Auckland
Auckland is a city in the North Island of New Zealand. Auckland is the largest urban area in the country, with an urban population of around 1,628,900, it is located in the Auckland Region—the area governed by Auckland Council—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, resulting in a total population of 1,695,900. A diverse and multicultural city, Auckland is home to the largest Polynesian population in the world; the Māori-language name for Auckland is Tāmaki or Tāmaki-makau-rau, meaning "Tāmaki with a hundred lovers", in reference to the desirability of its fertile land at the hub of waterways in all directions. The Auckland urban area ranges to Waiwera in the north, Kumeu in the north-west, Runciman in the south. Auckland lies between the Hauraki Gulf of the Pacific Ocean to the east, the low Hunua Ranges to the south-east, the Manukau Harbour to the south-west, the Waitakere Ranges and smaller ranges to the west and north-west; the surrounding hills are covered in rainforest and the landscape is dotted with dozens of dormant volcanic cones.
The central part of the urban area occupies a narrow isthmus between the Manukau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitematā Harbour on the Pacific Ocean. Auckland is one of the few cities in the world to have a harbour on each of two separate major bodies of water; the isthmus on which Auckland resides was first settled around 1350 and was valued for its rich and fertile land. The Māori population in the area is estimated to have peaked at 20,000 before the arrival of Europeans. After a British colony was established in 1840, William Hobson Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, chose the area as his new capital, he named the area for Earl of Auckland, British First Lord of the Admiralty. It was replaced as the capital in 1865 by Wellington, but immigration to Auckland stayed strong, it has remained the country's most populous city. Today, Auckland's central business district is the major financial centre of New Zealand. Auckland is classified as a Beta + World City because of its importance in commerce, the arts, education.
The University of Auckland, established in 1883, is the largest university in New Zealand. Landmarks such as the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Harbour Bridge, the Sky Tower, many museums, parks and theatres are among the city's significant tourist attractions. Auckland Airport handles around one million international passengers a month. Despite being one of the most expensive cities in the world, Auckland is ranked third on the 2016 Mercer Quality of Living Survey, making it one of the most liveable cities; the isthmus was settled by Māori circa 1350, was valued for its rich and fertile land. Many pā were created on the volcanic peaks; the Māori population in the area is estimated to have been about 20,000 before the arrival of Europeans. The introduction of firearms at the end of the eighteenth century, which began in Northland, upset the balance of power and led to devastating intertribal warfare beginning in 1807, causing iwi who lacked the new weapons to seek refuge in areas less exposed to coastal raids.
As a result, the region had low numbers of Māori when European settlement of New Zealand began. On 27 January 1832, Joseph Brooks Weller, eldest of the Weller brothers of Otago and Sydney, bought land including the site of the modern city of Auckland, the North Shore, part of Rodney District for "one large cask of powder" from "Cohi Rangatira". After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in February 1840, the new Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, chose the area as his new capital and named it for George Eden, Earl of Auckland Viceroy of India; the land that Auckland was established on was given to the Governor by a local iwi, Ngāti Whātua, as a sign of goodwill and in the hope that the building of a city would attract commercial and political opportunities for iwi. Auckland was declared New Zealand's capital in 1841, the transfer of the administration from Russell in the Bay of Islands was completed in 1842; however in 1840 Port Nicholson was seen as a better choice for an administrative capital because of its proximity to the South Island, Wellington became the capital in 1865.
After losing its status as capital, Auckland remained the principal city of the Auckland Province until the provincial system was abolished in 1876. In response to the ongoing rebellion by Hone Heke in the mid-1840s, the government encouraged retired but fit British soldiers and their families to migrate to Auckland to form a defence line around the port settlement as garrison soldiers. By the time the first Fencibles arrived in 1848, the rebels in the north had been defeated. Outlying defensive towns were constructed to the south, stretching in a line from the port village of Onehunga in the west to Howick in the east; each of the four settlements had about 800 settlers. In the early 1860s, Auckland became a base against the Māori King Movement, the 12,000 Imperial soldiers stationed there led to a strong boost to local commerce. This, continued road building towards the south into the Waikato, enabled Pākehā influence to spread from Auckland; the city's population grew rapidly, from 1,500 in 1841 to 3,635 in 1845 to 12,423 by 1864.
The growth occurred to other mercantile-dominated cities around the port and with problems of overcrowding and pollution. Auckland's population of ex-soldiers was far greater than that of other settlements: about 50 percent of the popula
Orewa
Orewa is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. It lies on the Hibiscus Coast, just north of the base of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula and 40 kilometres north of central Auckland. Orewa's population was 8,523 in the 2013 Census, an increase of 1,197 from 2006, it is a popular holiday destination. Orewa is considered one of the fastest growing places in New Zealand and is one of the most expensive areas in which to buy a house; the Northern Motorway, part of State Highway 1, passes just inland of Orewa and extends through the twin Johnston Hill tunnels to near Puhoi. Orewa was administered as part of the Rodney District for two decades, until this was subsumed into the new Auckland Council in October 2010. Places of note within the town include: Orewa Community Centre The Youth centre The Orewa Surf Life-Saving Club Centrestage Theatre The water fountains by the traffic lights on the main road The Nautilus apartment complex The Statue of Sir Edmund Hillary Alice Eaves Scenic Reserve The Orewa Bridge The Estuary Arts Centre The Theosophical Centre The former Rodney District Council building on Centreway Road The Orewa Arts And Events Centre The Orewa River Hibiscus Coast Community CentreOrewa beach is one of the longest and safest beaches in Auckland.
One of the more notable events on the beach is the Orewa Big Dig. This is an annual event organized by the local Lions Club, where children dig in the sand to find prizes. All monies raised go to local community groups. Orewa Community Centre is located in Orewa Square; the Hibiscus Community Centre is located at 214E Hibiscus Coast Highway. Orewa District High School was founded in 1956. In 1974, the school was split into Orewa Primary Orewa College. Orewa North Primary School was founded in 1978, another primary school opened at Red Beach to the south in 1988. Orewa College is a secondary school with a decile rating of 9 and a roll of 1696. Orewa Primary School, Orewa North Primary School and Red Beach Primary School are contributing primary schools, all with decile ratings of 8 and rolls of 214 and 320 respectively. All three schools are coeducational. In 2005 locally famous Puriri Park, at the foot of Eaves Bush, was sold for over $2,000,000, it was being subdivided in a $450 million development to form the community of Kensington Park to provide for the rising demand for housing in Orewa and the surrounding area.
This upset some elderly locals as they regarded the old park as a popular place for people to enjoy their holidays and saw the development as a sign of further development to Orewa. However the developer went into receivership in September 2008 after completing less than 10% of the 750 homes planned. Hibiscus Coast Community House
Ferry
A ferry is a merchant vessel used to carry passengers, sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi. Ferries form a part of the public transport systems of many waterside cities and islands, allowing direct transit between points at a capital cost much lower than bridges or tunnels. Ship connections of much larger distances may be called ferry services if they carry vehicles; the profession of the ferryman is embodied in Greek mythology in Charon, the boatman who transported souls across the River Styx to the Underworld. Speculation that a pair of oxen propelled a ship having a water wheel can be found in 4th century Roman literature "Anonymus De Rebus Bellicis". Though impractical, there is no reason why it could not work and such a ferry, modified by using horses, was used in Lake Champlain in 19th-century America. See "When Horses Walked on Water: Horse-Powered Ferries in Nineteenth-Century America".
See Experiment. The Marine Services Company of Tanzania offers passenger and cargo services in Lakes Victoria and Malawi, it operates one of the oldest ferries in the region, the MV Liemba, built in 1913 during the German colonial rule. The busiest seaway in the world, the English Channel, connects Great Britain and mainland Europe, with ships sailing to French ports, such as Calais, Dieppe, Cherbourg-Octeville, Caen, St Malo and Le Havre. Ferries from Great Britain sail to Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Ireland; some ferries carry tourist traffic, but most carry freight, some are for the use of freight lorries. In Britain, car-carrying ferries are sometimes referred to as RORO for the ease by which vehicles can board and leave; the busiest single ferry route is across the northern part of Øresund, between Helsingborg, Scania and Elsinore, Denmark. Before the Øresund bridge was opened in July 2000, car and "car & train" ferries departed up to seven times every hour. In 2013, this has been reduced, but a car ferry still departs from each harbor every 15 minutes during daytime.
The route is around 2.2 nautical miles and the crossing takes 22 minutes. Today, all ferries on this route are constructed so that they do not need to turn around in the harbors; this means that the ferries lack stems and sterns, since the vessels sail in both directions. Starboard and port-side are dynamic, depending on the direction the ferry sails. Despite the short crossing, the ferries are equipped with restaurants and kiosks. Passengers without cars make a "double or triple return" journey in the restaurants. Passenger and bicycle passenger tickets are inexpensive compared with longer routes. Large cruiseferries sail in the Baltic Sea between Finland, Åland, Estonia and Saint Petersburg and from Italy to Sardinia, Corsica and Greece. In many ways, these ferries are like cruise ships, but they can carry hundreds of cars on car decks. Besides providing passenger and car transport across the sea, Baltic Sea cruise-ferries are a popular tourist destination unto themselves, with multiple restaurants, bars and entertainment on board.
Many smaller ferries operate on domestic routes in Finland and Estonia. The south-west and southern parts of the Baltic Sea has several routes for heavy traffic and cars; the ferry routes of Trelleborg-Rostock, Trelleborg-Travemünde, Trelleborg-Świnoujście, Gedser-Rostock, Gdynia-Karlskrona, Ystad-Świnoujście are all typical transports ferries. On the longer of these routes, simple cabins are available; the Rødby-Puttgarden route transports day passenger trains between Copenhagen and Hamburg, on the Trelleborg-Sassnitz route, it has capacities for the daily night trains between Berlin and Malmö. In Istanbul, ferries connect the European and Asian shores of Bosphorus, as well as Princes Islands and nearby coastal towns. In 2014 İDO transported the largest ferry system in the world. Due to the numbers of large freshwater lakes and length of shoreline in Canada, various provinces and territories have ferry services. BC Ferries operates the third largest ferry service in the world which carries travellers between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland on the country's west coast.
This ferry service operates to other islands including the Gulf Islands and Haida Gwaii. In 2015, BC Ferries carried 20 million passengers. Canada's east coast has been home to numerous inter- and intra-provincial ferry and coastal services, including a large network operated by the federal government under CN Marine and Marine Atlantic. Private and publicly owned ferry operations in eastern Canada include Marine Atlantic, serving the island of Newfoundland, as well as Bay, NFL, CTMA, Coastal Transport, STQ. Canadian waters in the Great Lakes once hosted numerous ferry services, but these have been reduced to those offered by Owen Sound Transportation and several smaller operations. There are several commuter passenger ferry services operated in major cities, such as Metro Transit in Halifax, Toronto Island ferries in Toronto and SeaBus in Vancouver. Washington State Ferries operates the most extensive ferry system in the continental United States and the second largest in t
New Zealand
New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia and Tonga; 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 and plant life; the country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington. Sometime between 1250 and 1300, Polynesians settled in the islands that 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 the United Kingdom 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 and in 1907 it became a dominion. Today, the majority of New Zealand's population of 4.9 million is of European descent. Reflecting this, New Zealand's culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers, with recent broadening arising from increased immigration; the official languages are English, Māori, NZ Sign Language, with English being dominant. A developed country, New Zealand ranks in international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, economic freedom. New Zealand underwent major economic changes during the 1980s, which transformed it from a protectionist to a liberalised free-trade economy; the service sector dominates the national economy, followed by the industrial sector, agriculture. Nationally, legislative authority is vested in an elected, unicameral Parliament, while executive political power is exercised by the Cabinet, led by the prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
Queen Elizabeth II is the country's monarch and is represented by a governor-general Dame Patsy Reddy. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes; the Realm of New Zealand includes Tokelau. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ASEAN Plus Six, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Community and the Pacific Islands Forum. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and named it Staten Land "in honour of the States General", he wrote, "it is possible that this land joins to the Staten Land but it is uncertain", referring to a landmass of the same name at the southern tip of South America, discovered by Jacob Le Maire in 1616. 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 whole country before the arrival of Europeans, with Aotearoa referring to just the North Island. Māori had several traditional 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 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, names and alternative names were formalised in 2013. This set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, South Island or Te Waipounamu. For each island, either its English or Māori name can be used. New Zealand was one of the last major landmasses settled by humans. Radiocarbon dating, evidence of deforestation and mitochondrial DNA variability within Māori populations suggest New Zealand was first settled by Eastern Polynesians between 1250 and 1300, concluding a long series of voyages through the southern Pacific islands.
Over the centuries that followed, these settlers developed a distinct culture now known as Māori. The population was divided into iwi and hapū who would sometimes cooperate, sometimes compete and sometimes fight against each other. At some point a group of Māori migrated to Rēkohu, now known as the Chatham Islands, where they developed their distinct Moriori culture; the Moriori population was all but wiped out between 1835 and 1862 because of Taranaki Māori invasion and enslavement in the 1830s, although European diseases contributed. In 1862 only 101 survived, the last known full-blooded Moriori died in 1933; the first Europeans known to have reached New Zeala
Thames, New Zealand
Thames is a town at the southwestern end of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand's North Island. It is located on the Firth of Thames close to the mouth of the Waihou River; the town is the seat of the Thames-Coromandel District Council. The Māori iwi are Ngāti Maru. Ngāti Maru is part of better known as Hauraki Iwi. Thames was at one time the second-largest city in New Zealand, behind Dunedin and ahead of Auckland). After the gold began to diminish, so did Thames' population, although not and it has remained stable since, it is still the biggest town on the Coromandel. The population in the 2006 census was 6,756, an increase of 51 since 2001; until 2016, a historical oak tree, planted by Governor George Grey stood on the corner of Grey and Rolleston streets. Thames was formed from two historic towns and Shortland, of which many original buildings still stand. Shortland was to the south of Thames and was founded on 27 July 1867 when James Mackay, civil commissioner for the Hauraki District, concluded an agreement with local Māori.
The land was rented for mining purposes for the sum of £5,000 per year, a colossal sum in the mid 19th century. This agreement secured the rights to local mineral deposits leading to the proclamation of the Thames Goldfield on 1 August; the leasing of the land for such a huge income was a source of great envy by other Maori iwi and hapu. Grahamstown was founded the following year at the northern end of present Thames one mile from Shortland; the two towns merged in 1874. Shortland waned in importance until the turn of the century when the Hauraki Plains were developed for farming and the Shortland railway station was opened; the town was built during a gold rush, with the first major discovery of gold being made on 10 August 1867 by William Hunt, in the Kuranui Stream at the north end of Thames. The subsequent mine was known as the Shotover; the era from 1868 to 1871 were the bonanza years for the town with gold production topping one million pounds sterling at its peak. Official figures for production of the Thames Mines recorded a yield of 2,327,619oz bullion with the value at $845 million.
The three richest fields were the Manukau / Golden Crown / Caledonian mines but many others yielded near equivalent amounts. Towards the end of the 19th century, Thames was the largest centre of population in New Zealand with 18,000 inhabitants and well over 100 hotels and three theatres in 1868. For a while, it was thought. Thames benefited from a period of extensive Kauri logging in the surrounding ranges around the same time; the land involved in goldmining in Thames was Māori-owned. In 1878, when Wiremu Hōterene Taipari married a woman of the Ngāti Awa tribe of Whakatāne, Ngāti Awa carvers arrived at Thames and built a meeting house at Pārāwai, it is incorrectly said to have been a wedding gift for the couple when Wiremu's father had paid money for another whare, sold to the governor general at the time. When Wiremu's father returned to collect the whare the Ngati Awa chief apologised and said he would have another one built which would signify the marriage between Wiremu Taipari and his daughter.
The house, named Hotunui in honour of an important Ngāti Maru ancestor, now stands in the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The Thames branch railway connecting the town with Hamilton was opened in 1898 and was closed in 1991 and the tracks were taken up, it now provides part of the course for the Hauraki Rail Trail. The Carters - Kopu sawmill, 9 km south of Thames, closed in 2008 with the loss of 145 jobs. In 2012, mayor of Thames-Coromandel called NZTA safety procedures into question when a sink hole on State Highway 25 north of Thames, opened above an old mine shaft; the Matai Whetū Marae is located in Kopu. It features Te Rama o Hauraki meeting house; the area was controlled by the Auckland Provincial Council. In late 1871, a public meeting in Grahamstown resolved: That in the opinion of the meeting it is desirable that a Municipal Corporation should be established for the Thames; this resulted in the forming of a Thames Municipality Committee in early 1872. The Borough of Thames was gazetted in November 1873.
The first Borough Council was elected in March 1874. As was practice at the time, the councillors voted one from their midst to be the mayor. William Davies was the only person proposed and voted into the role unanimously in April 1874. During the 1870s, Governor George Grey represented Thames in the New Zealand Parliament. In total, there were 24 Mayors of Thames Borough. In 1975, Thames Borough amalgamated with Coromandel County, out of which Thames-Coromandel District arose. Hence, the role was succeeded by that of the Mayor of Thames-Coromandel. Thames Hospital is the oldest still operating in New Zealand; the Māori owned. A new clinical centre and other improvements were completed in 2008, a new maternity facility opened on 5 September 2011; the Thames Jockey Club was one of the earliest to be established in New Zealand. The Thames Aerodrome is 3 km south of the town. Regular flights to Auckland are operated by Great Barrier Airlines. A major employer is the Toyota New Zealand plant, which assembled CKD cars until 1998, now refurbishes imported used cars.
Another is the precision engineering works and fo
Auckland Region
The Auckland Region is one of the sixteen regions of New Zealand, named for the city of Auckland, the country's largest urban area. The region encompasses the Auckland metropolitan area, smaller towns, rural areas, the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. Containing 35 percent of the nation's residents, it has by far the largest population and economy of any region of New Zealand, but the second-smallest land area. On 1 November 2010, the Auckland Region became a unitary authority controlled by the Auckland Council, replacing the previous regional council and seven local councils. In the process, an area in its southeastern corner was transferred to the neighbouring Waikato Region; the name "Auckland Region" remains present in casual usage. On the mainland, the region extends from the mouth of the Kaipara Harbour in the north across the southern stretches of the Northland Peninsula, past the Waitakere Ranges and the isthmus of Auckland and across the low-lying land surrounding the Manukau Harbour; the region ends within a few kilometres of the mouth of the Waikato River.
It is bordered in the north by the Northland Region, in the south by the Waikato Region. It includes the islands of the Hauraki Gulf; the Hunua Ranges and the adjacent coastline along the Firth of Thames were part of the region until the Auckland Council was formed in late 2010, when they were transferred to the neighbouring Waikato Region. In land area it is smaller than unitary authorities except Nelson, its highest point is the summit of at 722 metres. Auckland Province Media related to Auckland Region at Wikimedia Commons Auckland Region travel guide from Wikivoyage Geographic data related to Auckland Region at OpenStreetMap
Puhoi
Puhoi is a settlement located 50 km north of Auckland, New Zealand on the banks of the Puhoi River. The name Puhoi is translated as "slow water", it was settled by Europeans on 29 June 1863 by a group of German-speaking migrants from Staab in Bohemia, now a province of the Czech Republic, under the leadership of Captain Martin Krippner. This has given it the appellation of "Bohemian Settlement". Altogether three batches of migrants arrived between 1863 and 1866; the migrants were allocated parcels of land by the colonial government. However, when the migrants arrived, the land was covered with forest, which they had to set about clearing before they could begin to use the land; the original settlers were all of the Roman Catholic faith and one of the first things they turned their attention to was constructing a church. This was completed in 1881 and dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul whose feast day in the Catholic calendar falls on 29 June, the date of the arrival of the first settlers; the church still serves the community.
The hotel and general store have their origins from the times of the first settlers. There is a museum which occupies premises that were built as the Catholic primary school; the Puhoi Town Library, one of the smallest in New Zealand, was established in 1923 in what was the Districts Road Board Office. In the "Great Flood" of 1924 it was filled with 6 ft of silt, its contents destroyed – the water level is marked on the building; the library was not re-established until 1977. It was flooded again in 2001, it is staffed by a single volunteer librarian. Trespasses Sylvia Tour of Puhoi Puhoi Historical Society Puhoi Egerlander dialect
