury Plains in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located 40 kilometres southwest of Christchurch, between the shore of Lake Ellesmere and the mouth of the Rakaia River. The town is a service centre, but has all the necessities for a real township such as a supermarket, schools, churches, hospital. The Selwyn District Council currently has a office in Leeston. Leeston is growing relatively fast for a town, having a 2006 population of 1,299 up 8. 3%, or 99 people. This is significantly above the population growth rate in New Zealand. The 2013 census returned a population of 1,506, which is 15. 9% higher than the 2006 census, population growth is expected to continue due to people leaving Christchurch as a result of the 2010 Canterbury earthquake and the 2011 Canterbury earthquake. Its primary school was opened in 1865 and consolidated during the early 20th century and it was located on the west side of Leeston, with school residences being built in 1868. Its peak roll was 275, with classes in woodwork and metalwork for the males and cookery, a side school for younger pupils was opened in Doyleston, and named Leeston Side School. There were many schools in the Ellesmere area, including Doyleston School, Irwell School, Lakeside School, Brookside School, Killinchy School. These schools had very small rolls, and as early as 1898 there was a proposal that they should be closed and their pupils moved to the schools in the townships of Leeston. The Board replied that while the advantages that might accumulate from such a move were recognized, no funds were available for the purpose, the matter then was left alone for quarter of a century. In early 1923, the Chair of Education at Canterbury University College, Professor James Shelley and he promoted the idea of closing a number of small schools and moving their pupils to Leeston Primary. The Ellesmere Guardian followed this up with an article supporting the idea, some months later, at a meeting of the Leeston own Board, Dr. B. Volckman moved that Leeston was a suitable trying out ground for such consolidated, the clerk was instructed to send this resolution to the Canterbury Education Board after a unanimous vote of the members. For the next ten years the theoretical advantages and disadvantages of consolidation were discussed on, in December 1936, the party favourable to the consolidation gained a victory when a meeting of householders in Irwell voted in favour of consolidating Irwell School with Leeston. A week later, similar victories were achieved at Lakeside and Doyleston, Irwell and Doyleston pupils became foundation pupils of Leeston Consolidated School by April 1938. In 1945 Brookside School also consolidated with Leeston after falling roll numbers made it apparent that the school would only be entitled to one teacher
26.
Lincoln, New Zealand
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Lincoln is a town in the Selwyn District, in the Canterbury Region of New Zealands South Island. The town is located on the Canterbury Plains to the west of Banks Peninsula,22 kilometres southwest of Christchurch, the town has a population of 5,240, making it the second largest town in the Selwyn District behind nearby Rolleston. Lincoln is a town of Christchurch, at the 2006 Census. The town is home to Lincoln University, the oldest agricultural tertiary institution in the Southern Hemisphere, the site of Lincoln on the L1 River would allow for a flour mill to be built to service the growing farming district. Lincoln was laid out in a layout and FitzGerald named the four belts North, East, South and West. The main streets James, Edward and Gerald were names after himself. The new township steadily grew and by 1873 Lincoln had a post office, butcher, brewers, a baker and confectioner, a storekeeper who had a hotel, a wheelwright and a carpenter, and a blacksmith. The peaceful quality of Lincoln changed with the arrival of the line in 1875. On 26 April 1875, a branch railway was opened to Lincoln from a junction with the Main South Line in Hornby. This line became the Southbridge Branch, within a few years, Lincoln became a junction itself, with the Little River Branch diverging from the Southbridge Branch in Lincoln. This branch opened to Birdlings Flat on 16 May 1882 and Little River itself on 11 March 1886, on 30 June 1962, Lincoln became a railway terminus when the Little River Branch and the Lincoln-Southbridge section of the Southbridge Branch were both closed. The railway did not last much longer in Lincoln, closing on 1 December 1967, today, the Little River Rail Trail is being established along the railways old route. The Prebbleton to Lincoln leg of the route was opened on 30 November 2006, the trail is used extensively for recreation. Lincoln has two schools, one primary and one secondary, Lincoln Primary School is a state full primary school. It was established in 1866 and has a roll of 530 students as of July 2016, Lincoln High School is a state secondary school. It was established in 1959 and has a roll of 1667 students as of July 2016, a second primary school for the town, tentatively named Lincoln South School, is due to open in January 2019. Lincoln is the site of Lincoln University, as well as the university, there are a number of other research facilities in Lincoln, including AgResearch, Institute for Plant and Food Research, FAR, and Landcare Research. Over 400 people are employed at these organisations making Lincoln a busy little country village, Lincoln also has a maternity hospital, kindergarten and golf course
27.
Darfield, New Zealand
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Darfield is a town in the Selwyn District of the South Island of New Zealand. It is 35 kilometres west of the outskirts of Christchurch on State Highway 73 and on the Midland railway line, Darfield is the main town between Christchurch and the West Coast region. It is often called The township under the norwest arch in reference to a weather phenomenon that often creates an arch of cloud in an otherwise clear sky to the west of the township. This is caused by the condensation of water particles channelled upwards over the Southern Alps, Darfield has an intermediate/high school, and a primary school, as well as several shops. Darfield lies in the Malvern districts arable and pastoral farming area and it is a gateway to the scenic Waimakariri and Rakaia rivers and the Southern Alps, and is also a popular lift-off place for hot air ballooning. Fonterra has a powder factory near the town. The factory has a series of sidings and a container loading centre, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred near Darfield at 4,35 am on 4 September 2010, causing widespread damage to both the town and to surrounding areas including the city of Christchurch
28.
Geraldine, New Zealand
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Geraldine is a town in the Canterbury Region on the South Island of New Zealand. It is about 140 km south of Christchurch, and inland from Timaru, Geraldine has a country village atmosphere, with majestic old forests, early settlers cottages and little arts and crafts corners. The Geraldine area started to be settled by Europeans in the 1840s and he married a Māori woman, Nga Hei, and the totara tree that he planted to mark the birth of their daughter still stands. Sheep runs were established in the area together with pit saw milling of the native bush. When the bush had been cleared, wheat crops were grown across the plains, originally called Talbot Forest, Geraldine was renamed FitzGerald in 1857 after the first superintendent of Canterbury, the Irishman James Edward FitzGerald. The name was changed to Geraldine, which was the FitzGeralds family name in Ireland. Geraldine became a Town Board in 1884 and a Borough in 1905 and it was incorporated in the Ashburton electorate in 1908, when its hotels were closed. It remained dry until 1950, when the Geraldine Licensing Trust Hotel opened, geraldine’s reputation as a home to artists and artisans is growing all the time and many of these people have their work on sale in the town itself or from nearby studios. Usually on display in a shop is a recreation of the Bayeux Tapestry. It is at approximately half scale, the owners of the shop are on extended holiday and as such the tapestry is no longer visible. The store also used to house the worlds largest jersey, a short drive from Geraldine is Peel Forest. This is a precious and extensive podocarp forest with abundant birdlife. Follow the road beside the Rangitata River into the upper Rangitata River valley for some of the most spectacular alpine and it is not difficult to see why The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson chose this valley as an important location in his films. Geraldine is in the heart of a farming area with dairy cows, sheep, cattle, deer, cropping. Almost 3,500 people live in the town and its surroundings areas and it is the headquarters for the nearby state forests and has modern shopping amenities such as a book shop, hardware shop, dairies and many more. Geraldine Primary School is a decile 8 state co-educational contributing school, Geraldine High School is a decile 8 state co-educational secondary school that provides for students years 7 through 13, with 545 students. Movies are shown at the Geraldine Cinema, located on Talbot St. Geraldines first radio station, Z100FM and this changed to Four Peaks FM in 2001. Just Country FM currently broadcasts from the town, john Badcock, artist Jordan Luck, musician Hayden Paddon, rally driver Annabel Ritchie, rower Gus Spillane, former All Black Peter Williams, broadcaster Reed, A. W
29.
Methven, New Zealand
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Methven is a small town in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located near the edge of the Canterbury Plains,35 kilometres north of Ashburton. It was originally the railhead of a branch railway off the Main South Line. Branching off from Rakaia, the Methven Branch travelled through Lauriston and Lyndhurst to Methven and it is a rural service town throughout the year, but undergoes a stark transformation in winter. Mount Hutt skifield is around half an hour away from Methven, as such, a number of cafes, bars, and restaurants lie relatively dormant over the summer months. Similarly, the towns accommodation providers have a seasonal trade. In addition to skiing, another attraction is hot air ballooning, the annual Mountain Thunder motorcycle street-races. Mount Hutt college is Methvens main school and has a very popular Outdoor Pursuits class available which attracts students from all over the country, the population was 1326 in the 2006 Census, an increase of 192 from 2001. Methven is home to Rajah, New Zealands first police dog, Methven also served as a base to cast and crew for the filming of Edoras, for The Lord of the Rings. Methven Primary School is a contributing primary school. It has 284 students as of July 2016, mount Hutt College is a state Year 7 to 13 secondary school. It has 470 students as of July 2016 and our Lady of Snow School is a state-integrated Catholic full primary school. It has 36 students as of July 2016
30.
Waimate
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Waimate is a town in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is situated just inland from the eastern coast of the South Island, the town is reached via a short detour west when travelling on State Highway One, the main North/South road. Waimate is 45.7 km south of Timaru, Canterburys second city, and 20 km north of the Waitaki River, the population of the Waimate District was recorded in the 2006 census as 7,206 people. The districts area of 3,582.19 square kilometres forms the southern section of the agriculturally rich Canterbury Plains, Waimate is well known for its population of Bennetts wallabies. These marsupials were introduced from Australia and now live wild in the surrounding the town. It is also recognised for the White Horse Monument which is a silhouette of a horse that can be seen on the hills behind the town. It commemorates the Clydesdale horses that helped breaking in the land in earlier days, visitors to the monuments lookout are rewarded with panoramic views of the town and the districts green plains out towards the pacific ocean. From 1877 until 1966, Waimate was served by the Waimate Branch, for roughly seventy years ending in 1953, the line ran beyond Waimate to Waihao Downs. When the branch line was closed on 31 March 1966, Waimate became the first major town in New Zealand to lose its railway connection. The Waimate District is bounded by the Waitaki River in the south, the Pareora River in the north, the district is a very productive agricultural area with a mix of pastoral, cropping, dairy farming, fruit and vegetable growing. The Waihao River, which starts in the Hunter Hills catchment area runs eastwards on the side of the Waimate township joining with the Waimate Creek. They both eventually end up discharging very close to the sea into the Wainono Dead Arm, which flows into the Wainono Lagoon near Studholme. All but the latter closed within the first few years of the 21st century, just off the main street is a statue of Zealandia a female allegorical representation of New Zealand in much the same way as Britannia represents Great Britain. Only two Zealandia statues exist in the country, the other is at Palmerston, Otago. Both were erected as Boer War memorials, margaret Cruickshank, the second woman to graduate in medicine in New Zealand and the first New Zealand woman to register and practise as a general practitioner. Although not born in Waimate, she spent her career there. Mary Gorman, World War I nurse who died in the sinking of the SS Marquette A. M. Hamilton, notable for building the Hamilton Road through Kurdistan, major General Howard Kippenberger officer commanding New Zealand forces in North Africa during World War II. Though not born in Waimate his father bought a farm there when he was young, norman Kirk, 29th Prime Minister of New Zealand, 1972–1974 St. Augustines Anglican Church, located on John Street in Waimate, was designed in 1872 by Benjamin Mountfort
31.
Hadramphus tuberculatus
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Hadramphus tuberculatus is a rare weevil endemic to the Christchurch area in the South Island of New Zealand. It was thought to be extinct from 1922 to 2004, H. tuberculatus is a flightless weevil with a knobbed back. It reaches a length of 11. 7–16.3 millimetres and it has a dark brown body with greyish-brown scales. It was apparently common over the Canterbury Plains in the 1870s, the causes for its disappearance were possibly the removing of the speargrass, its host plant, by farmers and the arrival of rats in that region which had eaten the beetles. It was last seen in 1922 until it was rediscovered in late 2004 by research students of the University of Canterbury at Burkes Pass near Lake Tekapo, South Canterbury, New Zealand. It is now listed as endangered in the red list of New Zealand
32.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
