1.
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
2.
New Zealand
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New Zealand /njuːˈziːlənd/ is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, the countrys varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealands capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland, sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that later were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, in 1840, representatives of Britain and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire, today, the majority of New Zealands population of 4.7 million is of European descent, the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealands culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, New Zealand is a developed country and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, education, economic freedom and quality of life. Since the 1980s, New Zealand has transformed from an agrarian, Queen Elizabeth II is the countrys head of state and is represented by a governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes, the Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealands territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and called it Staten Landt, in 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand, Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the country before the arrival of Europeans. Māori had several names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North, Middle and South, in 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised and this set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu
3.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
4.
South Island
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The South Island or Te Waipounamu is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, the South Island covers 150,437 square kilometres and has a temperate climate. In the early stages of European settlement of the country, the South Island had the majority of the European population, in prose, the two main islands of New Zealand are called the North Island and the South Island, with the definite article. Charcoal drawings can be found on rock shelters in the centre of the South Island. The drawings are estimated to be between 500 and 800 years old, and portray animals, people and fantastic creatures, possibly stylised reptiles, some of the birds pictured are long extinct, including moa and Haasts eagles. They were drawn by early Māori, but by the time Europeans arrived, early inhabitants of the South Island were the Waitaha. They were largely absorbed via marriage and conquest by the Kāti Mamoe in the 16th century, Kāti Mamoe were in turn largely absorbed via marriage and conquest by the Kāi Tahu who migrated south in the 17th century. While today there is no distinct Kāti Mamoe organisation, many Kāi Tahu have Kāti Mamoe links in their whakapapa and, a notable feature of the Moriori culture, an emphasis on pacifism, proved disadvantageous when Māori warriors arrived in the 1830s aboard a chartered European ship. In the early 18th century, Kāi Tahu, a Māori tribe who originated on the east coast of the North Island, There they and Kāti Mamoe fought Ngāi Tara and Rangitāne in the Wairau Valley. Ngāti Māmoe then ceded the east coast regions north of the Clarence River to Kāi Tahu, Kāi Tahu continued to push south, conquering Kaikoura. By the 1730s, Kāi Tahu had settled in Canterbury, including Banks Peninsula, from there they spread further south and into the West Coast. In 1827-1828 Ngāti Toa under the leadership of Te Rauparaha successfully attacked Kāi Tahu at Kaikoura, Ngāti Toa then visited Kaiapoi, ostensibly to trade. When they attacked their hosts, the well-prepared Kāi Tahu killed all the leading Ngāti Toa chiefs except Te Rauparaha, Te Rauparaha returned to his Kapiti Island stronghold. After destroying Te Maiharanuis village they took their captives to Kapiti, John Stewart, though arrested and sent to trial in Sydney as an accomplice to murder, nevertheless escaped conviction. In the summer of 1831–32 Te Rauparaha attacked the Kaiapoi pā, Kaiapoi was engaged in a three-month siege by Te Rauparaha, during which his men successfully sapped the pā. They then attacked Kāi Tahu on Banks Peninsula and took the pā at Onawe, in 1832-33 Kāi Tahu retaliated under the leadership of Tūhawaiki and others, attacking Ngāti Toa at Lake Grassmere. Kāi Tahu prevailed, and killed many Ngāti Toa, although Te Rauparaha again escaped, fighting continued for a year or so, with Kāi Tahu maintaining the upper hand. Ngāti Toa never again made an incursion into Kāi Tahu territory
5.
Tasman Bay
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Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere is a large V-shaped bay at the north end of New Zealands South Island. Located in the centre of the northern coast, it stretches along 120 kilometres of coastline and is 70 kilometres across at its widest point. It is an arm of the Tasman Sea, lying on the approach to Cook Strait. At the bays western extremity, the land around the bay is rough, separation Point, the westernmost point of the bay, is located in Abel Tasman National Park and separates Tasman Bay from its smaller neighbour, Golden Bay. To the east, the land is steep, with the westernmost points of sea-drowned valleys of the Marlborough Sounds. DUrville Island sits to the northeast of Tasman Bays easternmost point, arrow Rock is situated off the coast of Nelson. The land between two extremes is more gently rolling, and also includes the coastal plains around the mouth of the Waimea River at the bays southernmost point. Other rivers entering the sea along the coast of the bay include the Riwaka, the long low form of Rabbit Island is located close to the bays south coast. Tasman Bay contains the rare rock formation known as the Boulder Bank, the fertile land around the centre of the bays coast is extensively cultivated and known for its horticultural crops such as apples, kiwifruit, olives, grapes and hops. In the middle of the century the Tasman Bay area produced large crops of Tobacco. There is a museum in Motueka. It is also the most densely populated part of the South Islands north coast, and several towns and these towns include Motueka, Riwaka and Richmond. The name of the bay was altered to Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere in August 2014
6.
Motueka
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The town of Motueka in the South Island of New Zealand lies close to the mouth of the Motueka River, on the western shore of Tasman Bay. It is, after Richmond, the second largest centre in the Tasman Region, the Motueka Ward had an estimated population of 10,900 at 30 June 2009. The surrounding district has a number of orchards, as well as growing a variety of specialised crops such as hops, a number of small vineyards have developed in recent years, one gaining an international reputation. Nearby beaches are popular with holidaymakers, and the area around Motueka has one of the countrys highest annual sunshine-hour indices. Extensive limestone cave systems attract cavers and rock climbers, sea kayaking and tramping now attract many thousands of visitors each year. Many artists live in the area around Motueka, especially potters, the Riverside Community, in nearby Lower Moutere is a pacifist intentional community. Founded in the 1940s, it is New Zealands oldest cooperative living community, the name Motueka, or more correctly Motuweka, comes from the Maori language, and means weka island, the weka being a small bird of the rail family. The town is colloquially referred to as Mot by some residents. The first known European visitor to the coast near Motueka in 1827 was French explorer Jules Dumont dUrville and he explored and described much of the Tasman Bay shore line. Kaiteriteri was selected as a site for the first settlement but was abandoned in favour of Nelson Haven. Motueka was created as a borough in 1900, during the period,1853 to 1876, Motueka was administrated as part of the Nelson Province. Motueka is situated on the small Motueka Plain near the Motueka River which enters Tasman Bay about 4 km north of the town. To the west of the valley the land rises steeply to the Arthur and Pikiruna Ranges, the source of the Pearse River near Motueka is the deepest known cold-water cave in the world. The Motueka Ward of the Tasman District Council had an population of 10,900 at 30 June 2009. Motueka once served as a centre for the Plymouth Brethren, their New Zealand patriarch James George Deck lies buried in Motueka cemetery, horticulture is the main industry in the area surrounding Motueka, and the town benefits directly from this. Some of the crops are apples, beer hops and kiwifruit. Due to the growth of many crops, the towns population increases greatly with seasonal workers, especially during late summer. At the height of production, Motueka was home to two tobacco factories
7.
Tasman District
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Tasman District is a local government district in the north of the South Island of New Zealand. It borders the West Coast Region, Marlborough Region and Nelson City and it is administered by the Tasman District Council, a unitary authority, which sits at Richmond, with community boards serving outlying communities in Motueka and Golden Bay. The city of Nelson has its own unitary authority separate from Tasman District, Tasman District is a large area at the western corner of the north end of the South Island of New Zealand. It covers 9,786 square kilometres and is bounded on the west by the Matiri Ranges, Tasman Mountains, the Victoria Ranges form Tasmans southern boundary and the districts highest point is Mount Franklin, at 2,340 metres. The landscape is diverse, from mountainous areas to valleys and plains. The limestone-rich area around Mount Owen and Mount Arthur is notable for its extensive networks, among them New Zealands deepest caves at Ellis Basin. There is abundant bush and bird life, golden beaches, the unique 40-kilometre sands of Farewell Spit. These assets make the district a popular destination for tourists, Tasman is home to three national parks, Abel Tasman National Park, Nelson Lakes National Park and Kahurangi National Park. The Maruia Falls,8 kilometres southwest of Murchison were created by the 1929 Murchison earthquake when a slip blocked the original channel, the sub-national GDP of the Nelson region was estimated at US$2.343 billion in 2003, 2% of New Zealands national GDP. Tasman Bay, the largest indentation in the north coast of the South Island, was named after Dutch seafarer, explorer and he was the first European to discover New Zealand on 13 December 1642 while on an expedition for the Dutch East India Company. Tasman Bay passed the name on to the district, which was formed in 1989 largely from the merger of Waimea. Tasman District Council headquarters are at Richmond, close to the adjoining Nelson City, the head of local government is the mayor. Community Boards exist to outlying areas in Motueka and Golden Bay. Other towns are Motueka, Brightwater, Collingwood, Murchison, Riwaka, Saint Arnaud, Takaka, Tapawera, Wakefield, Mapua, according to tradition, the Māori waka Uruao, brought ancestors of the Waitaha people to Tasman in the 12th Century. Archaeological evidence suggests the first Māori settlers explored the region thoroughly, the succession of tribes into the area suggests considerable warfare interrupted their lives. Around 1828, Ngati Toa under Te Rauparaha and the northern tribes of Ngati Rarua and Ngati Tama. They took over much of the area from Farewell Spit to the Wairau River, the first immigrant ships from England arrived in Nelson in 1842 and the European settlement of the region began under the leadership of Captain Arthur Wakefield. In the 1850s, agriculture and pastoral farming started and villages were established on the Waimea Plains, in 1856, the discovery of gold near Collingwood sparked New Zealands first gold rush
New Zealand
