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Urupukapuka Island
Urupukapuka Island is the largest island in the Bay of Islands of New Zealand, located about 7.3 km from Paihia. The island is a popular stopover point for tour boats to the Hole in the Rock and is also serviced by ferries for day trips from Paihia and Russell. History Urupukapuka Island was previously settled by the Ngare Raumati tribe, one of the oldest tribes of the area. In 1839, William Brind, a whaling captain, claimed to have purchased 150 acres of Urupukapuka from Rewa, a chief of the Ngapuhi tribe, for one mare valued at 45 English pounds. The claim was invalidated when Rewa claimed that the mare represented a mere deposit and not the whole lump sum amount. In the later 1800s, two Europeans leased some of the land on Urupukapuka for grazing and began to clear the island and build a fenceline. In 1927, Otehei Bay had become the base of the fishing expeditions of the American author Zane Grey, and a world-famous fishing resort was later established there. Geog ...
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Bay Of Islands
The Bay of Islands is an area on the east coast of the Far North District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country, and has been renowned internationally for its big-game fishing since American author Zane Grey publicised it in the 1930s. It is north-west of the city of Whangarei. Cape Reinga, at the northern tip of the country, is about by road further to the north-west. Geography The bay itself is an irregularly-shaped -wide, drowned valley system and a natural harbour. It contains 144 islands, of which the largest is Urupukapuka, and numerous peninsulas and inlets. The three largest inlets are Waikare Inlet in the south, and Kerikeri and Te Puna (Mangonui) inlets in the north-west. The Purerua Peninsula, north of Te Puna Inlet, separates the north-western part of the bay from the Pacific Ocean, and Cape Brett Peninsula extends into the ocean at the eastern end of the bay. The biggest ...
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Zane Grey
Pearl Zane Grey (January 31, 1872 – October 23, 1939) was an American author and dentist. He is known for his popular adventure novels and stories associated with the Western genre in literature and the arts; he idealized the American frontier. ''Riders of the Purple Sage'' (1912) was his best-selling book. In addition to the success of his printed works, his books have second lives and continuing influence adapted for films and television. His novels and short stories were adapted into 112 films, two television episodes, and a television series, '' Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre''.Hulse 2007, pp. vii–x. Biography Early life Pearl Zane Grey was born January 31, 1872, in Zanesville, Ohio. His birth name may have originated from newspaper descriptions of Queen Victoria's mourning clothes as "pearl grey." He was the fourth of five children born to Alice "Allie" Josephine Zane, whose English Quaker immigrant ancestor Robert Zane came to the American colonies in 1673, and ...
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Paradise Duck
The paradise shelduck (''Tadorna variegata''), also known as the paradise duck, or in Māori, is a species of shelduck, a group of goose-like ducks, which is endemic to New Zealand. Johann Friedrich Gmelin placed it in the genus ''Anas'' with the ducks, geese and swans. Both the male and female have striking plumage: the male has a black head and barred black body, the female a white head with a chestnut body. They weigh between 1.09 kg and 2 kg (2.4 lb and 4.4 lb), and are between 63 cm and 71 cm (25in and 28in) in length. Paradise shelducks mate for life and usually live as pairs, and moult their feathers from December to February. They are primarily herbivorous, and mostly graze on pasture grasses and clover, but have been observed eating a wide range of invertebrates. They are seasonally hunted as a game bird throughout New Zealand, and today the IUCN Red List classifies them as a species of least concern. Taxonomy The paradise shelduck was ...
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Pied Stilt
The pied stilt (''Himantopus leucocephalus''), also known as the white-headed stilt, is a shorebird in the family Recurvirostridae. It is widely distributed with a large total population size and apparently stable population trend, occurring in Malaysia, Japan, the Philippines, Brunei, Christmas Island, Indonesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the black-winged stilt (''H. himantopus''). Taxonomy ''Himantopus leucocephalus'' was the scientific name proposed by John Gould in 1837 who described a pied stilt from Australia. Description The pied stilt grows to a length of about with a wingspan of about . The back of the head and neck, the back and the upper surfaces of the wings are glossy greenish-black. The undersides of the wings are plain black and the remainder of the plumage is white, apart from the tail feathers which are tinged with grey. The long, thin ...
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Oystercatcher
The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, ''Haematopus''. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia. The exceptions to this are the Eurasian oystercatcher, the South Island oystercatcher, and the Magellanic oystercatcher, which also breed inland, far inland in some cases. In the past there has been a great deal of confusion as to the species limits, with discrete populations of all black oystercatchers being afforded specific status but pied oystercatchers being considered one single species.Hockey, P (1996). "Family Haematopodidae (Oystercatchers)". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Sargatal, J. (editors). '' Handbook of the Birds of the World''. Volume 3: ''Hoatzin to Auks''. Lynx Edicions. . Taxonomy The genus ''Haematopus'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae' ...
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New Zealand Dotterel
The New Zealand dotterel (''Charadrius obscurus'') is a species of shorebird found only in certain areas of New Zealand. It is also called the New Zealand plover or red-breasted dotterel, and its Māori names include , , and . The southern subspecies of the New Zealand plover is considered critically endangered and was nearing extinction with about 75 individuals remaining in 1990. Conservation measures increased this to 250 by 2005, but a further decline has occurred since 2012 to an estimated 60–80 mature individuals in 2017. Taxonomy and systematics The New Zealand dotterel was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the plovers in the genus ''Charadrius'' and coined the binomial name ''Charadrius obscurus''. Gmelin's description was based on the "Dusky plover" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in hi ...
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Pohutukawa
''Metrosideros excelsa'', commonly known as pōhutukawa ( mi, pōhutukawa), New Zealand Christmas tree, New Zealand Christmas bush, and iron tree, is a coastal evergreen tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that produces a brilliant display of red (or occasionally orange, yellow or white) flowers, each consisting of a mass of stamens. The pōhutukawa is one of twelve ''Metrosideros'' species endemic to New Zealand. Renowned for its vibrant colour and its ability to survive even perched on rocky, precarious cliffs, it has found an important place in New Zealand culture for its strength and beauty, and is regarded as a chiefly tree (') by Māori. Etymology The generic name ''Metrosideros'' derives from the Ancient Greek ' or "heartwood" and ' or "iron". The species name ''excelsa'' is from Latin ', "highest, sublime". ' is a Māori word. Its closest equivalent in other Polynesian languages is the Cook Island Māori word ', referring to a coastal shrub with white berries, ''So ...
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Cormorant
Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven genera. The great cormorant (''Phalacrocorax carbo'') and the common shag (''Gulosus aristotelis'') are the only two species of the family commonly encountered in Britain and Ireland and "cormorant" and "shag" appellations have been later assigned to different species in the family somewhat haphazardly. Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large birds, with body weight in the range of and wing span of . The majority of species have dark feathers. The bill is long, thin and hooked. Their feet have webbing between all four toes. All species are fish-eaters, catching the prey by diving from the surface. They are excellent divers, and under water they propel themselves with their feet with help from their wings; some cormorant species have been ...
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Reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic processes—deposition (geology), deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock outcrops, etc.—but there are also reefs such as the coral reefs of tropical waters formed by biotic component, biotic processes dominated by corals and coralline algae, and artificial reefs such as shipwrecks and other anthropogenic underwater structures may occur intentionally or as the result of an accident, and sometimes have a designed role in enhancing the physical complexity of featureless sand bottoms, to attract a more diverse assemblage of organisms. Reefs are often quite near to the surface, but not all definitions require this. Earth's largest coral reef system is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, at a length of over . Biotic There is a variety of biotic reef types, including oyster ...
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Mare
A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four years old. The word can also be used for other female equine animals, particularly mules and zebras, but a female donkey is usually called a "jenny". A broodmare is a mare used for breeding. A horse's female parent is known as its dam. Reproductive cycle Mares carry their young (called foals) for approximately 11 months from conception to birth. (Average range 320–370 days.)Ensminger, M. E. ''Horses and Horsemanship: Animal Agriculture Series.'' Sixth Edition. Interstate Publishers, 1990. p. 156 Usually just one young is born; twins are rare. When a domesticated mare foals, she nurses the foal for at least four to six months before it is weaned, though mares in the wild may allow a foal to nurse for up to a year. The estro ...
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Pound (currency)
Pound is the name for a unit of currency. It is used in some countries today and previously was used in many others. The English word ''pound'' derives from the Latin expression , in which lībra is a noun meaning "pound" and ''pondō'' is an adverb meaning "by weight". The currency's symbol is £, a stylised form of the blackletter L (\mathfrak) (from ''libra''), crossed to indicate abbreviation. The term was adopted in England from the weight of silver used to make to 240 pennies, and eventually spread to British colonies all over the world. While silver pennies were produced seven centuries earlier, the first pound coin was minted under Henry VII in 1489. Countries and territories currently using currency units named "pound" Historical currencies * Australian pound (until 1966, replaced by the Australian dollar). The Australian pound was also used in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Nauru, New Hebrides and Papua and New Guinea. It was replaced in the New Hebrides/V ...
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