Waikato Plains
The Waikato Plains ( transmitted: " Waikato - level " ) are a major largely flat area in the northwest of the North Island of New Zealand. The plane is the natural floodplain of the Waikato River, New Zealand's longest river.
Location and Transport
The area of the Waikato Plains comprises the water catchment area of the river north of the line between the towns of Te Awamutu and Rotorua, west of the hill country to the Hauraki Plains and south of Pukekohe.
The area belongs administratively each other mostly for Waikato Region. Compared to the usual New Zealand population densities, the level is strongly populated, over 250,000 people live on the 8,000 -acre area of the Waikato Plains, but about half of them already in Hamilton, the largest city in the region and the capital of the district.
The area is from northwest to southeast through the State Highway 1, herein referred to as Thermal Explorer Highway, crosses, of Te Aroha leads the SH 26 to Hamilton, also in the southwest of the North Island there on the SH 39 and SH 3 is a connection. In parallel to SH 1 and SH 3 runs the North Iceland Main Trunk Railway, the main line of the railroad on the North Island of New Zealand between Auckland and Wellington.
Land use
The plain is covered with very fertile soil, so that intensive agriculture with pastoralism (cattle, sheep) and grain farming can be practiced here. But particularly the dairy industry is the basis of the local economy. In the situated west of Hamilton areas have many vineyards have emerged that are to be expanded in the coming years. East of Hamilton, some of the most famous horse farms in the southern hemisphere are located.
On a considerable extent grounds are peats, where a degradation of the material as a fuel, but many areas are still swampy and wet. Around the Lake Waikare, which is set in the plane, there are still countless small lakes.
Formation
The landscape, which is now called the Waikato and Hauraki Plains, was formed over a period of several thousand years by the Waikato River. The river moved here several times over this time and changed while the landscape constantly. More than 20,000 years of the Waikato River flowed even in the Firth of Thames, now the northern end of the Hauraki Plains. Numerous volcanic activity in the volcanic area around Lake Taupo lava and ashes were carried into the basin of the Waikato over again. This lightweight material was deposited and formed with time, new rolling hills that make up the present-day eastern end of the Waikato Plains. 12,000 years ago the volcanic activity decreased to the extent that so extreme could not get much sediment material into the river and the river changed its opening from the Tasman Sea. Another period of heavy volcanic activity caused around 2,000 years ago that the Waikato River has been temporarily blocked by sediment deposition and formed natural dams. From the lakes known today originated in the territory of the Waikato Plains.
Nationwide awareness
Nationwide awareness scored the Waikato Region through numerous locales in the film trilogy Lord of the Rings. While the area was around the mouth of the Waikato River as hill country around Weathertop use, the village of hobbits, Hobbiton was built in the east near the town of Matamata.