Arapawa Island

Template: Infobox Island / Maintenance / image missing template: Infobox Island / Maintenance / height missing

Arapawa Iceland is a small island in the Marlborough Sounds at the north-eastern tip of the South Island of New Zealand. It belongs to the region of Marlborough.

The island has an area of ​​75 km ². It is bounded to the west by Queen Charlotte Sound and the south by the Tory Channel. This is an important shipping route from Wellington to Picton.

From a hill of Arapawa Iceland looked James Cook in 1770 for the first time later named after him, Cook Strait passage between the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea. This discovery refuted the suspected at this time of geographers existence of a large " southern continent ".

From the late 1820s until the mid -1960s, the island was a base for whaling in the Marlborough Sounds. Perano Head on the east coast of the island was the most important whaling station in the area. Built by the family Perano buildings are now used as tourist accommodation.

Arapawa Iceland is known for endemic pig, sheep and goat breeds. The origin of these breeds is unknown. There are indications that it could involve races, which were introduced by early whalers, Captain Cook and other explorers, but today have become extinct in England.

A high-voltage line between the island and the mainland via the Tory Channel in 1985 was the site of a plane crash. The line was hit by a Metro III of the airline Air Albatross that crashed then. Despite immediate rescue efforts of the companies on the Cook Strait ferry there was only one survivor, Cindy Mosey. This was with her family on the way to a gymnastics competition and in 2002, 2003 and 2004 world champion in kite- surfing. The airline filed for bankruptcy in December 1985 as a result of declining passenger traffic due to accident.

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