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Haast River
The Haast River / Awarua is a river on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. The Māori name for the river is Awarua. It drains the western watershed of the Haast Pass. The Haast River is in length, and enters the Tasman Sea near Haast township. The river's main tributary is the Landsborough River. Toponomy Julius von Haast named the river after himself, "directed, so he said, by his Provincial Superintendent". Von Haast explored a route from Otago to the West Coast that was long known to Māori; his four companions were William Young (a surveyor), Charles Håring (a retired sailor), William Francis Warner (later the proprietor of Warner's Hotel), and Robert Langley Holmes (later the Canterbury provincial meteorologist). They set out on 22 January 1863 and stood in the surf on 20 February. Geography The river is set within the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Site. The majority of the surrounding land is publicly owned and administered by the Department of Conser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri O Te Moana
The Southern Alps (; officially Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana) is a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the range's western side. The name "Southern Alps" generally refers to the entire range, although separate names are given to many of the smaller ranges that form part of it. The range includes the South Island's Main Divide, which separates the water catchments of the more heavily populated eastern side of the island from those on the west coast. Politically, the Main Divide forms the boundary between the Marlborough, Canterbury and Otago regions to the southeast and the Tasman and West Coast regions to the northwest. Names The Māori name of the range is , meaning "the Mirage of the Ocean". The English explorer James Cook bestowed the name ''Southern Alps'' on 23 March 1770, admiring their "prodigious height". p. 384. They had previously been noted by Abel Tasman in 1642, whose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gates Of Haast
The Gates of Haast is a gorge on the Haast River in Mount Aspiring National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located inland by road from the township of Haast and from the summit of Haast Pass. The Gates of Haast has sheer rock cliffs above a steep cascade in the Haast River. State Highway 6 crosses the gorge on a single-lane Callender-Hamilton steel truss bridge. History The Haast Pass was a route used by Maori in pre-European times. In 1863, the route was used by the explorer and geologist Julius von Haast along with Charles Cameron. By 1880, a packhorse track had been constructed over the pass, However, work to form a road across the pass did not start until 1929 when work began at Lake Hãwea. A further phase commenced from the east at Makarora in 1936, and proceeded as far as the Gates of Haast, but was then halted for several years because of diversion of resources to the Second World War. Further work on the western side of the Gates of Haast did no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thunder Creek Falls
Thunder Creek Falls is a waterfall in Mount Aspiring National Park, Westland District, New Zealand. It is located in the Haast River valley, around inland from Haast, near the Gates of Haast bridge on State Highway 6. The falls are about high and the base is at an elevation of around where it flows into the Haast River. The waterfall is the outlet of Thunder Creek, draining from a hanging valley created by erosion caused by the former Haast glacier and the Haast River. Over a period of around 14,000 years, the Haast River has formed a canyon, eroding the bedrock down by approximately the 28 m height of the falls. Viewing platform A viewing platform is accessible via a walk on a sealed track from the carpark on State Highway 6. The track to the viewing platform passes through silver beech and kāmahi forest. Vegetation The vegetation in this area has silver beech (''Nothofagus menziesii'') as the main canopy tree, but there are also podocarps including miro (''Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roaring Billy Falls
Roaring Billy Falls is a waterfall in Mount Aspiring National Park, Westland District, New Zealand. It is located in the Haast River valley, around inland from Haast, near Eighteen Mile Bluff on State Highway 6. The falls are a cascade on The Roaring Billy stream. The bottom of the cascade is at an elevation of around where it flows into the Haast River. Viewing point and walkway A viewing point is accessible via a walkway from the carpark on State Highway 6. The walkway is a gravel and boardwalk path that passes through silver beech and podocarp forest to the gravel bed of the Haast River where there is a view of the falls on the opposite side of the river. The forest understory along the walk has a dense growth of tree ferns. Vegetation The path to the viewing point passes through forest on a fertile alluvial terrace with a wide diversity of rainforest plants. The canopy consists of silver beech (''Nothofagus menziesii''), southern rata (''Metrosideros umbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pakihi
Pakihi or pākihi is a vegetation association unique to the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, characterised by flat boggy land with infertile, waterlogged soil on which only rushes, ferns, moss, and mānuka grow. Name The Māori word can mean "open country" or "barren land", or alternatively "a clearing in forest" or "place where fern root was dug up". Both these ideas are encompassed by the use of pakihi in New Zealand English to refer to open country, mainly on the West Coast of the South Island, from which forest was once cleared but which no longer allows tree growth. Extent Pakihi habitat ranges over 540 km of the west of the South Island, from Golden Bay in the north to Awarua Bay in the south, being particularly common in the central West Coast between Westport and Hokitika, usually near the coast but sometimes extending some 50 km inland. Pakihi can be both natural or induced. Some pakihi has existed for thousands of years, even back to g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Podocarpaceae
Podocarpaceae is a large family of mainly Southern Hemisphere conifers, known in English as podocarps, comprising about 156 species of evergreen trees and shrubs.James E. Eckenwalder. 2009. ''Conifers of the World''. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. . It contains 19 genera if ''Phyllocladus'' is included and ''Manoao'' and ''Sundacarpus'' are recognized. The family is a classic member of the Antarctic flora, with its main centres of diversity in Australasia, particularly New Caledonia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and to a slightly lesser extent Malesia and South America (primarily in the Andes Mountains). Several genera extend north of the equator into Indochina and the Philippines. ''Podocarpus'' reaches as far north as southern Japan and southern China in Asia, and Mexico in the Americas, and ''Nageia'' into southern China and southern India. Two genera also occur in sub-Saharan Africa, the widespread ''Podocarpus'' and the endemic '' Afrocarpus''. ''Parasitaxus usta'' is uniqu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tectonic Uplift
Tectonic uplift is the geologic uplift of Earth's surface that is attributed to plate tectonics. While isostatic response is important, an increase in the mean elevation of a region can only occur in response to tectonic processes of crustal thickening (such as mountain building events), changes in the density distribution of the crust and underlying mantle, and flexural support due to the bending of rigid lithosphere. Tectonic uplift results in denudation (processes that wear away the earth's surface) by raising buried rocks closer to the surface. This process can redistribute large loads from an elevated region to a topographically lower area as well – thus promoting an isostatic response in the region of denudation (which can cause local bedrock uplift). The timing, magnitude, and rate of denudation can be estimated by geologists using pressure-temperature studies. Crustal thickening Crustal thickening has an upward component of motion and often occurs when continental crus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpine Fault
The Alpine Fault is a geological fault that runs almost the entire length of New Zealand's South Island (c. 480 km) and forms the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. The Southern Alps have been uplifted on the fault over the last 12 million years in a series of earthquakes. However, most of the motion on the fault is strike-slip (side to side), with the Tasman district and West Coast moving North and Canterbury and Otago moving South. The average slip rates in the fault's central region are about 38 mm a year, very fast by global standards. The last major earthquake on the Alpine Fault was in c. 1717 AD, and the probability of another one occurring within the next 50 years is estimated at about 75 percent. Geographic extent and plate motion ThPacific Plate and Indo-Australian Plate boundaryforms the Macquarie Fault Zone in the Puysegur Trench off the southwestern corner of the South Island and comes onshore as the Alpine Fault just nort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arawhata River
The Arawhata River (often spelt with the Ngāi Tahu Māori dialect spelling ''Arawata River'') is in the West Coast region of the South Island of New Zealand. The river has its headwaters in the Mount Aspiring National Park. It drains the western side of the Southern Alps and heads in a northerly direction for , flowing into Jackson Bay. A small lake, Lake Ellery, drains into the river near its mouth, via a short tributary, the Jackson River. Access is possible up the river by jetboat. Access to the glaciers, forests and flats of the upper reaches of the valley is restricted by Ten Hour Gorge. Glacial silt in the river imparts an opaque green to greyish coloration to the water. The lower valley is grazed by cattle by the local farmers under a grazing licence. The majority of the land in the area is publicly owned and administered by the Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Alps
The Southern Alps (; officially Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana) is a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the range's western side. The name "Southern Alps" generally refers to the entire range, although separate names are given to many of the smaller ranges that form part of it. The range includes the South Island's Main Divide, which separates the water catchments of the more heavily populated eastern side of the island from those on the west coast. Politically, the Main Divide forms the boundary between the Marlborough, Canterbury and Otago regions to the southeast and the Tasman and West Coast regions to the northwest. Names The Māori name of the range is , meaning "the Mirage of the Ocean". The English explorer James Cook bestowed the name ''Southern Alps'' on 23 March 1770, admiring their "prodigious height". p. 384. They had previously been noted by Abel Tasman in 1642, whose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longshore Drift
Longshore drift from longshore current is a geological process that consists of the transportation of sediments (clay, silt, pebbles, sand, shingle) along a coast parallel to the shoreline, which is dependent on the angle incoming wave direction. Oblique incoming wind squeezes water along the coast, and so generates a water current which moves parallel to the coast. Longshore drift is simply the sediment moved by the longshore current. This current and sediment movement occur within the surf zone. The process is also known as littoral drift. Beach sand is also moved on such oblique wind days, due to the swash and backwash of water on the beach. Breaking surf sends water up the beach (swash) at an oblique angle and gravity then drains the water straight downslope (backwash) perpendicular to the shoreline. Thus beach sand can move downbeach in a sawtooth fashion many tens of meters (yards) per day. This process is called "beach drift" but some workers regard it as simply part o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swale (landform)
A swale is a shady spot, or a sunken or marshy place. In US usage in particular, it is a shallow channel with gently sloping sides. Such a swale may be either natural or human-made. Artificial swales are often infiltration basins, designed to manage water runoff, filter pollutants, and increase rainwater infiltration. Bioswales are swales that involve the inclusion of plants or vegetation in their construction, specifically. On land This swale concept has also been popularized as a rainwater harvesting Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is the collection and storage of rain, rather than allowing it to run off. Rainwater is collected from a roof-like surface and redirected to a tank, cistern, deep pit (well, shaft, or borehole), aquifer, or a reservoir ... and soil conservation strategy by Bill Mollison, David Holmgren, and other advocates of permaculture. In this context it is usually a water-harvesting ditch on contour, also called a ''contour Bunding, bund''. Swales as used in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
