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French Pass
French Pass (; officially gazetted Te Aumiti / French Pass) is a narrow and treacherous stretch of water that separates D'Urville Island, at the north end of the South Island of New Zealand, from the mainland coast. At one end is Tasman Bay, and at the other end the outer Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere leads out to Cook Strait. French Pass has the fastest tidal flows in New Zealand, reaching 8 knots (4 m/s). When the tide changes, the current can be strong enough to stun fish. The local tribes are Ngāti Koata and Ngāti Kuia. History In the oral tradition of some Māori tribes, Te Aumiti (French Pass) is the resting place of Kupe's pet king shag, called Te Kawau-a-Toru. Kupe was a pioneer Polynesian navigator who discovered Cook Strait in his canoe. While he was exploring Cook Strait, Kupe was attacked by a giant octopus. In the furious battle to kill the octopus, the coast was gouged into the convoluted shapes that today make up the Sounds. Kupe's loyal shag then led Kupe t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jules Dumont D'Urville
Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (; 23 May 1790 – 8 May 1842) was a French List of explorers, explorer and French Navy, naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. As a botanist and cartographer, he gave his name to several seaweeds, plants and shrubs and to places such as d'Urville Island in New Zealand. Early life and education Dumont was born at Condé-sur-Noireau in Lower Normandy. His father, Gabriel Charles François Dumont, sieur d'Urville (1728–1796), Bailiff of Condé-sur-Noireau, was, like his ancestors, responsible to the court of Condé. His mother Jeanne Françoise Victoire Julie (1754–1832) came from Croisilles, Calvados, and was a rigid and formal woman from an ancient family of the rural nobility of Lower Normandy. The child was weak and often sickly. After the death of his father when he was six, his mother's brother, the Abbot of Croisilles, Calvados, Croisilles, played the part of his fathe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marlborough Sounds
The Marlborough Sounds (Māori language, te reo Māori: ''Te Tauihu-o-te-Waka'') are an extensive network of ria, sea-drowned valleys at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. The Marlborough Sounds were created by a combination of subsidence, land subsidence and sea level rise, rising sea levels. According to Māori mythology, the sounds are the Bow (watercraft), prows of the many sunken waka (canoe), waka of Aoraki / Mount Cook#Māori history, legends and traditions, Aoraki. Overview Covering some of sounds, islands, and peninsulas, the Marlborough Sounds lie at the South Island's north-easternmost point, between Tasman Bay in the west and Cloudy Bay in the south-east. The almost fractal coastline has 1/10 of the length of New Zealand's coasts. The steep, wooded hills and small quiet bays of the sounds are sparsely populated, as access is difficult. Many of the small settlements and isolated houses are only accessible by boat. The main large port is Picton, Ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Straits Of New Zealand
A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the flow somewhat. In some straits there is a dominant directional current. Most commonly, the strait is a narrowing channel that lies between two land masses. Straits are loci for sediment accumulation, with sand-size deposits usually occurring on the two strait exits, forming subaqueous fans or deltas. Some straits are not navigable because, for example, they are too narrow or too shallow, or because of an unnavigable reef or archipelago. Terminology The terms '' channel'', ''pass'', or ''passage'' can be synonymous and used interchangeably with ''strait'', although each is sometimes differentiated with varying senses. In Scotland, ''firth'' or ''Kyle'' are also sometimes used as synonyms for strait. Many straits are economically importan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
State Highway 6 (New Zealand)
State Highway 6 (SH 6) is a major New Zealand New Zealand state highway network, state highway. It extends from the Marlborough District, Marlborough region in the northeastern corner of the South Island across the top of the island, then down the length of the island, initially along the West Coast and then across the Southern Alps through inland Otago and finally across the Southland Plains to the island's south coast. Distances are measured from north to south. The highway is the longest single highway in the country, though it is shorter than the combined totals of the two highways that comprise , SHs 1N and 1S. For most of its length SH6 is a two-lane single carriageway, except for 5.4 km of dual carriageway in Invercargill, and 2+1 road, passing lanes in Invercargill and Nelson, with at-grade intersections and property accesses, both in rural and urban areas. Roundabouts are common in major towns, with traffic signals only found in Invercargill, Queenstown, Richmond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Department Of Conservation (New Zealand)
The Department of Conservation (DOC; Māori language, Māori: ''Te Papa Atawhai'') is the public service department of New Zealand charged with the conservation of New Zealand's natural and historical heritage. An advisory body, the New Zealand Conservation Authority, New Zealand Conservation Authority (NZCA) is provided to advise DOC and its ministers. In addition there are 15 conservation boards for different areas around the country that provide for interaction between DOC and the public. Functions and history Overview The department was formed on 1 April 1987, as one of several reforms of the public service, when the ''Conservation Act 1987'' was passed to integrate some functions of the Department of Lands and Survey, the New Zealand Forest Service, Forest Service and the New Zealand Wildlife Service, Wildlife Service. This act also set out the majority of the department's responsibilities and roles. As a consequence of Conservation Act all Crown land in New Zealand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Geographic Board
The New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa (NZGB) is the authority over geographical and hydrographic names within New Zealand and its territorial waters. This includes the naming of small urban settlements, localities, mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, harbours and natural features and may include researching local Māori names. It has named many geographical features in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica. It has no authority to alter street names (a local body responsibility) or the name of any country. The board was established by the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 1946, which has since been replaced by the New Zealand Geographic Board (Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Act 2008. Although an independent institution, it is responsible to the Minister for Land Information. The NZGB secretariat is part of Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) and provides the board with administrative and research assistance and advice. The New Zealand Geogra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to compare the duration of events (or the intervals between them), and to quantify rates of change of quantities in material reality or in the qualia, conscious experience. Time is often referred to as a fourth dimension, along with Three-dimensional space, three spatial dimensions. Time is one of the seven fundamental physical quantities in both the International System of Units (SI) and International System of Quantities. The SI base unit of time is the second, which is defined by measuring the electronic transition frequency of caesium atoms. General relativity is the primary framework for understanding how spacetime works. Through advances in both theoretical and experimental investigations of spacetime, it has been shown ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tidal Range
Tidal range is the difference in height between high tide and low tide. Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and Sun, by Earth's rotation and by centrifugal force caused by Earth's progression around the Earth-Moon barycenter. Tidal range depends on time and location. Larger tidal range occur during spring tides (spring range), when the gravitational forces of both the Moon and Sun are aligned (at syzygy), reinforcing each other in the same direction ( new moon) or in opposite directions ( full moon). The largest annual tidal range can be expected around the time of the equinox if it coincides with a spring tide. Spring tides occur at the second and fourth (last) quarters of the lunar phases. By contrast, during neap tides, when the Moon and Sun's gravitational force vectors act in quadrature (making a right angle to the Earth's orbit), the difference between high and low tides (neap range) is smallest. Neap ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shoal
In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or above it, which poses a danger to navigation. Shoals are also known as sandbanks, sandbars, or gravelbars. Two or more shoals that are either separated by shared crest and trough, troughs or interconnected by past or present sedimentary and hydrographic processes are referred to as a shoal complex.Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl Jr., and J.A. Jackson, eds. (2005) ''Glossary of Geology'' (5th ed.). Alexandria, Virginia, American Geological Institute. 779 pp. The term ''shoal'' is also used in a number of ways that can be either similar to, or quite different from, how it is used in geologic, geomorphic, and oceanographic literature. Sometimes, the term refers to either any relatively shallow place in a stream ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pelorus Jack
Pelorus Jack (floruit, fl. 1888 – April 1912; pronounced ) was a Risso's dolphin (''Grampus griseus'') that was famous for meeting and escorting ships through a stretch of water in Cook Strait, New Zealand. The animal was reported over a 24 year period, from 1888 until his disappearance after 1912. Pelorus Jack was usually spotted in Admiralty Bay, New Zealand, Admiralty Bay between Cape Francis and Collinet Point, near Te Aumiti / French Pass, French Pass, a notoriously dangerous channel used by ships travelling between Wellington and Nelson, New Zealand, Nelson. While it is claimed in the British book ''Breverton's nautical curiosities : a book of the sea'' that he was named after the Pelorus (instrument), pelorus, a marine navigational instrument, ''Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand'' explains that, based on local knowledge, the name came from Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere because it was at the entrance to that stretch of water where he would regularly meet ships t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Risso's Dolphin
Risso's dolphin (''Grampus griseus'') is a marine mammal and dolphin, the only species of the genus ''Grampus''. Some of the most closely related species to these dolphins include: pilot whales (''Globicephala'' spp.), pygmy killer whales (''Feresa attenuata''), melon-headed whales (''Peponocephala electra''), and false killer whales (''Pseudorca crassidens''). These dolphins grow to be about 10 ft in length and can be identified by heavy scarring that appears white. They are located worldwide in cold to temperate waters, but most typically found along continental shelves due to their eating habits. Risso's dolphins have a diet that contains primarily cephalopods. They are able to search for prey at various depths due to their ability to reach depths of almost 600m. Individuals typically travel in pods ranging anywhere from 10 to 50 dolphins, with which they form tight social bonds. Along with most marine species, the Risso's dolphin suffers from anthropogenic disruptions to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
