Lake Tekapo
__NOTOC__ Lake Tekapo ( mi, Takapō) is the second-largest of three roughly parallel lakes running north–south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island of New Zealand (the others are Lake Pukaki and Lake Ohau). It covers an area of , and is at an altitude of above sea level. The lake is fed at its northern end by both the braided Godley River and Macauley river, which have their sources in the Southern Alps to the north. The snow melt from the Southern Alps is tinged with a light turquoise colour from the glacial silt. This gives Lake Tekapo its distinctive colour. To the east of Lake Tekapo lies the Two Thumb Range with Mount Toby (2222m); Braun Elwert Peak (2086m); Dobson Peak (2095m) and Mount Maude (1797m) amongst the mountains over looking Lake Tekapo. On the western side of Lake Tekapo. Mount John (1031m) is closest to the town with Lake Alexandrina further north and Mistake Peak (1931m) sitting towards the head of the lake. Cowans Hill ( ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mackenzie District
Mackenzie District is a local government district on New Zealand's South Island, administered by the Mackenzie District Council. It is part of the larger Canterbury Region. Geography Principal settlements The Mackenzie District only has three towns with a permanent population over 300 at the 2013 census: * Fairlie (pop. 690) – seat of the district *Twizel (pop. 1,140) – the district's largest town * Tekapo (pop. 370) Other smaller settlements include: *Mount Cook Village *Albury *Burkes Pass Geographical features Rivers: *Mackenzie Basin * Mackenzie River *Tekapo River * Pukaki River * Grays River Mountains: *Aoraki / Mount Cook Lakes: *Lake Tekapo and the 'Church of the Good Shepherd'. *Lake Pukaki *Lake Ruataniwha, one of New Zealand's main rowing venues *Lake Ōhau Glaciers: *Tasman Glacier * Hooker Glacier Skifields: *Fox Peak * Mt Dobson * Round Hill *Tasman Glacier Heliski National parks: *Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park Climate The Mackenzie District has a dr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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State Highway 8 (New Zealand)
State Highway 8 is one of New Zealand's eight national highways. It forms an anticlockwise loop through the southern scenic regions of the Mackenzie Basin and Central Otago, starting and terminating in junctions with State Highway 1. Distances are measured from north to south. For most of its length SH8 is a two-lane single carriageway, with at-grade intersections and property accesses directly off the road, both in rural and urban areas. Route Main route The highway leaves SH1 at Washdyke, an industrial suburb of Timaru, travelling initially northwest through Pleasant Point then continuing to the town of Fairlie. From here the route tends westward and rapidly increases in altitude, passing the southern end of the two great Mackenzie Basin lakes of Tekapo and Pukaki. From Pukaki the highway turns southwest across the upper reaches of the Waitaki Valley, passing through the former hydroelectricity service town of Twizel and Omarama before again climbing to cross the Lin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Waitaki Dam
Waitaki District is a territorial authority district that is located in the Canterbury and Otago regions of the South Island of New Zealand. It straddles the traditional border between the two regions, the Waitaki River, and its seat is Oamaru. History Waitaki District is made up of the former Waitaki County, Waihemo County and Oamaru Borough, which were amalgamated in 1989. It is governed by the Waitaki District Council. Name During the colonial period, the area was also known as ''Molesworth''. However, the Maori name ''Waitaki'' eventually prevailed. Geography It has a land area of , of which or 59.02% is in the Canterbury Region and or 40.98% in the Otago Region. It is the only district in the South Island that lies in two regions.Siobhan Downes"Why Waitaki wants its name on the tourism map" stuff.co.nz, 19 May 2021. A major reason for this split was the governance of the Waitaki River which forms a political boundary between Canterbury and Otago. With major hydro schem ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lupin
''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur in North Africa and the Mediterranean. They are widely cultivated, both as a food source and as ornamental plants, but are invasive to some areas. Description The species are mostly herbaceous perennial plants tall, but some are annual plants and a few are shrubs up to tall. An exception is the ''chamis de monte'' (''Lupinus jaimehintoniana'') of Oaxaca in Mexico, which is a tree up to tall. Lupins have soft green to grey-green leaves which may be coated in silvery hairs, often densely so. The leaf blades are usually palmately divided into five to 28 leaflets, or reduced to a single leaflet in a few species of the southeastern United States and eastern South America. The flowers are produced in dense or open whorls on an erect spik ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dark-sky Preserve
A dark-sky preserve (DSP) is an area, usually surrounding a park or observatory, that restricts artificial light pollution. The purpose of the dark-sky movement is generally to promote astronomy. However, astronomy is certainly not the only objective of conserving a dark sky. A dark night sky is associated with many facets of history, philosophy, religion, societal development, poetry, song, mathematics, and science. Different terms have been used to describe the areas as national organizations have worked independently to create their programs. The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) uses International Dark Sky Reserve (IDSR) and International Dark Sky Park (IDSP). A third designation, International Dark Sky Sanctuary, was introduced in 2015. History An International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) was founded in 1988 to reserve public or private land for an exquisite outlook of nocturnal territories and starry night skies. These reserves are specifically conserved for its sci ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Otago
Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government region. Its population was The name "Otago" is the local southern Māori dialect pronunciation of "Ōtākou", the name of the Māori village near the entrance to Otago Harbour. The exact meaning of the term is disputed, with common translations being "isolated village" and "place of red earth", the latter referring to the reddish-ochre clay which is common in the area around Dunedin. "Otago" is also the old name of the European settlement on the harbour, established by the Weller Brothers in 1831, which lies close to Otakou. The upper harbour later became the focus of the Otago Association, an offshoot of the Free Church of Scotland, notable for its adoption of the principle that ordinary people, not the landowner, should choose the ministe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Waka (canoe)
Waka () are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes (''waka tīwai'') used for fishing and river travel to large, decorated war canoes (''waka taua'') up to long. The earliest remains of a canoe in New Zealand were found near the Anaweka estuary in a remote part of the Tasman District and radiocarbon-dated to about 1400. The canoe was constructed in New Zealand, but was a sophisticated canoe, compatible with the style of other Polynesian voyaging canoes at that time. Since the 1970s about eight large double-hulled canoes of about 20 metres have been constructed for oceanic voyaging to other parts of the Pacific. They are made of a blend of modern and traditional materials, incorporating features from ancient Melanesia, as well as Polynesia. Waka taua (war canoes) ''Waka taua'' (in Māori, ''waka'' means "canoe" and ''taua'' means "army" or "war party") are large canoes manned by up to 80 paddlers and are up to in length. Large waka, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Waitaha (South Island Iwi)
Waitaha, an early Māori iwi, inhabited the South Island of New Zealand. They were largely absorbed via marriage and conquest - first by the Ngāti Māmoe and then by Ngāi Tahu - from the 16th century onward. Today those of Waitaha descent are represented by the Ngāi Tahu iwi. Like Ngāi Tahu today, Waitaha was itself a collection of various ancient iwi. Kāti Rākai was said to be one of Waitaha's hapū. History Origins Waitaha's earliest ancestors are traditionally traced as arrivals from Te Patunui-o-āio in Eastern Polynesia aboard the canoe (waka), of which Rākaihautū had been the captain. He was accompanied by his wife and son, Waiariki-o-āio and Te Rakihouia, the renowned (astronomer) Matiti, Waitaa, and other kin of the Te Kāhui Tipua, Te Kāhui Roko, and Te Kāhui Waitaha iwi. When genealogies are interpreted with 25–30 years' worth of lifespan for at least 34 generations, these people are calculated to have lived in or around the 9th century at the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ngāi Tahu
Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori (tribe) of the South Island. Its (tribal area) is the largest in New Zealand, and extends from the White Bluffs / Te Parinui o Whiti (southeast of Blenheim), Mount Mahanga and Kahurangi Point in the north to Stewart Island / Rakiura in the south. The comprises 18 (governance areas) corresponding to traditional settlements. Ngāi Tahu originated in the Gisborne District of the North Island, along with Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Kahungunu, who all intermarried amongst the local Ngāti Ira. Over time, all but Ngāti Porou would migrate away from the district. Several were already occupying the South Island prior to Ngāi Tahu's arrival, with Kāti Māmoe only having arrived about a century earlier from the Hastings District, and already having conquered Waitaha, who themselves were a collection of ancient groups. Other that Ngāi Tahu encountered while migrating through the South Island were Ngāi Tara, Rangitāne, Ngāti T ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mackenzie District Council
Mackenzie District Council is the territorial authority for the Mackenzie District of New Zealand. The council is led by the mayor of Mackenzie The Mayor of Mackenzie officiates over the Mackenzie District of New Zealand's South Island. Anne Munro has been the current mayor of Mackenzie since 2022. List of mayors There have been 7 mayors of Mackenzie. References {{Mayors in New Zeal ..., who is currently . There are also seven ward councillors. Composition Councillors * Mayor * Pukaki Ward: James Leslie, Matt Murphy, Emily Bradbury * Opuha Ward: Anne Munro, Murray Cox, Stuart Barwood Community boards * Fairlie Community Board: Les Blacklock, Murray Cox, Angela Habracken, Damon Smith, Leaine Rush * Tekapo Community Board: Steve Howes, Matt Murphy, Sharron Binns, Chris Scrase, Caroll Simcox * Twizel Community Board: Jacqui de Buyzer, Amanda Sargent, Renee Rowland, Tracy Gunn, Emily Bradbury History The council was established in 1989, replacing the MacKenzie County Co ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Māori Language
Māori (), or ('the Māori language'), also known as ('the language'), is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. Closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and Tahitian, it gained recognition as one of New Zealand's official languages in 1987. The number of speakers of the language has declined sharply since 1945, but a Māori-language revitalisation effort has slowed the decline. The 2018 New Zealand census reported that about 186,000 people, or 4.0% of the New Zealand population, could hold a conversation in Māori about everyday things. , 55% of Māori adults reported some knowledge of the language; of these, 64% use Māori at home and around 50,000 people can speak the language "very well" or "well". The Māori language did not have an indigenous writing system. Missionaries arriving from about 1814, such as Thomas Kendall, learned to speak Māori, and introduced the Latin alphabet. In 1 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |