Tophouse
Tophouse, also known as Tophouse Settlement, is a rural locality in the Tasman District of New Zealand's South Island, some 8 km northeast of Saint Arnaud. It is named after a hotel established in the 19th century to service drovers transporting their sheep between Canterbury and Marlborough. The hotel is still in operation today and has an eventful history, including a double murder suicide in October 1894 (see below). For many years, "Tophouse" referred specifically to the hotel, but it has also been used to refer to the general vicinity, and on 20 February 2001, the New Zealand Geographic Board assigned the name "Tophouse Settlement" to the area. Tophouse is located near State Highway 63. There were also plans to establish a significant railway junction in Tophouse. One plan from the 1880s for the route of the Main North Line from Christchurch to Marlborough and Nelson proposed extending the Waiau Branch line (then terminated in Culverden) via Hanmer Springs to Toph ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Saint Arnaud, New Zealand
Saint Arnaud (previously Rotoiti) is a small alpine village in the Tasman District, Tasman district of New Zealand's South Island, west of the mountains of the Saint Arnaud Range and 90 kilometres southwest of Nelson, New Zealand, Nelson near the historic Tophouse, Tophouse Settlement. It is situated at the northern end of Lake Rotoiti, Nelson, Lake Rotoiti. Naming The village was called Rotoiti until 1921, when it was renamed by the Department of Lands and Survey to avoid confusion with other communities of the same name. Archives show that between 1921 and 1951 both names were unofficially used by local residents and government agencies when referring to the village area. Such references include a letter dated 1 June 1950 from the Chief Surveyor of the Nelson District Office of the Department of Lands and Survey to the New Zealand Geographic Board stating that "for many years confusion has occurred due to correspondence addressed to the residents and visitors at Lake Rotoit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New Zealand State Highway 63
State Highway 63 (SH 63) is a state highway located in the northern parts of the South Island of New Zealand. It is 117 km long and runs between the settlements of Renwick (in Marlborough) and Kawatiri Junction (in the Tasman region) via Saint Arnaud, providing a bypass of the city of Nelson. Despite being a convenient link between the West Coast and Marlborough, and being a relatively straight highway along most of its length, it is only classified by the NZTA as a secondary collector highway. Route SH 63 begins just to the east of Renwick at SH 6, and parallels the course of the Wairau River for 93 kilometres, initially to the south of the river before crossing to the north side about 20 km from the Marlborough/Tasman border, while passing through the settlements of Wairau Valley, Hillersden and Tophouse. Just before reaching Tophouse, the Wairau River veers to south while the road arrives in St. Arnaud at the shores of Lake Rotoiti. After St. Arnaud the roa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Main North Line, New Zealand
The Main North Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk railway, is a railway line that runs north from Christchurch in New Zealand up the east coast of the South Island through Kaikōura and Blenheim to Picton. It is a major link in New Zealand's national rail network and offers a connection with roll-on roll-off ferries from Picton to Wellington. It was also the longest railway construction project in New Zealand's history, with the first stages built in the 1870s and not completed until 1945. Construction The first proposal for a line resembling the present day Main North Line was made in 1861. A proposal for a line linking Christchurch and Blenheim was put before the Marlborough Provincial Council in April 1861. Later that year, the national government passed the Picton Railway Act in October, approving a line from Picton to the Wairau River under the auspices of the Marlborough Provincial Council.General Assembly of New Zealand"The Picto ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Waiau Branch
The Waiau Branch was a branch line railway in the northern Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. Known as the Great Northern Railway for its first few decades of life, the Waiau Branch was seen as part of a main line north but was ultimately superseded by a coastal route. Opened in stages from 1882 to 1919, the line closed in 1978 but a portion has been retained as the Weka Pass Railway. Construction During the 1870s, significant debates motivated by regional interests took place regarding the most desirable route for a railway from Canterbury to the West Coast, Nelson, and Marlborough. A number of these plans involved lines that would have in some way incorporated the route of what became the Waiau Branch, and when it was built, it was seen as an integral part of the Main North Line. Despite an 1879 report favouring a coastal route via Kaikoura as the line north, the inland route was initially chosen and construction work soon began. Its junction with the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Landscape Near Tophouse
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the physical elements of geophysically defined landforms such as (ice-capped) mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of land use, buildings, and structures, and transitory elements such as lighting and weather conditions. Combining both their physical origins and the cultural overlay of human presence, often created over millennia, landscapes reflect a living synthesis of people and place that is vital to local and national identity. The character of a landscape helps define the self-image of the people who inhabit it and a sense of place that differentiates one region from other regions. It is t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Populated Places In The Tasman District
Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a census, a process of collecting, analysing, compiling, and publishing data regarding a population. Perspectives of various disciplines Social sciences In sociology and population geography, population refers to a group of human beings with some predefined criterion in common, such as location, race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion. Demography is a social science which entails the statistical study of populations. Ecology In ecology, a population is a group of organisms of the same species who inhabit the same particular geographical area and are capable of interbreeding. The area of a sexual population is the area where inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Parnassus, New Zealand
Parnassus is a locality in the Canterbury region's Hurunui District on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is located on the north bank of the Waiau River. It takes its name from a local sheep run owned by a classical scholar, Edward Lee. He saw a likeness between a local hill and the Greek Mount Parnassus, mythical home of the god Apollo and the Muses. Cheviot district passes through the town on its route from Cheviot to Kaiko ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blenheim, New Zealand
Blenheim ( ; mi, Waiharakeke) is the most populous town in the regions of New Zealand, region of Marlborough Region, Marlborough, in the north east of the South Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of The surrounding Marlborough wine region is well known as the centre of the New Zealand wine industry. It enjoys one of New Zealand's sunniest climates, with warm, relatively dry summers and cool, crisp winters. Blenheim is named after the Battle of Blenheim (1704), where troops led by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough defeated a combined French and Bavarian force. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "Phormium tenax, flax stream" for . History The sheltered coastal bays of Marlborough supported a small Māori people, Māori population possibly as early as the 12th century. Archaeological evidence dates Polynesian human remains uncovered at Wairau Bar to the 13th century. The rich sea and bird life of the area would easil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wairau River
The Wairau River is one of the longest rivers in New Zealand's South Island. It flows for from the Spenser Mountains (a northern range of the Southern Alps), firstly in a northwards direction and then northeast down a long, straight valley in inland Marlborough. The river's lower reaches and surrounding fertile plain provide the basis for the Marlborough wine region. The river has its outflow into Cook Strait at Cloudy Bay, just north of Blenheim in the island's northeast. The Wairau River meets the sea at the Wairau Bar, an important archaeological site. In pre-European and early colonial New Zealand, one of the South Island's largest Māori settlements was close to the mouth of the Wairau. The Wairau Valley was the scene of the 1843 Wairau Affray, the first violent clash between Maori residents and English settlers over land in New Zealand. Hydroelectricity There are currently two hydroelectric power stations operating on tributaries of the river. The Wairau Hydro Sche ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hanmer Springs
Hanmer Springs is a small town in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. The Māori name for Hanmer Springs is Te Whakatakanga o te Ngārahu o te ahi a Tamatea, which means “where the ashes of Tamate’s (sic) fire lay”, referring to Tamatea, the captain of the canoe Tākitimu. Hanmer Springs is located north-west of Christchurch and south-west of Kaikōura ( by road), in the Hurunui District. The town lies on a minor road north of State Highway 7, the northern route between Christchurch and the West Coast via Lewis Pass. The township lies at the base of Conical Hill. Mount Isobel () looks over Hanmer Springs. Jacks Pass and Jollies Pass provide access to the Molesworth and Rainbow roads. Toponymy The town is named after Thomas Hanmer, an owner of Hawkeswood Station near the Conway River during the 1850s. Thomas Hanmer was born in Hanmer, Wales. He arrived at Port Lyttleton in 1852. While searching for suitable farming land, he joined a party o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Culverden
Culverden is a small town in the northern Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. It lies at the centre of the Amuri Plain. Culverden has traditionally been surrounded by sheep farms. Dairy farms have now become more common as a result of irrigation schemes in the area. The Waiau Plains Irrigation Scheme was completed in 1980. It provides irrigation to 17,000 hectares of farmland and the Balmoral Scheme provides irrigation to a further 5500 hectares. The Rutherford Reserve and the Culverden Recreation Reserve are on the southern side of Culverden and the Culverden Golf Course in on the northern entrance to Culverden. There is a memorial in the Rutherford Reserve to Dr Charles Little who died in November 1918 from the Spanish Flu. He was the county doctor providing medical services from Waikari to Waiau. Local government When provincial government was abolished in 1876, Culverden became the main centre for the newly established Amuri County. Counties were abolished in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |