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Sugar Loaf Islands
The Sugar Loaf Islands (often Sugarloaf; mi, Ngā Motu, ) are a collection of five small uninhabited islands and several sea stacks near Port Taranaki, New Zealand. The largest, Moturoa Island, covers approximately . Motumahanga is the island furthest from shore, at approximately . Ngā Motu was one of the first areas inhabited by descendants of Te Whiti o Rongomai, and the islands and reefs were all named by Ngāti Te Whiti. The island group was given its English name in 1770 by James Cook because the reminded him of the way sugar was stored in heaps in Europe. The Sugar Loaf Islands Marine Protected Area (SLIMPA) was established in 1991 to protect the area from oil exploration. This strengthened the protection that had been in place since the formation of a marine park in 1986. In 2013 New Plymouth district councillors unanimously agreed to gift the protected area back to the government for Treaty of Waitangi claims and settlements, treaty settlement negotiations with Taranak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Pacific Reef Heron
The Pacific reef heron (''Egretta sacra''), also known as the eastern reef heron or eastern reef egret, is a species of heron found throughout southern Asia and Oceania. It occurs in two colour morphs with either slaty grey or pure white plumage. The sexes are similar in appearance. Taxonomy The Pacific reef heron was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's '' Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the herons, cranes and egrets in the genus '' Ardea'' and coined the binomial name ''Ardea sacra''. Gmelin based his description on the "Sacred heron" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. The naturalist Joseph Banks had provided Latham with a specimen of a white morph that had been collected on Tahiti. The Pacific reef heron is now placed with 12 other species in the genus ''Egretta'' that was intr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservation Park (New Zealand)
Conservation park is a type of specially protected status for land held by the Crown in New Zealand for conservation purposes. The status is set up under the Conservation Act 1987 and the parks are administered by the Department of Conservation (DoC). , there were 54 conservation parks in New Zealand (including 36 forest parks), covering an area of 2,690,191 hectares. Forest parks Forest parks have a less stringent level of protection than National Parks and are used for a wide variety of recreational and commercial activities. Some forest parks have recently been renamed conservation parks, for instance, the former 'Whirinaki Forest Park' which became the Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tāne Conservation Park in 2010. * Aorangi Forest Park *Coromandel Forest Park *Craigieburn Forest Park *Hanmer Forest Park * Herekino Forest Park * Houto Forest Park * Hukerenui Forest Park * Kaihu Forest Park * Kaiikanui Forest Park *Kaimanawa Forest Park *Kaweka Forest Park * Lake Sumner Forest Park * M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Plymouth Power Station
The New Plymouth Power Station (NPPS) was a 600 MW thermal power station at New Plymouth, New Zealand. Located at Port Taranaki, it was dual fuelled on natural gas and fuel oil. Constructed at a time of major hydro and HV transmission developments, it was New Zealand's first big thermal power station planned for continuous base load operation. The plant has been owned and operated (in turn) by NZED, NZE, ECNZ and Contact Energy. In 2013, the site was sold to Port Taranaki and Methanex. History The power station project commenced in the 1960s, to meet rising electricity demand in New Zealand. Initially, fuel for this power station was to be coal, barged up from the West Coast, and the Port Taranaki site was chosen ahead of one at Wanganui. During early stages of the project, the Maui gas field was discovered off Taranaki. The plant design was changed to be dual fuel on either natural gas or heavy fuel oil. The first unit was commissioned in February 1974, with the fif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commonwealth Of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Commonwealth Secretariat, which focuses on intergovernmental aspects, and the Commonwealth Foundation, which focuses on non-governmental relations amongst member states. Numerous organisations are associated with and operate within the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth dates back to the first half of the 20th century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was originally created as the British Commonwealth of Nations through the Balfour Declaration at the 1926 Imperial Conference, and formalised by the United Kingdom through the Statute of Westminster in 1931. The current Commonwealth of Nations was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which modernised the comm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stack (geology)
A stack or sea stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by wave erosion. Stacks are formed over time by wind and water, processes of coastal geomorphology. britannica.com They are formed when part of a headland is by , which is the force of the sea or water crashing against the rock. The force of the water weakens cracks in the headland, causing them to later collapse, formi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moturoa Island
Moturoa is a steeply sloped island off the coast of Taranaki, New Zealand. It is the easternmost and largest of the Sugar Loaf Islands, hence its name, which is Māori for "long island". Moturoa is 120 metres long at its longest point, and around 100 metres wide. It is separated from the Taranaki coast of the North Island mainland by an wide channel. The entrance to Port Taranaki lies just to the east. The island has lent its name to Moturoa, a suburb of New Plymouth, which lies on the mainland 1.5 kilometres to the southeast. A cluster of smaller islands, of which Whareumu (Lion Rock) is the largest, lies some 60 metres off the island's southwest coast. Habitation Moturoa is uninhabited, but it and several of the other Sugar Loaf Islands were hunting, fishing and gathering grounds and places of refuge for local inhabitants and the Taranaki and Te Āti Awa for hundreds of years. Blasting Moturoa and Whareumu In the early 20th century Moturoa and Whareumu were blasted with ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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