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Otago Peninsula
The Otago Peninsula ( mi, Muaūpoko) is a long, hilly indented finger of land that forms the easternmost part of Dunedin, New Zealand. Volcanic in origin, it forms one wall of the eroded valley that now forms Otago Harbour. The peninsula lies south-east of Otago Harbour and runs parallel to the mainland for 20 km, with a maximum width of 9 km. It is joined to the mainland at the south-west end by a narrow isthmus about 1.5 km wide. The suburbs of Dunedin encroach onto the western end of the peninsula, and seven townships and communities lie along the harbourside shore. The majority of the land is sparsely populated and occupied by steep open pasture. The peninsula is home to many species of wildlife, notably seabirds, pinnipeds, and penguins; several ecotourism businesses operate in the area. Geography The peninsula was formed at the same time as the hills facing it across the harbour, as part of the large, long-extinct, Dunedin Volcano. Several of the peninsula' ...
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Dunedin Area New Zealand
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The city has a rich Scottish people, Scottish, Chinese people, Chinese and Māori people, Māori heritage. With an estimated population of as of , Dunedin is both New Zealand's seventh-most populous metro and urban area. For historic, cultural and geographic reasons the city has long been considered one of New Zealand's four main centres. The urban area of Dunedin lies on the central-eastern coast of Otago, surrounding the head of Otago Harbour, and the harbour and hills around Dunedin are the remnants of an extinct volcano. The city suburbs extend out into the surrounding valleys and hills, onto the isthmus of the Otago Peninsula, and along the shores of the Otago Harbour and the Pacific Ocean. Archaeological evidence points to lengthy o ...
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Yellow-eyed Penguin
The yellow-eyed penguin (''Megadyptes antipodes''), known also as hoiho or tarakaka, is a species of penguin endemic to New Zealand. Previously thought closely related to the little penguin (''Eudyptula minor''), molecular research has shown it more closely related to penguins of the genus ''Eudyptes''. Like most other penguins, it is mainly piscivorous. The species breeds along the eastern and south-eastern coastlines of the South Island of New Zealand, as well as Stewart Island, Auckland Islands, and Campbell Islands. Colonies on the Otago Peninsula are a popular tourist venue, where visitors may closely observe penguins from hides, trenches, or tunnels. On the New Zealand mainland, the species has experienced a significant decline over the past 20 years. On the Otago Peninsula, numbers have dropped by 75% since the mid-1990s and population trends indicate the possibility of local extinction in the next 20 to 40 years. While the effect of rising ocean temperatures is stil ...
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Shiel Hill
Shiel Hill is a residential suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located at the southeastern edge of the city's urban area, southeast of the city's centre at the western end of the Otago Peninsula, close to the isthmus joining the peninsula to the mainland. As the name suggests, it is situated on the slopes of a hill at the start of the ridge which runs along the spine of the peninsula. The slopes rise to a series of crests generally known collectively as Highcliff, a name also often applied to the last suburban vestiges which remain as Dunedin's urban area becomes the rural land of the peninsula. More accurately, the name is that of a cliff which lies on the Pacific coast of the peninsula east of Shiel Hill. The suburb is almost entirely residential, though there are some retail premises on the suburb's main road, Highcliff Road. These include a small nexus of shops at the southwestern edge of Shiel Hill, at the point where the suburb joins the neighbouring suburb ...
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Vauxhall, Otago
Waverley is a suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It was named after Sir Walter Scott's novel Waverley, first novel in a series known as the Waverley Novels, among the most popular and widely read English-language novels of the 19th century. Waverley is located at the start of the Otago Peninsula, southeast of the city centre, on a rise overlooking the Otago Harbour to the north. The suburb is connected to central Dunedin by several streets of which Larnach Road is the most prominent. This descends from the suburb to link with Marne Street on the eastern shore of the Andersons Bay Inlet. Marne Street connects with the suburbs of Andersons Bay and Musselburgh to the south, and in the north links with the causeway which carries Portobello Road from South Dunedin along the northern shore of the Otago Peninsula. Notable other roads linking Waverley and other suburbs include Doon Street, which winds down the steep slopes above the harbour to link Waverley with Vauxhall at Po ...
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Cairn
A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistoric times, they were raised as markers, as memorials and as burial monuments (some of which contained chambers). In modern times, cairns are often raised as landmarks, especially to mark the summits of mountains. Cairns are also used as trail markers. They vary in size from small stone markers to entire artificial hills, and in complexity from loose conical rock piles to elaborate megalithic structures. Cairns may be painted or otherwise decorated, whether for increased visibility or for religious reasons. A variant is the inuksuk (plural inuksuit), used by the Inuit and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America. History Europe The building of cairns for various purposes goes back into prehistory in Eurasia, ranging in s ...
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Larnach Castle
Larnach Castle (also referred to as "Larnach's Castle") is a mock castle on the ridge of the Otago Peninsula within the limits of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, close to the small settlement of Pukehiki. It is one of a few houses of this scale in New Zealand. The house was built by the prominent entrepreneur and politician, William Larnach. Since 1967, the castle has been privately owned by the Barker family, and opened as a tourist attraction, as "New Zealand's only castle". The castle and grounds are open daily to members of the public. The Larnach Castle gardens are one of only five gardens nationwide to have been given the rating of "Garden of International Significance" by the New Zealand Gardens Trust. These were the first gardens in the South Island to receive the title. In 2018, Larnach Castle was designated a New Zealand Landmark by Heritage New Zealand. History Construction and style Larnach Castle was built as the private residence of William James Mudie ...
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Sand Dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat regions covered with wind-swept sand or dunes with little or no vegetation are called ''ergs'' or ''sand seas''. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, but most kinds of dunes are longer on the stoss (upflow) side, where the sand is pushed up the dune, and have a shorter ''slip face'' in the lee side. The valley or trough between dunes is called a ''dune slack''. Dunes are most common in desert environments, where the lack of moisture hinders the growth of vegetation that would otherwise interfere with the development of dunes. However, sand deposits are not restricted to deserts, and dunes are also found along sea shores, along streams in semiarid climates, in areas of glacial outwash, and in other areas where poorly cemented san ...
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Sandfly Bay
Sandfly Bay is a sandy bay with large dunes east of central Dunedin, New Zealand. Located on the southern side of Otago Peninsula, between Seal Point and the Gull Rocks on the western side of Sandymount, Sandfly Bay is a Department of Conservation wildlife reserve frequented by trampers. Name The bay is often thought by locals to have been named for a small biting insect known as the sandfly, but this is incorrect. It was named for the sand which, given the windy nature of this coast, flies from the tall dunes surrounding the bay. Physical geography Sandfly Bay is approximately across when measured in a straight line between the headlands. On the western side the cliffs of Seal Point rise directly out of the sea in a near-straight wall about long; beyond Seal Point along the coast lies Boulder Beach. On the eastern side lies a white sand beach, facing south-southwest, crossed by the mouth of Morris Creek flowing in from the north. Towards the eastern end of the bay t ...
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Victory Beach
Victory Beach is located on the Pacific Ocean coast of the Otago Peninsula, in the South Island of New Zealand, by road from Dunedin city centre and from the nearby town of Portobello. The longest beach on the peninsula, Victory Beach is located northeast of the entrance to Papanui Inlet and stretches for . The beach's name derives from the wreck of the SS ''Victory'' on the beach in 1861. Physical geography Victory Beach is approximately long and faces close to due east. To the north it ends at the cliffs of Kaika Hill, which project out into the sea to form the headland of Te Wharekaiwi. To the south it peters out in a tidal sandflat at the mouth of Papanui Inlet. The beach is backed by a series of high sand dunes, which protect the swampy area behind called Okia Flat. The beach and headlands to the north and south form Wickliffe Bay, so named for the ship '' John Wickliffe'', which – along with the ''Philip Laing'' – brought the first permanent European settlers to O ...
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Boulder Beach
Boulder Beach is a rocky beach on the Pacific Ocean, located on the south side of Otago Peninsula, some by road east from central Dunedin, New Zealand. In addition to being relatively difficult to access physically due to the steepness of the surrounding country, it is closed to the public in the summer months (November–February) to protect the yellow-eyed penguins that nest on it. Physical geography Boulder Beach is approximately long, facing almost exactly due south. Near the eastern end a stretch of about is sandy; the remainder is covered in boulders, hence the beach's name. To the west the beach ends with the rise of Highcliff, for which the neighbouring suburb of Dunedin is named; Highcliff becomes Pudneys Cliff further west, and ends at Māori Head, beyond which lie Smaills Beach and Tomahawk Beach. To the east Boulder Beach is truncated by a series of headlands which culminate in Seal Point, followed by Sandfly Bay. Northward the land rises steeply to Highcliff H ...
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Allans Beach
Allans Beach is a white sand beach on the Pacific Ocean coast of Otago Peninsula, in the South Island of New Zealand. It forms the seaward shore of a large spit at the entrance to Hoopers Inlet. Allans Beach is by road from Dunedin city centre and from the small town of Portobello. It receives little human traffic but is known to trampers, surfers, and naturists. Physical geography Allans Beach proper is approximately long and faces south-southeast; it is part of the Allans Beach Recreation Reserve. It runs to the southwestern tip of the spit which narrows the opening of Hoopers Inlet to a channel some across. Behind the beach rises a system of dunes covered in pīkao sedge. Behind these dunes lies Hoopers Inlet Swamp, which consists of a sequence of wetland types from freshwater swamp to salt marsh. The Allans Beach Wildlife Management Reserve covers a section of the Inlet beyond these wetlands. Northeastward the land rises towards Mount Charles; eastward along the co ...
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Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continents of Asia and Oceania in the west and the Americas in the east. At in area (as defined with a southern Antarctic border), this largest division of the World Ocean—and, in turn, the hydrosphere—covers about 46% of Earth's water surface and about 32% of its total surface area, larger than Earth's entire land area combined .Pacific Ocean
. '' Britannica Concise.'' 2008: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The centers of both the