Kaipara Harbour

The Kaipara Harbour, roughly translated Kaipara bay or harbor on the Kaipara, is a bay on the Tasman Sea on the North Auckland Peninsula of the North Island of New Zealand near Pouto, north west of Auckland. It is named after the river Kaipara, which flows into the southern arm in Helensville

The bay was discovered by Captain James Cook in January 1770 as the first Europeans. From the Maori, the area was used variously but already before that time.

Administratively today the northern part of the Kaipara Harbour is part of the Northland region ( Kaipara District ), the southern part of the Auckland region ( Rodney District ). The residents here are the Ngāti Whatua occupation Māoristamm.

His name and that of the river is derived according to a regional legend from the 15th century by the Maori words for food and fern from which the Arawahäuptling Kahumatamomoe as the name for the area stipulated as there were certain fern roots at a party as a main dish.

Geography

The natural harbor formed by the bay is one of the largest on Earth. The widely branching arms of the bay together form a water area of 530 km ² ( 330 square miles ) and have a shoreline of 3200 km length. The Kaipara Harbour has a north- south extent of 60 km and a width of about 10 km (not further extending into the land arms).

The entrance to the Kaipara Bay, the Kaipara Entrance, located approximately in the center and has a width of about four kilometers. Directly in front of the Kaipara Entrance there are several variable sandbanks and reefs that make it difficult to navigate a ship very much. On the headlands of Pouto Peninsula in the North and South Head in the south parts can be found from shipwrecks on the beach.

In the northern arm of the bay, the outflow of the Wairoa River flows. Other smaller rivers flow into the other arms of the natural harbor.

Use as a port

Despite its designation as Harbour (harbor ) the bay is no longer in use as a commercial port. Several shipwrecks and maritime disasters especially in the harbor entrance to the ebb and flow of constantly changing water depths and sandbanks led to the 1950s to adjust the shipping. Remains of the former port facilities in the numerous settlements along the coastline but now increasingly used by sports and sailing boats. Since the difficult conditions in the driveway have always known, was born along the shoreline, no really large settlement.

Flora and Fauna

The Kaipara Harbour is an internationally significant wetland area. Due to environmental organizations advertised in New Zealand for the inclusion of the site in the list of wetland protection areas under the Ramsar Convention of 1971. Numerous wading birds are native to the marshy shore areas, including many endangered species. The area is especially winter home to many birds, with several counts more than 30,000 water birds were regularly counted.

Tidal power plant project

In early December 2006, a project for the construction of a tidal power station in the Kaipara Harbour access was given to the Northland Regional Council. The project envisages to have implemented across by 2011 with an investment of around 400 million New Zealand dollars ( about 200 million euros ) the installation of the turbines, the laying of the cable through the bay and the development of necessary substations. The plan is only about 16 feet (about 5 meters) to install the turbines below the mean water line, which thanks to the lack of economic use of the natural harbor would be possible. After the necessary public investment and the approval process in mid-2007 could be the approval for the project.