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Aoraki Mount Cook National Park
Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park is a national park located in the Canterbury Region in the central-west of the South Island of New Zealand. It was established in October 1953 and takes its name from the highest mountain in New Zealand, Aoraki / Mount Cook. The area of the park is , and it shares a border with Westland Tai Poutini National Park along the Main Divide of the Southern Alps. The national park consists of reserves that were established as early as 1885 to protect the area's significant landscape and vegetation. Glaciers cover 40% of the park, including the county's largest glacier, Haupapa / Tasman Glacier. In 1990, the park was included in the area designated as the Te Wāhipounamu World Heritage Site. The park is managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) alongside Ngāi Tahu, the ''iwi'' who are in the region. At the end of the most recent ice age approximately 13000 years ago, numerous glaciers in the park were tributaries of a much larger glacier cov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hooker Valley Track
The Hooker Valley Track is the most popular short walking track within the Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand. At only length and gaining only about in height, the well formed track can be walked by tourists with a wide range of level of fitness. The track is maintained by the Department of Conservation and has views of Aoraki / Mount Cook and access to the proglacial Hooker Lake, typically with icebergs floating in it. Hooker Valley Track has been named one of the "best day walks in New Zealand". The lookout point at the end of the Hooker Valley Track is the closest any walking track comes to Aoraki / Mount Cook, and reveals completely unobstructed views of the highest mountain in New Zealand, with Hooker Glacier in the valley below. There is also access to the shore of the glacial lake. The vegetation around the track is open alpine tussock, and as such the track offers clear views of the mountains surrounding the wide valley floor of the Hooker Valley. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mana Whenua
In New Zealand, tangata whenua () is a Māori term that translates to "people of the land". It can refer to either a specific group of people with historical claims to a district, or more broadly the Māori people who's common ancestors are buried in that particular area of land from long term occupation whereby so many generations have gone by that their ancestors are now literally the soil. Etymology According to Williams' definitive ''Dictionary of the Māori Language'', ''tangata'' means "man" or, whilst ''tāngata'' (with the macronised "ā") is the plural, and means "people". ''Tangata''—without the macron—can also mean "people" in reference to a group with a singular identity. ''Whenua'' means both "land" and "placenta" (again referencing Williams, who lists five definitions). It is an ancient Austronesian word with cognates across the Malayo-Polynesian world, from Malay ''benua'' (now meaning "continent"), Visayan *''banwa'' and to Rapa Nui ''henua''; ultimately ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star Gazing
Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers make contributions in doing citizen science, such as by monitoring variable stars, double stars, sunspots, or occultations of stars by the Moon or asteroids, or by discovering transient astronomical events, such as comets, galactic novae or supernovae in other galaxies. Amateur astronomers do not use the field of astronomy as their primary source of income or support, and usually have no professional degree in astrophysics or advanced academic training in the subject. Most amateurs are hobbyists, while others have a high degree of experience in astronomy and may often assist and work alongside professional astronomers. Many astronomers have studied the sky throughout history in an amateur framework; however, since the beginning of the tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astrophotography
Astrophotography, also known as astronomical imaging, is the photography or imaging of astronomical objects, celestial events, or areas of the night sky. The first photograph of an astronomical object (the Moon) was taken in 1839, but it was not until the late 19th century that advances in technology allowed for detailed stellar photography. Besides being able to record the details of extended objects such as the Moon, Sun, and planets, modern astrophotography has the ability to image objects outside of the visible spectrum of the human eye such as dim stars, nebulae, and galaxy, galaxies. This is accomplished through long-exposure photography, long time exposure as both film and digital cameras can accumulate and sum photons over long periods of time or using specialized optical filters which limit the photons to a certain wavelength. Photography using extended exposure-times revolutionized the field of professional astronomical research, recording hundreds of thousands of new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Cook Aerodrome
Mount Cook Aerodrome is an airport near Mount Cook Village, New Zealand. Mount Cook Tourist Company built a small airfield at Birch Hill Flat, which opened on 3 May 1936. Mount Cook Airline began scheduled passenger flights to the area in 1961. The terminal was destroyed by fire in June 2000. It was rebuilt. Regular commercial flights originally ceased in 2002, however from 23 December 2012 to 27 January 2013, Air New Zealand subsidiary Mount Cook Airline operated thrice weekly services from Mount Cook to Christchurch and Queenstown. Air New Zealand decided not to resume the services for the 2013/2014 summer due to a lack of demand. In December 2019, Mount Cook Airline was merged into Air New Zealand Air New Zealand Limited () is the flag carrier of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 28 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily within the Pacific Rim. The airline h ... and ceased operations. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twizel
Twizel () is the largest town in the Mackenzie District, in the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand. The town was founded in 1968 to house construction workers on the Upper Waitaki Hydroelectric Scheme. Today, Twizel is a service and tourist town for visitors to the area. It has a resident population of during the summer, holidaymakers nearly triple the town's population. Nearby Lake Ruataniwha supports rowing, sailing and water skiing. Twizel is 37 km (29 minutes drive) east of Lake Ōhau village, 30 km (20 minutes drive) north of Omarama and 60 km (42 minutes drive) south of Lake Tekapo. History Hydro town The present town was built in 1968 by the Ministry of Works and Development as a greenfields project to house workers constructing the Upper Waitaki hydroelectricity scheme. The name comes from the nearby Twizel River, in turn named for Twizel Bridge in Northumberland by John Turnbull Thomson, Chief Surveyor of Otago in the mid-19th c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
State Highway 80 (New Zealand)
State Highway 80 (SH 80) is a South Island state highway in New Zealand. Known as ''Mount Cook Road'', it is a road which is a popular tourist route between the settlements of Twizel and Mount Cook Village. About 55 kilometres in length, it is mostly two lane, with a few single-lane bridges. Tourists travelling between Christchurch and Queenstown often deviate here and travel to New Zealand's highest mountain Aoraki / Mount Cook. Route Since designation, this is the route SH 80 takes. For the first 31 km of the road, SH 80 runs in a northerly direction parallel with the banks of Lake Pukaki to the right and the Mackenzie Basin to the left. About 10 kilometres along the road, the basin is superseded by the Ben Ohau Range. After a further 20 kilometres, the road passes the head of Lake Pukaki where it changes name to the Tasman River. The highway eventually terminates just east of Mount Cook Village after a further 24 kilometres. See also *List of New Zealand state h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Rock Wren
The New Zealand rock wren (''Xenicus gilviventris'') is a small New Zealand wren (family (biology), family Acanthisittidae) Endemism, endemic to the South Island of New Zealand. Its Māori language, Māori names include ("little complaining bird"), , and ("twitch", after its bobbing motion). Outside New Zealand it is sometimes known as the rockwren to distinguish it from the unrelated rock wren of North America. The rock wren is currently restricted to Alpine climate, alpine and subalpine areas of the South Island. It is a poor flier and highly Terrestrial locomotion, terrestrial, feeding in low scrub, open scree, and rockfalls. The rock wren and Rifleman (bird), rifleman are the only two surviving New Zealand wrens; the rock wren's closest relatives were the extinct stout-legged wrens, followed by the extinct bushwren. Its numbers are declining due to predation by introduced species, introduced mammals. Description The rock wren is a very small, almost tailless bird that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Stilt
The black stilt (''Himantopus novaezelandiae'') or kakī (Māori language, Māori) is a wading bird found in New Zealand. It is one of the world's rarest birds, with 169 adults surviving in the wild as of May 2020. Adult kakī have distinctive black plumage, long pink legs, and a long thin black bill. Black stilts largely breed in the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island, and are threatened by introduced Cats in New Zealand, feral cats, ferrets, and hedgehogs as well as habitat degradation from hydroelectric dams, agriculture, and invasive weeds. Taxonomy and systematics Black stilts are one of several species in the genus Stilt, ''Himantopus'', classified along with avocets in the family Recurvirostridae. Although genetically and behaviourally distinct from Black-winged stilt, pied stilts (''Himantopus himantopus''), they are able to successfully hybridise with them. Hybridisation and dilution of the gene pool is one reason black stilts are threatened with extinction. Black an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Introduced Species
An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there by human activity, directly or indirectly, and either deliberately or accidentally. Non-native species can have various effects on the local ecosystem. Introduced species that become established and spread beyond the place of introduction are considered naturalized. The process of human-caused introduction is distinguished from biological colonization, in which species spread to new areas through "natural" (non-human) means such as storms and rafting. The Latin expression neobiota captures the characteristic that these species are ''new'' biota to their environment in terms of established biological network (e.g. food web) relationships. Neobiota can further be divided into neozoa (also: neozoons, sing. neozoon, i.e. animals) and ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Māori Language
Māori (; endonym: 'the Māori language', commonly shortened to ) is an Eastern Polynesian languages, Eastern Polynesian language and the language of the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. The southernmost member of the Austronesian language family, it is related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan language, Tuamotuan, and Tahitian language, Tahitian. The Māori Language Act 1987 gave the language recognition as one of New Zealand's official languages. There are regional dialects of the Māori language. Prior to contact with Europeans, Māori lacked a written language or script. Written Māori now uses the Latin script, which was adopted and the spelling standardised by Northern Māori in collaboration with English Protestant clergy in the 19th century. In the second half of the 19th century, European children in rural areas spoke Māori with Māori children. It was common for prominent parents of these children, such as government officials, to us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998
The Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 is an act of parliament passed in New Zealand relating to Ngāi Tahu, the principal Māori (tribe) of the South Island. The act's purpose is to settle all of the tribe's claims under the Treaty of Waitangi, and to record an apology to Ngai Tahu from the Crown, in regard to past failures to protect the tribe's interests. The act is administered by the Office of Treaty Settlements. It was negotiated in part by Henare Rakiihia Tau. The documents in relation to the Ngāi Tahu land settlement claim are held at Tūranga, the main public library in Christchurch. Schedule 96 "Alteration of place names" contains a list of places that received official name changes to dual English and Māori names, such as Aoraki / Mount Cook. Background Between the years of 1844–1864, during which a number of land sales occurred the biggest of which been the Kemps Deed in 1848, Ngāi Tahu passed over 34.5 million acres of land to the Crown for a sum o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
