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Cromwell, New Zealand
Cromwell (Māori: ''Tīrau'') is a town in Central Otago in the Otago region of New Zealand. Geography Cromwell is between (linking to Wānaka, north, and Queenstown via the Kawarau Gorge, west) and State Highway 8 leading to the Lindis Pass, northeast, and Alexandra, 33 km south. The road to Alexandra winds through the Cromwell Gorge. A point near Cromwell lies 119 kilometres from the sea, the farthest from the sea anywhere in New Zealand. A prominent feature surrounding much of the town is the man-made Lake Dunstan. Nearby settlements are at Bannockburn, Lowburn, Tarras, and Ripponvale. Cromwell has a strategic location between the Lindis and the Haast passes, and acts as a hub between the towns of Wānaka, Queenstown and Alexandra. Cromwell is also the home of the Cromwell Chafer Beetle ''(Prodontria lewisi)''. The 45th parallel south runs just north of the township. Cromwell lay at the confluence of the Clutha River and the Kawarau River, which was ...
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45th Parallel South
The 45th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 45 ° south of the Earth's equator. It is the line that marks the theoretical halfway point between the equator and the South Pole. The true halfway point is south of this parallel because Earth is not a perfect sphere, but bulges at the equator and is flattened at the poles. Unlike its northern counterpart, almost all (97%) of it passes through open ocean. It crosses the South Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, Australasia (New Zealand and just south of Tasmania), the Southern Ocean, and Patagonia. At this latitude, daytime lasts for 15 hours, 37 minutes during the December solstice and 8 hours, 46 minutes during the June solstice. Around the world Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the parallel 45° south passes through: : See also *44th parallel south The 44th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 44 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, t ...
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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 ...
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Lindis Pass
Lindis Pass (elevation 971 m) is located in the South Island of New Zealand. A carpark at the top of the pass provides access to a viewpoint and two short trails to other viewing spots. Lindis Pass lies between the towns of Cromwell (78km, 55 minutes drive) in Central Otago and Omarama (32km, 21 minutes drive) in Canterbury, on the main inland route to the Waitaki Basin in the Otago Region. The pass lies between the valleys of the Lindis and Ahuriri Rivers. State Highway 8 transverses the pass on its route from the Waitaki Basin to Central Otago. The pass is the highest point on the South Island's state highway network, and the second highest point on the New Zealand state highway network The New Zealand state highway network is the major national highway network in New Zealand. Nearly 100 roads in the North and South Islands are state highways. All state highways are administered by the NZ Transport Agency. The highways were ..., after the Desert Road (New Zealand ...
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Clyde Dam
The Clyde Dam, New Zealand's third-largest hydroelectric dam, is built on the Clutha River / Mata-Au near the town of Clyde, New Zealand, Clyde. It is owned and operated by Contact Energy. History There was considerable controversy when the dam was planned because it would flood many houses and orchards upstream at Cromwell, New Zealand, Cromwell, as well as the scenic Cromwell Gorge, which was a highlight of the then young but growing New Zealand tourism industry. Construction also required replacement of a stretch of highway and the closure of the Otago Central Railway beyond Clyde, though materials for the dam would provide significant traffic for the rest of the line which was experiencing a drop in freight tonnage. To mitigate these problems, the Third Labour Government of New Zealand, Kirk Labour government decided a low dam should be built at Clyde. This decision was overturned by the following Third National Government of New Zealand, National government, who preferred a h ...
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Kawarau River
The Kawarau River is a river in the South Island of New Zealand. It drains Lake Wakatipu in northwestern Otago via the lake's Frankton Arm. The river flows generally eastwards for about and passes through the steep Kawarau Gorge until it joins Lake Dunstan near Cromwell. Before the construction of the Clyde High Dam, the Kawarau joined the Clutha River / Mata-Au in a spectacular confluence at Cromwell. The Shotover River enters the Kawarau from the north; the Nevis River enters it from the south. With many rapids and strong currents, the river can be dangerous and has claimed many lives. It is popular for bungy jumping and kayaking. A natural bridge, , where the river narrows to , was important first to early Māori and then to goldminers as the only place the Mata-Au and the Kawarau could be crossed without boats. Māori were heading for the Cardrona Valley to reach Wānaka, and on to the Haast Pass to seek pounamu. The miners were seeking gold in the Arrow Goldfields ...
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Clutha River
The Clutha River (, officially gazetted as Clutha River / ) is the second longest river in New Zealand and the longest in the South Island. It flows south-southeast through Central and South Otago from Lake Wānaka in the Southern Alps to the Pacific Ocean, south west of Dunedin. It is the highest volume river in New Zealand, and the swiftest, with a catchment of , discharging a mean flow of . The river is known for its scenery, gold-rush history, and swift turquoise waters. A river conservation group, the Clutha Mata-Au River Parkway Group, is working to establish a regional river parkway, with a trail, along the entire river corridor. Geography The ultimate source of the river is at the head of the Makarora River, close to the saddle of the Haast Pass, which flows into the northern end of Lake Wānaka. The southern end of the lake drains into the nascent Clutha close to Albert Town, where it is met by its first main tributary, the Hāwea River, the outflow of Lake W� ...
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Prodontria Lewisi
The Cromwell chafer beetle (''Prodontria lewisii'') is a species of flightless beetle in the family Scarabaeidae. It is found in just one spot in Central Otago, New Zealand, which is now a nature reserve. Description and biology This species was named by Broun in 1904 as ''Prodontria Lewisii'', from "three mutilated individuals found by Mr. J. H. Lewis on the sand-hills of the Molyneaux River." Although its species epithet was ''lewisii'', the modernised genitive of Lewis, both ''lewisii'' and ''lewisi'' are used in the scientific literature; ''lewisii'' is slightly more common. This large beetle has pale reddish-brown elytra which are strongly convex and with deep groves passing along their length. Females are longer and wider than males, but males have a longer hind foot and tibia. The beetles live underground. They spend at least one year as larvae, living buried in the sand and feeding on plant roots. Adults emerge on humid nights on spring and summer for a few hours t ...
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Cromwell Chafer Beetle
The Cromwell chafer beetle (''Prodontria lewisii'') is a species of flightless beetle in the family Scarabaeidae. It is found in just one spot in Central Otago, New Zealand, which is now a nature reserve. Description and biology This species was named by Broun in 1904 as ''Prodontria Lewisii'', from "three mutilated individuals found by Mr. J. H. Lewis on the sand-hills of the Molyneaux River." Although its species epithet was ''lewisii'', the modernised genitive of Lewis, both ''lewisii'' and ''lewisi'' are used in the scientific literature; ''lewisii'' is slightly more common. This large beetle has pale reddish-brown elytra which are strongly convex and with deep groves passing along their length. Females are longer and wider than males, but males have a longer hind foot and tibia. The beetles live underground. They spend at least one year as larvae, living buried in the sand and feeding on plant roots. Adults emerge on humid nights on spring and summer for a few hours t ...
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Haast Pass
Haast Pass / Tioripatea is a mountain pass in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand. Māori used the pass in pre-European times. The pass takes its name from Julius von Haast, a 19th-century explorer who also served as provincial geologist for the provincial government of Canterbury. Following the passage of the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the pass was officially altered to Haast Pass / Tioripatea. The pass lies within the limits of Mount Aspiring National Park and forms part of the boundary between the Otago and West Coast regions. The Haast Pass is one of the three passes where a road crosses over the Southern Alps – alongside the Lewis Pass and Arthur's Pass, although the Homer Tunnel passes under the Main Divide. The Haast Pass rises to a height of above sea level at the saddle between the valleys of the Haast and Makarora Rivers. As such, it is the lowest of the passes traversing the Southern Alps. The route through Haast Pass ...
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Tarras, New Zealand
Tarras is a small farming settlement in Central Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. Tarras is located on the slopes above the upper reaches of the Clutha Valley, on State Highway 8. It is the first village reached by travellers heading south through the Lindis Pass, and is close to the junction where travellers from Aoraki / Mount Cook turn west towards Lake Hāwea, Wānaka, and Haast Pass / Tioripatea. Farming and agriculture Most farms in the Tarras district run sheep, principally merino farmed for their super-fine wool. Some also raise other sheep breeds and deer. Many farms have converted to beef cattle since the 2010 introduction of large-scale irrigation. Shrek, a hermit Merino sheep, was caught in the hills of Tarras on 15 April 2004, after hiding away in caves for six years. He was shorn live on national television, to produce fleece for men's coats. Shrek was euthanised on 6 June 2011 on a veterinarian's advice, at the age of 16. Vineyards have been estab ...
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Lowburn, New Zealand
Lowburn is a small settlement in Central Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located close to the shores of the man-made Lake Dunstan, which was formed by the building of the Clyde Dam. Lowburn lies between the towns of Wanaka and Cromwell. In the early days of European settlement, a ferry crossed the Clutha River The Clutha River (, officially gazetted as Clutha River / ) is the second longest river in New Zealand and the longest in the South Island. It flows south-southeast through Central and South Otago from Lake Wānaka in the Southern Alps to the P ... at this point. The modern economy of the settlement is largely based on orcharding and livestock, though wine production is also becoming important to the area. Clutha River Populated places in Otago {{Otago-geo-stub ...
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Bannockburn, New Zealand
Bannockburn is a small historic gold mining town located outside of Cromwell in Central Otago, New Zealand. The area was first made known as a rich alluvial gold field and was mined extensively in the 1860s. Its uniquely warm, dry climate earned it the name 'The heart of the desert', as climatic conditions and human activity have combined to strip the area of most of the original native vegetation leaving rocks, sands and soils exposed. Today, these climate conditions make Bannockburn the home of many vineyards and stonefruit orchards. History The plans for the settlement began in 1862, as a result of miners being forced upstream from rising water levels in the Clutha and Kawarau Rivers. Though the area was settled around this period, the population was not stationary. As miners followed gold up the creeks, the settlements tended to follow, and by 1868 the original settlement had been strung out along what is now the Bannockburn-Nevis road. As miners swept over the area, f ...
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