Bluff Harbour

HOME

TheInfoList

Click Here for Items Related To - Bluff Harbour

OR:

Bluff Harbour on: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Amazon]

The entrance to Bluff Harbour viewed from the International Space Station in 2008, with Foveaux Strait at bottom. The town of Bluff, New Zealand">Bluff Bluff or The Bluff may refer to: Places Australia * Bluff, Queensland, Australia, a town * The Bluff, Queensland (Ipswich), a rural locality in the city of Ipswich * The Bluff, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a rural locality * Bluff River (New ...

sits on the north shore of the Bluff promontory, lower left, with the angular form of Island Harbour immediately to its north. Tiwai Point and the entrance to Awarua Bay (top) are to the left Bluff Harbour is a harbour and lagoon in the South Island of New Zealand, adjacent to the town of Bluff, New Zealand, Bluff. The main port facilities are located close to the entrance from

Foveaux Strait Foveaux Strait ( ; ) is a strait that separates Stewart Island from the South Island of New Zealand. The width of the strait ranges from about , and the depth varies between . The strait was first charted by an American Seal hunting, sealer, O ...

of a large natural inlet which includes a large, low-lying eastern arm, Awarua Bay, immediately to the east of the promontory which gives the town and harbour its name.

History

Bluff is one of New Zealand's earliest continuously occupied European settlements, and has been visited by whalers and sealers since at least 1823. A whaling station was established here in 1836. Bluff Wharf was constructed during the 1860s, and was linked to the nearby city of

Invercargill Invercargill ( , ) is the southernmost and westernmost list of cities in New Zealand, city in New Zealand, and one of the Southernmost settlements, southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland Region, Southlan ...

by rail in 1867. As the city's main port, it was a major centre for the export of dairy and meat products in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The construction of the

Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter The Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter is an Aluminium smelting, aluminium smelter owned by Rio Tinto (corporation), Rio Tinto Group, via a joint venture called New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) Limited. The facility, New Zealand's only aluminiu ...

in 1971 led to further upgrades in facilities. A

flying boat A flying boat is a type of seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in having a fuselage that is purpose-designed for flotation, while floatplanes rely on fuselage-mounted floats for buoyancy. Though ...

service operated from the harbour's Ocean Beach in the 1950s and 1960s, both for civilian services and for the

RNZAF The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF; ) is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed initially in 1923 as a branch of the New Zealand Army, being known as the New Zealand Permanent Air Force, becoming an in ...

's patrols of subantarctic waters.

Port facilities

The port facilities are the southernmost in the South Island, and include the country's southernmost commercial deep water port. The port operates under the commercial name of South Port NZ from a artificial island, Island Harbour, and includes a container terminal. Island Harbour was constructed over the course of the 1950s, and was officially opened in December 1960.Bluff Island Harbour opened
, ''New Zealand History'', Ministry for Culture and Heritage, updated 24 October 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2014. A major cargo from the port is

alumina Aluminium oxide (or aluminium(III) oxide) is a chemical compound of aluminium and oxygen with the chemical formula . It is the most commonly occurring of several aluminium oxides, and specifically identified as aluminium oxide. It is commonly ...

from the

, which sits on

Tiwai Point Tiwai Point lies at the entrance to Bluff Harbour on the southern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. A spit which extends from the western end of the Awarua Plain, it lies between Awarua Bay to the north and Foveaux Strait to the south. ...

, the low-lying eastern shore of the harbour's mouth, directly opposite Island Harbour. The harbour is also used by Bluff's fishing fleet, mainly smaller vessels and to a large extent centred on

oyster harvesting. The

Bluff oyster The dredge oyster, Bluff oyster or Chilean oyster (''Ostrea chilensis''), is also known in Chile as ''ostra verde'', is a species of flat oyster. It is a marine (ocean), marine bivalve mollusc of the family (biology), family Ostreidae. Distribu ...

is a major New Zealand delicacy.

Stewart Island ferry service

Bluff Harbour is the northern terminus of the

Stewart Island Stewart Island (, ' glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura, formerly New Leinster) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island with a la ...

ferry, providing a daily service to and from

Oban Oban ( ; meaning ''The Little Bay'') is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William, Highland, Fort William. During the tourist seaso ...

. The ferry journey across Foveaux Strait is about long. The first scheduled service across Foveaux Strait began in 1877 for weekly mail delivery, but soon also carried passengers and general cargo. The Bluff Harbour Board and central government provided subsidised ferry services to Stewart Island for 100 years from 1885 through until 1985, when private operators took over the service. The present high speed

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

service typically takes one hour. As of 2024, the ferry service is operated by the tourism company

RealNZ RealNZ is a New Zealand tourism company based in Queenstown. The company offers a range of travel, cruises and excursions in Queenstown, Milford Sound / Piopiotahi, Te Anau, Fiordland and Stewart Island / Rakiura. It also operates two skifie ...

(formerly Real Journeys).

References

External links

Chart NZ6821 - Bluff Harbour and Entrance
{{coord, 46, 35, 30, S, 168, 20, 00, E, region:NZ_type:harbor, display=title Bluff, New Zealand Ports and harbours of New Zealand Populated places in the Southland Region Landforms of the Southland Region Lagoons of New Zealand Geography of the Southland Region Foveaux Strait

History

Port facilities

Stewart Island ferry service

See also

References

Further reading

External links