Thomas Brunner and Rover on Te Miko Cliff by Charles Heaphy

Perpendicular Point is a small

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, Jo ...

on the West Coast of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

, overlooking the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 wa ...

. It lies about 40 km south-south-west of Cape Foulwind, close to the small community of Te Miko. Perpendicular Point was known as Te Miko to Māori. A notorious obstacle to coastal travel, the cliffs had ladders built from rātā vine and

harakeke ''Phormium tenax'' (called flax in New Zealand English; in Māori; New Zealand flax outside New Zealand; and New Zealand hemp in historical nautical contexts) is an evergreen perennial plant native to New Zealand and Norfolk Island that is an ...

, later replaced by chains and rungs, until a reliable inland road was built in the 1860s.

Important Bird Area

The point has been identified as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

, by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because the coastal cliffs in its vicinity are a breeding site for over 500 pairs of

spotted shag The spotted shag or pārekareka (''Phalacrocorax punctatus'') is a species of cormorant endemic to New Zealand. Though originally classified as ''Phalacrocorax punctatus'', it is sufficiently different in appearance from typical members of tha ...

s.BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Te Miko & Perpendicular Point. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-02-17.

References

Buller District Important Bird Areas of New Zealand Headlands of the West Coast Region {{WestCoastNZ-geo-stub