Kaimai Range

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The Kaimai Ranges are a Mittelgebirgszug on the North Island of New Zealand. The ridge forms the direct continuation of the mountain ranges of the Coromandel Peninsula, and separates the regions west and Waikato Bay of Plenty east.

Location and severity

The mountain range is characterized by a rough, very windy climate, only two highways pass through or pass through the mountain landscape. In the north, this is the State Highway 2 (SH 2), which leads through the Karangahake Gorge and permanently windy in the south of SH 29, which traverses its route from Tauranga to Hamilton the ridge.

The Kaimai Ranges have a north- south distance of about 100 kilometers between the towns of Waihi and Rotorua and a width of approximately 20 kilometers in east-west direction. The mountain range is the result of folding movement of the earth's crust, which was triggered by the nearby volcanoes, began about a million years and up until about 140,000 years remained in motion. In the Kaimai Ranges, there are no distinct outstanding mountains, Te Aroha, near the homonymous village is 952 meters, the highest elevation.

Longest railway tunnel in New Zealand

Due to the Kaimai Ranges, the longest with about nine kilometers railway tunnel in New Zealand. The construction of the tunnel began in 1969, was in 1976 the break-through and the opening of the railway took place in 1978. The railway route Auckland - Tauranga is used largely for freight, between 1991 and 2001 was a car transport service offered on this connection.

Crash Flight 441

On July 4, 1963 crashed Flight New Zealand National Airway flight 441 at 9 clock on their flight from Auckland to Tauranga in the Kaimai Ranges. All 23 people on board died. This was the most consequential aircraft crash of a New Zealand machine on home territory (significantly more death toll of the crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 in the Antarctic ).

More information

  • Kaimai Bush
  • Weather and maps of the lower Kaimai Ranges
  • The DC3 plane crash in 1963
  • Railway tunnel through the Kaimai Ranges
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