Arthurs Pass
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Arthurs Pass
Arthur's Pass, previously called Camping Flat then Bealey Flats, and for some time officially Arthurs Pass, is a township in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand, located in the Selwyn district. It is a popular base for exploring Arthur's Pass National Park. Arthur's Pass township is about south of the mountain pass with the same name. Its elevation is above sea level surrounded by beech forest. The Bealey River runs through the township. The town is located from Christchurch a 2-hour drive on State Highway 73. Naming and history The township and the pass take their names after Arthur Dudley Dobson (1841–1934, Sir Arthur from 1931). The Chief Surveyor of Canterbury Province, Thomas Cass, had tasked Arthur Dobson to find out if there was an available pass out of the Waimakariri watershed into valleys running to the West Coast. In 1864 Arthur's brother Edward Henry Dobson joined him and accompanied him over the watershed into the valley of the Otira River. ...
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Regions Of New Zealand
New Zealand is divided into sixteen regions () for local government in New Zealand, local government purposes. Eleven are administered by regional councils (the top tier of local government), and five are administered by Unitary authority#New Zealand, unitary authorities, which are territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authorities (the second tier of local government) that also perform the functions of regional councils. The Chatham Islands#Government, Chatham Islands Council is not a region but is similar to a unitary authority, authorised under its own legislation. Current regions History and statutory basis The regional councils are listed in Part 1 of Schedule 2 of the Local Government Act 2002 (New Zealand), Local Government Act 2002, along with reference to the ''New Zealand Gazette, Gazette'' notices that established them in 1989. The Act requires regional councils to promote sustainable developmentthe social, economic, environmental and cultural well-bei ...
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Thomas Cass (surveyor)
Thomas Cass (22 November 1817 – 17 April 1895) was one of New Zealand's pioneer surveyors. Early life Cass was born in London on 22 November 1817, the son of Michael Cass, a linen draper of Gerrard Street, Soho, and his wife Jane. His father was originally from Thirsk, North Yorkshire. Cass's father died in 1825, leaving his widow, who ran a girls' day school, with six children to raise. He received his education at the Royal Mathematical School, in Christ's Hospital school in Hertford and London from 1827 to 1834. In return for his sponsored education, Cass was committed to a seven-year apprenticeship at sea as a trainee mariner, allocated to John Skelton, Commander of the ship ''Africa''. His elder brother John Cass (1813-1889) also trained as a mariner, becoming captain of the ''Caduceus''. New Zealand As soon as Cass completed his apprenticeship he left England in 1841 on the ''Prince Rupert'' to take up survey work for the New Zealand Company, but the ship was wrecked at ...
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Otira
Otira is a small township fifteen kilometres north of Arthur's Pass in the central South Island of New Zealand. It is on the northern approach to the pass, a saddle between the Otira and Bealey Rivers high in the Southern Alps. A possible meaning of is ''"o"'' (place of) and ''"tira"'' (the travellers). Another possible meaning is ''"Oti"'' (finished) and ''"ra"'' (Sun), because Otira Gorge is usually in deep shadow. Otira was originally a stop on the Cobb and Co stagecoach from Canterbury to the West Coast. The Midland Line was extended from Stillwater to Jacksons in 1894 and then Otira in 1899, when the pass was navigated by coach from Otira until the railway tunnel opened in 1923. During construction of the tunnel, Otira housed about 600 workers and their families. The Otira Railway Station was opened on 13 November 1900 (ex-Goat Creek on 15 October 1900), and closed in February 1992. In the 1950s the town had a population of about 350, but this had dropped to 11 in 19 ...
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Otira Tunnel
The Otira Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the Midland Line in the South Island of New Zealand, between Otira and Arthur's Pass. It runs under the Southern Alps from Arthur's Pass to Otira – a length of over . The gradient is mainly 1 in 33, and the Otira end of the tunnel is over lower than the Arthur's Pass end. Construction Construction commenced in 1907 and a "breakthrough" celebration was held on 21 August 1918 by the Minister of Public Works Sir William Fraser. When the tunnel opened on 4 August 1923, it was the seventh longest tunnel in the world and the longest in the British Empire. The Midland Railway Company investigated alternatives to a long tunnel, but a line over the pass with gradients of 1 in 50 on both sides was not practical. Other options for a line over the pass were a cable-hauled system or a line of 1 in 15 gradient using either the Fell system or a rack railway using the Abt system (or even an S-shaped tunnel under Mount Rolleston). However, the gov ...
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Samuel Bealey
Samuel Bealey (1821 – 8 May 1909) was a 19th-century politician in Canterbury, New Zealand. Bealey came out to Canterbury in 1851, a pastoralist with capital to invest in farming. He married Rose Ann, daughter of Archdeacon Paul in 1852. Having made money, he returned to England, in 1867 and died there. His son Nowell managed Haldon (sheep) Station. Bealey stood for election in the Town of Christchurch electorate for the first Provincial Council on 3 September 1853. Five candidates contested the three positions, and Bealey received the second highest number of votes at 74. The two other successful candidates were Thomas Cass and Richard Packer (77 and 71 votes, respectively). Charles Fooks (a brother-in-law of Guise and Joseph Brittan) and Edward Dobson were defeated (at 51 and 21 votes, respectively). Bealey remained a provincial councillor until the dissolution of the first parliament on 14 July 1857. From October 1854 to May 1855, he was a member of the executive counci ...
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Superintendent (New Zealand)
Superintendent was the elected head of each Provinces of New Zealand, Provincial Council in New Zealand from 1853 to 1876. History Provinces existed in New Zealand from 1841 until 1876 as a form of sub-national government. After the initial provinces pre-1853, new provinces were formed by the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852. This Act established the first six provinces of Auckland Province, Auckland, Taranaki Province, New Plymouth, Wellington Province, Wellington, Nelson Province, Nelson, Canterbury Province, Canterbury, and Otago Province, Otago. Other provinces were established later. Each province elected its own legislature known as a Provincial Council, and elected a Superintendent who was not a member of the council. The elections for council and superintendent were not necessarily held at the same time. Following abolition, the provinces became known as provincial districts. Their only visible function today is their use to determine, with the exception of the Chatham ...
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Hurunui River
The Hurunui River is the fourth largest of the four principal rivers in north Canterbury, New Zealand, with a catchment area of . The river flows from the eastern side of the Southern Alps, to the Pacific Ocean. Geography The head of the Hurunui River is at Harper Pass; on the other side of the pass is the Taramakau River. Some of the tributaries include the Jollie Brook, the Hurunui River South Branch, the Glenrae River and the Mandamus River. The Hurunui River flows through Lake Sumner. A hot pool has been constructed at the base of a small waterfall on a side stream of the river. Recreation The river has rapids rated class II and III on the international scale of river difficulty and is popular for kayaking. The best whitewater is considered to be below the confluence of the north and south branches of the river in Maori Gully and in the Harwarden Gorge. Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') were introduced from California in the 1900s for game fishing. Water co ...
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Taramakau River
The Taramakau River is a river of the West Coast Region of the South Island of New Zealand. It rises in the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana near Harper Pass, due east of Hokitika, and runs westward for into the Tasman Sea south of Greymouth. The Taramakau River forms the administrative boundary between the Westland District to the south and the Grey District to the north. Several small rivers are tributaries of the Taramakau. The largest of upper tributaries are the Otehake River and the Ōtira River. The valley of the Ōtira forms the western approach to Arthur's Pass (mountain pass), Arthur's Pass. The Taipo River (Westland District), Taipo River is a major tributary joining the Taramakau from the south, downstream of Inchbonnie. Statutory acknowledgement The South Island iwi Ngāi Tahu have manawhenua or tribal authority over the Taramakau River, acknowledged under s56 of the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998. The Taramakau was a traditional route of travel ...
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West Coast Gold Rush
The West Coast Gold Rush, on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island, lasted from 1864 to 1867. Description The gold rush populated the area, which up until then had been visited by few Europeans. Gold was found near the Taramakau River in 1864 by two Māori, Ihaia Tainui and Haimona Taukau. In 1865–66 gold was discovered at Okarito, Bruce Bay (the scene of the Hunt's Duffer gold rush), around Charleston and along the Grey River. Miners were attracted from the Otago Gold Rush, and from Victoria, Australia where the Victorian gold rush had nearly finished. By the end of 1864 there were an estimated 1800 prospectors on the West Coast, with many in the Hokitika area. Hokitika was in 1866 the most populous settlement in New Zealand with a population of more than 25,000, and boasted more than 100 pubs. The Canterbury Provincial Council in Christchurch tasked their provincial engineer, Edward Dobson, to examine every possible pass to the West Coast from the watersheds of the ...
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Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / Ōtākaro flows through the centre of the city, with an urban park along its banks. The city's territorial authority population is people, and includes a number of smaller urban areas as well as rural areas. The population of the urban area is people. Christchurch is the second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand, after Auckland. It is the major urban area of an emerging sub-region known informally as Greater Christchurch. Notable smaller urban areas within this sub-region include Rangiora and Kaiapoi in Waimakariri District, north of the Waimakariri River, and Rolleston and Lincoln in Selwyn District to the south. The first inhabitants migrated to the area sometime between 1000 and 1250 AD. They hunted moa, which led ...
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Māori People
The Māori (, ) are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand (). Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several centuries in isolation, these settlers developed their own distinctive culture, whose language, mythology, crafts, and performing arts evolved independently from those of other eastern Polynesian cultures. Some early Māori moved to the Chatham Islands, where their descendants became New Zealand's other indigenous Polynesian ethnic group, the Moriori. Initial contact between Māori and Europeans, starting in the 18th century, ranged from beneficial trade to lethal violence; Māori actively adopted many technologies from the newcomers. With the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the two cultures coexisted for a generation. Rising tensions over disputed land sales led to conflict in the 1860s, and massive land confiscations, to which ...
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Rangatira
In Māori culture, () are tribal chiefs, the hereditary Māori leaders of a hapū. Ideally, rangatira were people of great practical wisdom who held authority () on behalf of the tribe and maintained boundaries between a tribe's land and that of other tribes. Changes to land ownership laws in the 19th century, particularly the individualisation of land title, undermined the power of rangatira, as did the widespread loss of land under the colonial government. The concept of rangatira and rangatiratanga, however, remain strong, and a return to rangatiratanga and the uplifting of Māori by the system has been widely advocated for since the Māori renaissance. Moana Jackson, Ranginui Walker, Tipene O'Regan are among the most famous of these advocates. The concept of a rangatira is central to —a Māori system of governance, self-determination and sovereignty—based on the essential leadership of all peoples through direct democracy. Etymology The word means "chief (male or fem ...
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