Fiords Of New Zealand
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Fiords Of New Zealand
The fiords of New Zealand ( "bluff sea") are all located in the southwest of the South Island, in a mountainous area known as Fiordland. A fiord is a narrow inlet of the sea between cliffs or steep slopes, which results from marine inundation of a glaciated valley. The spelling ''fiord'' is used in New Zealand rather than ''fjord'', although all the maritime fiords instead use the word ''sound'' in their name. The Marlborough Sounds, a series of deep indentations in the coastline at the northern tip of the South Island, are in fact drowned river valleys, or rias. The deeply indented coastlines of Northland and Auckland also host many rias, such as the Hokianga and Waitematā Harbours. New Zealand has fifteen named maritime fiords, listed here from northernmost to southernmost.Distance measured down centreline of fiord from coastline to head of longest arm of fiord. List Thompson Sound separates Secretary Island from the mainland and connects with Doubtful Sound and Bradsha ...
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Milford Sound New Zealand
Milford Sound (, officially gazetted as Milford Sound / Piopiotahi) is a fiord in the south west of New Zealand's South Island within Fiordland National Park, Fiordland's marine reserves, Piopiotahi (Milford Sound) Marine Reserve, and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site. It has been judged the world's top travel destination in an international survey (the ''2008 Travelers' Choice Destinations Awards'' by TripAdvisor) and is acclaimed as New Zealand's most famous tourist destination."Real Journeys rapt with Kiwi Must-Do's"
, ''Scoop'', 13 February 2007.
Rudyard Kipling called it the eighth Wonder of the World. The fiord is most commonly accessed via road (State Highway 94 (New Zealand), State Highway 94) by tour coach, with the road terminating at a small village also called Milford Sound (village), Milfo ...
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Hinenui / Nancy Sound
Hinenui / Nancy Sound is a fjord, fiord on the South Island of New Zealand. It is one of the fiords that form the coast of Fiordland. Geography Hinenui / Nancy Sound is located between Taiporoporo / Charles Sound and Te Awa-o-Tū / Thompson Sound, part of the Doubtful Sound complex. The fiord runs straight in a northwesterly direction for most of its 15.4 kilometre length, with the exception of a bend to the west near its entrance and a nearly right-angle bend near its head. This section, known as 'Foot Arm' due to its resemblance to a human foot (along with similarly-named 'Heel Cove' and 'Toe Cove' at their respective positions), runs in a southwesterly direction before turning at Heel Cove to join the main channel of the Fiord. The fiord has two small islands at its entrance. One of these, the aptly-named Entrance Island, sits to the north of the main channel, off the coast of Burnett Point. The other, Anxiety Island, is in a similar position to the south, sitting just nort ...
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Lake Wakatipu
Lake Wakatipu () is an inland lake (finger lake) in the South Island of New Zealand. It is in the southwest corner of the Otago region, near its boundary with Southland, New Zealand, Southland. ''Lake Wakatipu'' comes from the original Māori language, Māori name . With a length of , it is New Zealand's longest lake, and, at , its List of lakes in New Zealand#Largest lakes, third largest. The lake is also very deep, its floor being below sea level (−110 metres), with a maximum depth of . It is at an altitude of , towards the southern end of the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana. The general topography is a reversed "N" shape or "dog leg". The Dart River / Te Awa Whakatipu flows into the northern end, the lake then runs south for 30 kilometres before turning abruptly to the east. further along, it turns sharply to the south, reaching its southern end further south, near Kingston, New Zealand, Kingston. At the north end of the lake is the settlement of Glenorchy, New Ze ...
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Lake McKerrow
Lake McKerrow (officially Lake McKerrow / Whakatipu Waitai) lies at the northern end of Fiordland, in the southwest of New Zealand's South Island. The lake runs from southeast to northwest, is in length, and covers . Lake McKerrow drains, and is drained by, the Hollyford River. It is one of two lakes (along with Lake Alabaster) found in the lower reaches of the Hollyford River system, and the Hollyford Track, one of New Zealand's most well-known and popular tramping tracks, follows its eastern shore for its full length. The lake is technically a fiord which has been cut off from the Tasman Sea by sediment. The sea is now three kilometres from the lake's northern end. The Alpine Fault goes through the lake. Researchers from GNS Science and University of Nevada, Reno have studied sediments from the 24 last Alpine Fault earthquakes near the lake and have found the most regular rupture behaviour yet observed. Following the passage of the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 199 ...
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Lake Te Anau
Lake Te Anau () is in the southwestern corner of the South Island of New Zealand. The lake covers an area of , making it the second-largest lake by surface area in New Zealand (after Lake Taupō) and the largest in the South Island. It is the second largest lake in Australasia by fresh water volume. The main body of the lake runs north-south, and is 65 km in length. Three large fiords form arms to the lake on its western flank: North Fiord, Middle Fiord and South Fiord. These are the only inland fiords that New Zealand has, the other 14 are out on the coast. Several small islands lie in the entrance to Middle Fiord, which forks partway along its length into northwest and southwest arms. The surface of the lake is at an altitude of 210 m. It has a maximum depth of 425 m, so much of its bed lies below sea level, with the deepest part of the lake being 215 metres below sea level. Several rivers feed the lake, of which the most important is the Eglinton River, which joins t ...
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Otago
Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government region. Its population was The name "Otago" is the local Māori language#South Island dialects, southern Māori dialect pronunciation of "Otakou, Ōtākou", the name of the Māori village near the entrance to Otago Harbour. The exact meaning of the term is disputed, with common translations being "isolated village" and "place of red earth", the latter referring to the reddish-ochre clay that is common in the area around Dunedin. "Otago" is also the old name of the European settlement on the harbour, established by the Weller Brothers in 1831, which lies close to Otakou. The upper harbour later became the focus of the Otago Association, an offshoot of the Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900), Free Church of Scotland, notable for ...
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Secretary Island
Secretary Island () is an island in southwestern New Zealand, lying entirely within Fiordland National Park. Roughly triangular in shape, it lies between Doubtful Sound / Patea in the south and Te Awa-o-Tū / Thompson Sound in the north, with its west coast facing the Tasman Sea. To the east of the island, Pendulo Reach connects Te Awa-o-Tū / Thompson Sound with Doubtful Sound / Patea. Steeply sloped, the entirely bush-clad island rises to a chain of several peaks higher than 1000 metres. The highest of these is the Mount Grono, the highest peak in the main New Zealand chain not located in the North or South Island. The island also contains three lakes. The largest, Secretary Lake, over long, is located beneath Mount Grono at an altitude of . The island is uninhabited, and covers of predominantly steep terrain almost entirely covered in dense native beech-podocarp forest, including plants such as mistletoes and mountain lancewood, which have been decimated elsewhere by ...
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Rakituma / Preservation Inlet
Rakituma / Preservation Inlet is the southernmost fiord in Fiordland National Park and lies on the southwest corner of the South Island of New Zealand. With an area of , it is the fourth largest fiord in New Zealand, after Tamatea / Dusky Sound, Doubtful Sound / Patea, and the neighbouring Taiari / Chalky Inlet to the north. Rakituma was briefly the site of an attempted fishing and gold mining settlement at Cromarty during the 19th century, however this was quickly abandoned once the level of gold declined in relation to more promising fields elsewhere. Geography As with Taiari / Chalky Inlet immediately to the north, Rakituma / Preservation Inlet has reasonably complex geography, resembling an inlet in its outer reaches more than the well-defined fiords to the north. According to Māori legend, these fiords were carved by the demigod Tū-te-raki-whānoa using his adze, Te Hamo. Starting from the south with Rakituma, his initial efforts were rough and resulted in rough coastl ...
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Taiari / Chalky Inlet
Taiari / Chalky Inlet is one of the southernmost fiords in Fiordland, in the southwestern corner of New Zealand's South Island and part of Fiordland National Park. As with the neighbouring fiords of Tamatea / Dusky Sound to the north and Rakituma / Preservation Inlet to the south, Taiari / Chalky Inlet is a complex fiord with many channels and islands along its roughly length. Most notably, this includes the sections Moana-whenua-pōuri / Edwardson Sound and Te Korowhakaunu / Kanáris Sound, which split at Divide Head in the middle of Taiari and each extend for roughly inland in a V-shape. Despite its remoteness, Taiari / Chalky Inlet has seen frequent waves of human interaction. Early European accounts suggest that a population of Māori inhabited the fiord for a time, while battles between iwi (tribes) are said to have taken place in neighbouring Rakituma, but the extent of this habitation is not known. The fiord was regularly visited by Europeans during the late 18th and ...
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Tamatea / Dusky Sound
Tamatea / Dusky Sound is a fiord on the southwest corner of New Zealand, in Fiordland National Park. Geography One of the most complex of the many fiords on this coast, it is also the largest at 40 kilometres in length and eight kilometres wide at its widest point. To the north of its mouth is the large Resolution Island, whose Five Fingers Peninsula shelters the mouth of the sound from the northwest; along the east coast of the island, Acheron Passage connects Dusky Sound with Breaksea Sound, to the north. Several large islands lie in the sound, notably Anchor Island, Long Island, and Cooper Island. The upper reaches of the sound are steep-sided, and the high precipitation of the region leads to hundreds of waterfalls cascading into the sound during the rainy season. Seals and dolphins are often sighted in the sound's waters and occasionally visited by whales where the area especially nearby Preservation Inlet was one of earliest shore-based whaling ground for southern ...
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Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound
Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound is a small fiord on the southwestern coast of South Island, New Zealand in the Tasman Sea. Breaksea Island in Fiordland National Park lies at its entrance. In the 1850s, early settlers Henry Hirst and John Watts-Russell explored the area for flat land suitable for sheep farming, but they were unsuccessful. In October 2019, the name of the fiord was officially altered to Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound. Gallery Breaksea_Island_Fiordland_New_Zealand_Aotearoa.jpg, Breaksea Island at the entry to Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound. Bleached Sea Sponges found in New Zealand waters.jpg, 2022 satellite image of Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound, showing bleached sea sponges The Narrows, Breaksea Sound. S.S. Stella (48752563372) (cropped).jpg, 19th century sketch of the Narrows in Breaksea Sound by Charles Heaphy Charles Heaphy VC (1820 – 3 August 1881) was an English-born New Zealand explorer and recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest military aw ...
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Te Rā / Dagg Sound
Te Rā / Dagg Sound is a narrow fiord located in Fiordland, New Zealand. It lies south of Doubtful Sound / Patea and north of Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound. Whales frequent the waters out from the entrance of the fiord, close to the edge of the continental shelf where the water depth suddenly drops to thousands of metres. The fiord is surrounded by steep cliffs and stretches inland for . Anchorage Arm branches off to the north of the fiord. At the eastern end of the fiord there is a short portage through to Crooked Arm in Doubtful Sound / Patea Doubtful Sound / Patea is a fiord in Fiordland, in the far south west of New Zealand. It is located in the same region as the smaller but more famous and accessible Milford Sound / Piopiotahi. It took second place after Milford Sound as New Ze .... Naming The fiord was named Dagg Sound after named after the Captain of the whaling boat, ''Scorpion'', who visited it in 1804. In October 2019, the name of the fiord was officially alter ...
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