#855 Pink and White Terraces (Otukapuarangi), New Zealand

John Clarke Hoyte painting. Pink and White Terraces, Lake Rotomahana and Mount Tarawera. Watercolor and gouache on paper. ca 1870s. Hocken Collections. Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago.
http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewImage.do?id=223993&aid=135809

This is an unusual one: The pink and white terraces are an amazing place -- however they no longer exist. Actually, they no longer exist in the form that made them famous.

http://www.buriedvillage.co.nz/pink_and_white_terraces/p/49

The pink and white terraces were two sets of beautiful geyser formations of silica terraces in Lake Rotomahana near the dormant volcano Mt. Tarawera, around 25 km south of the New Zealand town of Rotorua, but they disappeared during an 1886 eruption of Mt. Tarawera. 800m apart, it is thought they had different appearances because of the amount of sunlight they each received, with the white ones being the larger set, around 50 layers and cascading over 40m in height, and the pink ones being the preferred area for swimming.

"The journey from Auckland was typically by steamer to Tauranga, the bridle track to Ohinemutu on Lake Rotorua, by coach to Te Wairoa by canoe across lake Tarawera, and then on foot over the hill to the swampy shores of Lake Rotomahana and the terraces." (Wikipedia)

http://www.virtualoceania.net/newzealand/photos/volcanic/terraces/whiteterraces.shtml

The eruption at 3am on 10 June 1886 caused the lake floor to explode, showering the area with liquid mud, ash, stones and other debris, not only reclaiming the terraces, but burying two Maori villages, Moura and Te Ariki. After the eruption, there was a crater where the terraces had been, which was eventually filled with the water of the lake

http://www.virtualoceania.net/newzealand/photos/volcanic/terraces/waterbasins.shtml

In Maori they were known as Otukapuarangi, "fountain of the clouded sky" and they were a popular tourist attraction from the 1840s, especially after Prince Albert, the Duke of Edinburgh, visited in 1870, but were a source of racist resentment from the white (pakeha) New Zealanders because the Te Arawa tribe that owned them became wealthy from their control and ownership of the area (they even had their marae (meeting house) in Hinemihi made with gold florins instead of paua (abalone shell) eyes. After the eruption killed and displaced members of the tribe, the New Zealand government unfairly converted the area into crown land in a payment-for-relief-assistance system, although much of this (including 13 lakes in 2006) has been returned to the tribe in the past decades as part of the Treaty of Waitangi tribunal.

Lake Tarawera before the eruption and today -- the eruption enlarged the lake. A narrow isthmus separates lakes Tarawera and Rotomahana.

http://www.virtualoceania.net/newzealand/photos/volcanic/terraces/laketarawera.shtml#

http://www.virtualoceania.net/newzealand/photos/lakes/rotorua/nz0277.shtml

I've been fascinated with the pink and white terraces since I was a girl and saw a beautiful painting of them. It was only after a while that I learned that they had been destroyed -- I had dreamed of visiting them!

In a marvel of modern science, the lowest two tiers of the pink terraces were rediscovered 60 metres underwater while mapping the lake floor in 2011, and it is thought that the rest may be buried under sediment, and the increased-level lake.

Sources: http://themeetingplacenz.blogspot.com/2012/07/pink-and-white-terraces-backstory-to.html 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_and_White_Terraces
http://www.virtualoceania.net/newzealand/photos/volcanic/terraces/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Rotomahana

#859 Cardrona Bra Fence, New Zealand

Today's post is tongue-in-cheek and also a bit of a memorial. Apparently, Cardrona Valley's infamous bra fence is no more (this happened a while ago, but I only just heard about it) -- someone got up in the middle of the night and stole all the bras!

From the Fence's own Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/brafence

It's not an uncommon thing in New Zealand for strange objects to be on the side of the road, hung on fences.  A few years ago, the Shoe Fence near Fairlie (see copyrighted photos linked below) caused a bit of a protest as some people complained that it was a driving hazard to have something interesting to look at on the side of the road, and the same thing has been brought up by the local Queenstown council regarding Cardrona. I think this fence deserves a record on the 1000 Amazing Places list simply because it is a symbol of human ingenuity and creativity, and it was started with an even more noble thought in mind -- it was a memorial to a dear friend that died, sharing her clothes on the fence in a ritual of mourning. What is otherwise an uneventful drive, now brings a smile to all who pass, and many stop to take photos and send letters to the farm owners. I have no doubt that there will be more bras that emerge soon!

Source: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown-lakes/248614/canvassing-support-new-bra-fence

http://www.conveyit.co.nz/yk-files/ae6c9e9e322b89d1b17adf7febd6b845/A%20Commonsense%20Fence.pdf 

http://weirdorinteresting.blogspot.co.nz/2009/11/cardrona-bra-fence-weird-or-interesting.html

http://www.timhaufphotography.com/Othercountries/Oceania/New-Zealand/12098219_VtQnv3/1406109268_4cW4zrP#!i=1406109268&k=4cW4zrP

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauanz/8530202372/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardrona_Bra_Fence

#888 Taranaki, New Zealand

On the western coast of the North Island of New Zealand, there is a point which sticks out into the Tasman Sea more than the rest. The gas and oil hub for New Zealand, this is the region of Taranaki. Crowned by a near perfect volcano (formerly Mt Egmont, but now Mt. Taranaki) above beautiful rolling farms and windswept beaches, New Plymouth, a quaint town, is the main hub. Why is it amazing? It's beautiful, it's west coast, it's traditional, it's true New Zealand!

#906 West Coast Glaciers (Te Wahipounamu), New Zealand

Fox Glacier ice cave

River emerging from Fox Glacier

People are often quite astonished to discover that New Zealand has growing glaciers -- it perhaps does not seem cold enough, but the Southern Alps provide a perfect environment for the mountain glaciers to feed the coastal ice flows that end in the rain forest not far from the ocean's edge.

Fox Glacier -- rainforest surrounding it

 

Very accessible in around an hour's walk from the main road, but surrounded by spectacular high peaks, they are a magical other-worldly place to visit. Like most other place's on New Zealand's West Coast South Island, there are minimal people living anywhere closeby allowing it to remain untouched and wild.

Franz Josef Glacier

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Glacier

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Glacier

#921 Christchurch, New Zealand

My beautiful home port, Christchurch! While I am from Queenstown, it is almost impossible to get there without passing through Christchurch, the nearest international airport. It is also the biggest city on the South Island, so like a capital in some ways. 

Modeled on traditional English cities, when sitting on the banks of the Avon river it is easy to imagine oneself on a different continent. The calm placid river winds through flat Christchurch, with charming trees shadowing the banks while ducks float by.

When I was a child, the highlights of Christchurch were going to Orana Wildlife Park (which I think still exists), trying to catch a glimpse of the Wizard giving one of his nutty speeches, wandering the beautiful old former University of Canterbury campus (which housed the Arts Center), in particular the excellent market. We watched the Wild Things performed in an excellent small theatre -- in fact, all my early experiences of theatre occurred here. As Queenstown's theatre didn't really have much selection, we went to movies in the theatre or at the bigger Hoyts up the road, and later on, climbed the steep steps of the internet cafe that was on the corner. I loved driving past the Edmond's factory, and I even bloodied my nose in the parking lot of the cheap hotel we always stayed at -- wish I could remember the name.

We would drive out to the beach or up into the hills for a view from the extinct volcano. It was a long straight road over the Canterbury plains, with farms and tree breaks and more traffic! Often, we were on our way to Hamner Springs, but Christchurch was the closest place to shop and I loved the shops there!

In February 2011 a powerful earthquake hit Christchurch and they were wracked by many aftershocks and the trauma of liquefaction, homes declared condemned, the loss of their beloved cathedral, and lives lost or forever altered.

World Heritage Te Wahipounamu

Te Wahipounamu comprises the least-disturbed tenth of New Zealand's land mass, with some 2 million hectares of temperate rainforest, 450 km of alpine communities, and a distinctive fauna. It contains the best modern representation of the ancient flora and fauna of Gondwanaland, including Podocarpus species, genera of beech, flightless kiwis, 'bush' moas and carnivorous Powelliphanta land snails. The overwhelming mountainous character of the area results from tectonic movement between the Pacific plate and the Indo-Australian plate over the last 5 million years. High local relief is the result of deep glacial excavation.

Continent: Oceania

Country: New Zealand

Category: Natural

Criterion: (VII)(VIII) (IX) (X)

Date of Inscription: 1990

Mount Cook National Parks

Glaciers are an important feature of the nominated area, especially in the vicinity of Westland and Mount Cook national parks. There have also been substantial post-glacial changes, especially marked in South Westland and the Southern Alps. Erosion is rapid, especially west of the Main Divide. Intense gullying, serrated ridges, and major and minor rock falls are characteristic of this zone. However, glacial landforms are almost entirely intact in Fiordland.

The vegetation is notable both in national and international terms for its diversity and essentially pristine condition. A floristically rich alpine vegetation of shrubs, tussocks and herbs extends around the summits of the mountains, from about 1,000 m to the permanent snowline. At warmer lower altitudes, the rainforest is dominated by dense stands of tall podocarps. The wetter, milder west is characterized by luxuriant rainforest and wetlands; the drier, more continental east has more open forest, shrublands and tussock grasslands. The most extensive and least modified natural freshwater wetlands in New Zealand are found in this area. Sizeable open wetlands, including high-fertility swamps and low-fertility peat bogs, are a particular feature of the south Westland coastal plain.

Mount Cook National Parks

Browse Gallery Plus UNESCO Storyline

The best-known vegetation chronosequences are those on glacial landforms where the ages of outwash, terrace and higher piedmont surfaces are known. The most impressive landform chronosequence is the flights of marine terraces in southern Fiordland. As the least-modified region on mainland New Zealand, the south-west is the core habitat for many indigenous animals, including a number of primitive taxa, and contains the largest and most significant populations of forest birds in the country, most of which are endemic to New Zealand. A few mountain valleys in Fiordland harbour the total wild population (about 170 birds) of the takahe, a large flightless rail believed extinct until 'rediscovered' in 1948 and which is recognized as endangered. Most of New Zealand's fur seals are found along the south-west coast. Virtually wiped out by sealing in the early 1800s, they currently number about 50,000.

Slideshow for this Heritage Site

A Maori association with the area falls into three broad categories: mythological, traditional history and ethnological. All these values are contained within the tradition of the Ngai Tahu tribe, whose ancestral territories cover all except the extreme northern parts of South Island.

Browse All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in New Zealand. The original UNESCO inscription Here!!!

#925 Russell, New Zealand

When I was a child I read a lot of historical New Zealand fiction including Jacky Nobody (1984 winner of the Esther Glen Award) about the Bay of Islands area when it was first settled, with the famous chief Hone Heke and various tribes and groups. I particularly remember the trials that Jacky Nobody (the Maori identity-challenged main character) had with going barefoot with sensitive pakeha feet. My mother's family has a farm near Okaihau between Kerikeri and Kaikohe and I spent many a school holiday there, and my favorite thing to do was visit the Historic Places in the area, which after having travelled further afar are really not that old, but to me they will always be my first dose of history.

One thing that I was always shocked about was when I heard that Russell used to be the capital of New Zealand. It's such a tiny, isolated village now -- though charming and quaint -- that it seems impossible that it was New Zealand's first capital (before both Auckland and the current Wellington) even if that was only from 1840 to 1841. It is possible to drive there, but it's quite a long trip because it is at the end of a long peninsula. Most local visitors take the Opua ferry, but even that is a shortcut. When I visited as a child, we often only took the passenger ferry across from Paihia.

However, the capital was actually Okiato (Old Russell), 7km south of present-day Russell (which was then Kororareka). New Russell (which adopted the same name as Old Russell became deserted) was, however, the first European settlement. Russell was named after the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Lord John Russell). Originally a whaling and sealing community, Russell was infamous, known as the 'Hell Hole of the Pacific' rife with prostitution and being lawless, despite being named literally as 'How sweet the penguin is' (Kororareka). It's most significant part of history was for the flagpole on Flagstaff Hill, which was cut down by Hone Heke (John Heke) several times in protest that the British were no longer welcomed by many tribes despite the Treaty of Waitangi.

In a nice connection, this is also where my parents went on their honeymoon in May 1973. They fondly tell stories of emptying all the confetti from their suitcases on Russell beach. Such is the connection to the place in our family that my cousin, Tina, also got married here in Pompelier House in 2010.

Aerial view of Russell from jasons.co.nz

Map of the lower Bay of Islands with Russel at center. From maps.google.com

Acknowledgements: Most of the photos on this page are taken by Brian Marquand.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell,_New_Zealand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Islands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Glen_Award
http://www.russellmuseum.org.nz/books.htm
http://www.zoomin.co.nz/map/nz/far+north/russell/-whangamumu+peninsula/
http://www.zoomin.co.nz/map/nz/far+north/kerikeri/-purerua+peninsula/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Brett
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okiato

Tongariro National Park New Zealand

The Maoriare is a Polynesian people who reached Aotearoa (New Zealand) before AD 1300 (and possibly as early as AD 600-800). They came as settlers in large double-hulled canoes -men, women, and children, with their plants and domestic animals. One of the most important was the Arawa canoe, which made its first landfall at Whangaparaoa on North Island's East Cape and then travelled to Maketu in the Bay of Plenty. The descendants of that canoe still hold authority over the land as far south as the Tongariro National Park. The people of the Park - Ngati Tuwharetoa - identify with Ngatoroirangi, the navigator of the Arawa canoe and legendary bringer of fire to Tongariro.

Continent: Oceania

Country: New Zealand

Category: Mixed Heritage

Criterion: (VI)(VI) (VIII)

Date of Inscription: 1993

Mixed Heritage Property

Mananui To Heuheu, paramount chief of Ngati Tuwharetoa, was one of the few Maori chiefs who refused to sign the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 and thereby cede sovereignty to the British Crown. His son Horonuku, who succeeded Mananui in 1846 when he was buried by an avalanche on the mountain and who became known as Te Heuheu Tukino in 1862, came under severe pressure from land-hungry European settlers. When faced with the dilemma of having to divide his land following a dispute with the Maniapoto iwi or lose it to the Land Court, he took the advice of his sonin- law Lawrence Grace to make it 'a taou place of the Crown, a sacred place under the mana of the Queen". With the approval of the Tuwharetoa chiefs the land was handed over to the Crown as a gift in September 1887.

The original deed of gift made an area of 2640 ha consisting of three small circles around the main peaks into the first national park in New Zealand, and the fourth in the world. This was too small for effective management and over the years that followed large-scale purchases of land were made by the Crown, so that when the Tongariro National Park Act was passed in 1894 its area had increased to some 25,000 ha. A survey report in 1904 recommended that the area should be more than doubled, and today the Park's boundaries enclose over 79,000 ha.

Tongariro National Park

Browse Gallery Plus UNESCO Storyline

Slideshow for this Heritage Site

Browse All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in New Zealand. The original UNESCO inscription Here!!!

Sub-Antarctic Islands New Zealand

The New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands consist of five island groups located in the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean off the south-eastern coast of New Zealand. Along with the Macquarie Island World Heritage site in Australia, the five islands form the only subantarctic island group in the region. The islands lie between latitudes of 47º and 52º south and include the Snares, Bounty Islands, Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands and Campbell Islands. Total land area is 76,458 ha. The site includes a marine component extending 12 km from each island group.

Continent: Oceania

Country: New Zealand

Category: Natural

Criterion: (IX)(X)

Date of Inscription: 1997

Few hours of sunshine and high humidity

The islands lie on the shallow continental shelf and three of the groups are eroded remnants of Pliocene volcanoes. Rivers are short with precipitous streams. The lakes are few and generally shallow and small. Quaternary glaciers have left shallow cirques, moraines and fjords on some islands. Cool equable temperatures, strong westerly winds, a few hours of sunshine and high humidity prevail.

With the exception of the Bounty Islands which have no higher plants, the remaining islands together with neighbouring Macquarie Island, constitute a Centre of Plant Diversity and have the richest flora of all the subantarctic islands. The Snares and two of the Auckland Islands are especially important in that their vegetation has not been modified by human or alien species. The terrestrial flora of the islands comprises 233 vascular plants of which 196 are New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands (New Zealand) indigenous, six endemic, and 30 are rare. Auckland Islands have the southernmost forests in the region, dominated by a species of myrtle. A particular floral feature of the islands is the 'megaherbs' that contribute to rich and colourful flower gardens.

Penguin atSub-Antarctic Islands

Browse Gallery Plus UNESCO Storyline

Slideshow for this Heritage Site

As the islands lie between the Antarctic and Subtropical Convergences, the seas have a high level of productivity. The Islands are particularly notable for the huge abundance and diversity of pelagic seabirds and penguins that nest there. There are 120 bird species in total, including 40 seabirds of which five breed nowhere else. The islands support major populations of 10 of the world's 24 species of albatross. Almost 6 million sooty shearwaters nest on Snares Island alone. There are also a large number of threatened endemic land birds including one of the world's rarest ducks. 95% of the world's population of New Zealand sea lion (formerly known as Hooker's sea lion) breed here and there is a critical breeding site for the southern right whale. A number of endemic invertebrates also occur.

Browse All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in New Zealand. The original UNESCO inscription Here!!!

#932 Otago Peninsula, New Zealand

Can't believe this is only my second post about my beautiful home, New Zealand!

The Otago Peninsula will remain forever in my bones and soul. I have childhood memories of a crib (cottage) with stiff wooden kitchen drawers filled with someone else's cutlery, spartan 70's furniture, and a car load of groceries to ensure we wouldn't have to leave or starve. It was located on a freezing-cold windy stone beach at the end of a winding hilly track, surrounded by muddy green paddocks and the force of the southern Pacific on a blustery day. My brother and I played lots of cards!

There were other times, like when visiting Larnach Castle with my Nana, New Zealand's only castle, always a romantic historical place in my mind, but really only a big stately house high on a hill surrounded by trees, serving scones and tea. There was a tower, more of a stairwell really, but grand enough for untraveled me.

Otago harbor, like many kiwi harbors, originated when a massive volcano blew its top (and middle), and the hills are strewn with leftover rocks, which the stoic early farmers turned into quaint stone fences. Settled by hardy Scots who came from a similar climate, the region is rich with farmland, and framed by picturesque wild beaches and small towns. A view back to Dunedin on a sunny day is beautiful, and you can see where the dredges made a canal in the harbor. The small country road winds over the hills and there are no villages, only farmhouses, fields, and windbreaking hedges.

Map of Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula from http://www.visit-dunedin.co.nz/map.html