Tory Channel / Kura Te Au | |
---|---|
Kura Te Au (Māori) | |
![]() Entrance of Tory Channel / Kura Te Au | |
Location | Marlborough Region, New Zealand |
Coordinates | 41°14′24″S174°14′00″E / 41.24000°S 174.23333°E |
Type | Ria |
Part of | Marlborough Sounds |
Max. length | 16.8 kilometres (10.4 mi) |
Max. width | 1.1 kilometres (0.68 mi) |
Average depth | 39.2 metres (129 ft) |
Max. depth | 65 metres (213 ft) |
Islands | Moioio Island |
Tory Channel (officially Tory Channel / Kura Te Au) is one of the drowned valleys that form the Marlborough Sounds in New Zealand. Inter-island ferries normally use it as the principal channel between Cook Strait and the Marlborough Sounds. [1] [2]
Tory Channel lies to the south of Arapaoa Island, separating it from the mainland. At its western end it joins the larger Queen Charlotte Sound, which it meets halfway along the latter's length. Its eastern end meets Cook Strait close to the strait's narrowest point. [3] The Channel is 16.8 km (10.4 mi) long, averages 1.1 km (0.68 mi) in width, and is up to 65 m (213 ft) deep, with an average channel depth of 39.2 m (129 ft). [4]
Tory Channel forms a substantial part of the ferry route between Wellington and Picton. Erosion attributed to the wake from the ferries, particularly the new faster ones (discontinued in 2005 [5] ), has resulted in speed restrictions. [6] [7]
One of the two candidates for the easternmost point in the South Island (along with Cape Campbell) lies at the entrance of Tory Channel. It is called West Head.
Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Tama recognize the channel Kura Te Au as an important historic mahinga kai (food source), and settlement for Te Āti Awa. The channel was used as a primary highway by Te Āti Awa, and is still monitored and defended by the iwi in the environmental courts.
The name Kura Te Au originates from the red colour of the sea caused by a variety of plankton and the high populations of crustacean krill. According to legend, Kura Te Au is where Kupe killed the giant, mythical octopus, Te Wheke-a-Muturangi, causing its blood to run through the channel, turning the water red. Kurahaupō and Rangitāne give the meaning "the red current" for Kura Te Au. [8]
James Cook anchored several times in the nearby bay he named Ship Cove. He sighted the Tory Channel in an excursion on the pinnace from his ship HMS Resolution on 5 November 1774. John Guard established the first permanent whaling station on Arapaoa Island in 1827, targeting whales in the Tory Channel for their baleen and whale oil. [9] Tory Channel was accurately surveyed in 1840 and named after the New Zealand Company ship Tory , a pioneer ship that brought British colonists to Wellington. Around this time, whaling stations were already operating in Te Awaiti Bay. Between 1911 and 1964, the Perano family hunted whales from Whekenui Bay. Humpback whales were spotted from the hills at the Tory Channel entrance during their migration through Cook Strait. The Perano Whaling Station was the last whaling operation in New Zealand and closed in 1964.
The name of the channel was officially altered to Tory Channel / Kura Te Au in August 2014. [10]
Energy Pacifica planned to install up to ten underwater tidal stream turbines, each able to produce up to 1.2 MW, near the Cook Strait entrance to Tory Channel. They claimed Tory Channel had tidal flows of 3.6 metres per second (12 ft/s) with good bathymetry and access to the electricity network. [11] Other designs envisaged up to 50 turbines, but there are uncertainties about flow rates, the area is about 15 km (9.3 mi) from the HVDC Inter-Island transmission station at Ōraumoa / Fighting Bay and a calculation in 2013 suggested that an economic return was unlikely. [4]
Arapaoa Island is the second-largest island in the Marlborough Sounds, at the north-east tip of the South Island of New Zealand. The island has a land area of 75 km2. Queen Charlotte Sound defines its western side, while to the south lies Tory Channel, which is on the sea route between Wellington in the North Island to Picton. Cook Strait's narrowest point is between Arapaoa Island's Perano Head and Cape Terawhiti in the North Island.
Cook Strait is a strait that separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The strait connects the Tasman Sea on the northwest with the South Pacific Ocean on the southeast. It is 22 kilometres (14 mi) wide at its narrowest point, and is considered one of the most dangerous and unpredictable waters in the world. Regular ferry services run across the strait between Picton in the Marlborough Sounds and Wellington.
The Marlborough Sounds are an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. The Marlborough Sounds were created by a combination of land subsidence and rising sea levels. According to Māori mythology, the sounds are the prows of the many sunken waka of Aoraki.
Picton is a town in the Marlborough Region of New Zealand's South Island. The town is located near the head of the Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui, 25 km (16 mi) north of Blenheim and 65 km (40 mi) west of Wellington. Waikawa lies just north-east of Picton and is considered to be a contiguous part of the Picton urban area.
Otago Harbour is the natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, 21 km (13 mi) from the harbour mouth. It is home to Dunedin's two port facilities, Port Chalmers and at Dunedin's wharf. The harbour has been of significant economic importance for approximately 700 years, as a sheltered harbour and fishery, then deep water port.
Wellington Harbour, officially called Wellington Harbour / Port Nicholson, is a large natural harbour on the southern tip of New Zealand's North Island. The harbour entrance is from Cook Strait. Central Wellington is located on parts of the western and southern sides of the harbour, and the suburban area of Lower Hutt is to the north and east.
Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Toarangatira or Ngāti Toa Rangatira, is a Māori iwi (tribe) based in the southern North Island and in the northern South Island of New Zealand. Its rohe extends from Whanganui in the north, Palmerston North in the east, Ngāti Toa remains a small iwi with a population of only about 9000. The iwi is centred around Porirua, Plimmerton, Kāpiti, Blenheim and Arapaoa Island. It has four marae: Takapūwāhia and Hongoeka in Porirua City, and Whakatū and Wairau in the north of the South Island. Ngāti Toa's governing body has the name Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira.
Foveaux Strait is a strait that separates Stewart Island from the South Island of New Zealand. The width of the strait ranges from about 23 to 53 km and the depth varies between 18 and 46 m. Captain James Cook passed around the southern tip of Stewart Island during his circumnavigation of the South Island in 1770 but did not record the presence of a seaway between Stewart Island and the mainland. The strait was not properly recorded until 1804 when an American sealer Owen Folger Smith made a chart.
Pelorus Sound is the largest of the sounds which make up the Marlborough Sounds at the north of the South Island, New Zealand.
Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui is the easternmost of the main sounds of the Marlborough Sounds, in New Zealand's South Island.
Te Koko-o-Kupe / Cloudy Bay is located at the northeast of New Zealand's South Island, to the south of the Marlborough Sounds and north of Clifford Bay. In August 2014, the name Cloudy Bay, given by Captain Cook in 1770, was officially altered to Te Koko-o-Kupe / Cloudy Bay, with the Māori name recalling the early explorer Kupe scooping up oysters from the bay. The area lends its name to one of the best known New World white wines although the grapes used in production of that wine are grown in the Marlborough wine region further inland.
Cape Campbell, Te Rae-o-te-kōhaka in the Māori language, is in Marlborough, New Zealand, on the northeastern coast of the South Island. It lies at the southern end of Clifford Bay, 15 kilometres (9 mi) northeast of Ward, and 42 kilometres (26 mi) southeast of Blenheim. Cape Campbell lies close to the salt works at Lake Grassmere.
Cape Terawhiti is the southwesternmost point of the North Island of New Zealand.
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.
Commercial whaling in New Zealand waters began late in the 18th century and continued until 1965. It was a major economic activity for Europeans in New Zealand in the first four decades of the 19th century. Nineteenth-century whaling was based on hunting the southern right whale and the sperm whale and 20th-century whaling concentrated on the humpback whale.
Meretoto / Ship Cove is a small bay in the Marlborough Region of New Zealand, renowned as the first place of prolonged contact between Māori and Europeans. It is located near the entrance of Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui, west of nearby Motuara Island and Long Island.
New Zealand has large ocean energy resources but does not yet generate any power from them. TVNZ reported in 2007 that over 20 wave and tidal power projects are currently under development. However, not a lot of public information is available about these projects. The Aotearoa Wave and Tidal Energy Association was established in 2006 to "promote the uptake of marine energy in New Zealand". According to their 10 February 2008 newsletter, they have 59 members. However, the association doesn't list its members.
Whale watching in New Zealand is predominantly centred around the areas of Kaikōura and the Hauraki Gulf. Known as the 'whale capital', Kaikōura is a world-famous whale watching site, in particular for sperm whales which is currently the most abundant of large whales in New Zealand waters. The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park is also a significant whale watching area with a resident population of Bryde's Whales commonly viewed alongside other cetaceans Common Dolphins, Bottlenose Dolphins and Orca. Whale watching is also offered in other locations, often as eco-tours and in conjunction with dolphin watching. Land-based whale watching from New Zealand's last whaling station, which closed in 1964, is undertaken for scientific purposes, mostly by ex-whalers.
Matapara / Pickersgill Island is an island in New Zealand's Marlborough Sounds, in the outer reaches of Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui. The island is separated from Cook Strait by nearby Arapaoa Island, however this offers little protection for Matapara from the prevailing northerly wind.