Ranfurly, New Zealand
Ranfurly is the largest town in the plane Maniototo Plain in Central Otago in New Zealand 's Otago region. The place had the Census 2006 717 inhabitants
The town is located 110 kilometers north of Dunedin in a dry, uneven landscape at an altitude of about 600 meters above sea level on a small tributary of the Taieri River. It is a service center for the surrounding rural area.
Formerly, the city was known as Eweburn, one of the many farm name that gave the senior surveyor of Otago, John Turnbull Thomson many small streams and places of the district. The present name of the place was, 5th Earl of Ranfurly awarded in honor of Uchter Knox, who was Governor-General of New Zealand at the time of completion of the railway line Otago Central Railway.
State Highway 85, which is also known under the name "The Pigroot ", goes through the village.
Climate
Central Otago and Maniototo in particular has one of the very few continental climates of New Zealand with large temperature differences between day and night and throughout the seasons. Hot summer with temperatures just below 40 ° C are not uncommon, whereas severe frost in winter is considered normal. The lowest temperature of New Zealand were measured with -25.6 ° C in 1903 in Ophir, about 60 km west of Ranfurly.
The city is situated on the prevailing westerly winds in the rain shadow of the Southern Alps. The Nor'Wester, a foehn wind, so often occurs and the annual rainfall is in the region of only 300-400 mm.
History
During the Otago gold rush of the 1860s several important gold deposits near Ranfurly, especially in Kyeburn and Naseby, near the south side of the Kakanui Range, were found.
Ranfurly grew at the expense of Naseby as the gold rush came to an end and the arrival of the railway in 1898 encouraged the growth of the city. The railway line was closed and dismantled in 1990, the former railway line, the Otago Central Rail Trail, but is now a unused by locals and tourists walking and bike path. The former station is now a museum and exhibition area where you will also find information about the railway accident in the nearby Hyde from 1943.
The city was an important service center for the surrounding rural area and experienced in the 1930s a building boom. Today Ranfurly is known for the numerous surviving Art Deco building. A held annually festival which is dedicated to the Art Deco heritage of the city, will take place in February.
The Ida Valley nearby served as the backdrop for the " Plains of Rohan " in the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings.
Sports
Ranfurly is located in a region that is played in the particular curling. The local club represented New Zealand at the Curling World Championships in 1999, 2004 and 2005 and finished it on the 10th, 7th and 8th place. He also members of the New Zealand team at the curling competitions of the Olympic Winter Games 2006.
Ranfurly is the birthplace of several members of the New Zealand national women's hockey
Education
Ranfurly has a school, the Maniototo Area School. This was founded in 1879 and has about 190 students in 5 to 18 years. She has a strong sporting tradition, and despite their remote location a good education program that is supported by video conferencing and the OtagoNet project.
People
- Sean Becker, Curler
- Shane Collins Field Hockey Player
- Robert Logan, military leader and politician
- Warren McSkimming, cricketers
- Peter Petherick, cricket and bowls player
- Mandy Smith, Field Hockey Player
- Isobel Thomson, Field Hockey Player