Wellington Harbour
Wellington Harbour is the large natural harbor at the southern tip of the North Island of New Zealand. The New Zealand capital Wellington is located on its west side. The harbor was officially called Port Nicholson, in the 1980s it was given its present name.
In the language of the Māori Te Whanganui -a- port is called Tara (the great harbor of Tara ). The name of the Māori Wellington, Pōneke to be a transliteration of Port Nick, this is controversial.
Geography
The Wellington Harbour is a 70 km ² large arm of Cook Strait with a 2 km wide entrance at the south end between Pencarrow Head and the Miramar Peninsula.
The harbor is formed by seismic activity. A major seismic fault zone runs along its western shore. At the north end of the harbor, the almost triangular plane of the Hutt Valley, which follows this fault zone over long distances to the northeast lies. The City of Lower Hutt is located on this level.
The suburbs of the capital spread over the hills to the west and southwest of the port and to its two large bays, Lambton Harbour and Evans Bay, from. Lambton Harbour is surrounded by the sea obtained from the country 's central business district of Wellington and is home to the largest part of the docks of the city. Evans Bay is an estuary between Mount Victoria and the Miramar Peninsula, it serves as an arrival route for the low-lying Airport Wellington. Another small but well-known for their beaches and cafes Bay is the Oriental Bay.
East of the harbor are several small bays, where most are small coastal settlements. The largest of these settlements is Eastbourne, east of the northern tip of the Miramar Peninsula.
In the harbor, three small islands: in the south, near Eastbourne, is Makaro / Ward Iceland. Further north, near the harbor entrance is the larger Matiu / Somes Iceland, north of it, the small Mokopuna Iceland.
The harbor entrance can be quite dangerous, especially as the Cook Strait in the south is known for rough seas. Near the harbor entrance lies the reef Barrett Reef. 1968 went here during a storm the circulating between the main islands passenger ferry Wahine due, 51 people died.
History
During the early years of European colonization Port Nicholson was a focus of colonization. Originally a place in Petone Lower Hutt at the upstream coast was chosen for today's Wellington. Beginning of 1840 a settlement was built here, but the swampy land impeded the development and the then Britannia, but soon called Wellington settlement was moved to the site of present-day Wellington the following year.
Transportation
Wellington Harbour is an important port for the southern part of the North Island. The standing owned by the Wellington Regional Council operating company CentrePort recorded approximately 14,000 commercial ship movements per year. The largest container port in the region is located in the city of Wellington himself, a tanker terminal is located in Lower Hutt.
The harbor ferries from Wellington were in operational use at the end of the 19th century. Regular trips from the center of Wellington to Days Bay in Eastbourne there to this day. The port is also used by the ferries of two companies, the Interislander and Blue Bridge that connect Wellington with Picton on the South Island.