"brand of passenger trains geared toward the increasing tourism industry in New Zealand. The new brand, named KiwiRail Scenic Journeys, was launched with a new breed of AK-class carriages designed to showcase New Zealand's scenery, as well as providing long-distance passenger train services. During the transformation, the TranzCoastal train was rebranded as the Coastal Pacific and the Overlander became the Northern Explorer; whereas the TranzAlpine's name was retained. Meanwhile, KiwiRail's ferry brand, Interislander, was building on its core business taking vehicles and freight across Cook Strait and looking to promote the trip as an iconic tourism experience and a scenic"
"North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest island. It has a population of Twelve main urban areas (half of them officially cities) are in the North Island. From north to south, they are Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Napier, Hastings, Whanganui, Palmerston North, and Wellington, the capital, located at the south-west extremity of the island. About % of New Zealand's population"
"40 minutes. Foveaux Strait Foveaux Strait (Te Ara a Kiwa (""the path of Kiwa"") or Te Ara a Kewa (""the path of the whale"") (Māori) separates Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand's third largest island, from the South Island. According to a Maori legend, the strait was created by Kewa the obedient whale when traditional Maori ancestor Kiwa summoned the whale to create a waterway. Three large bays, Te Waewae Bay, Oreti Beach and Toetoes Bay, sweep along the strait's northern coast, which also hosts Bluff township and harbour. Across the strait lie the Solander Islands, Stewart Island/Rakiura, Dog Island and Ruapuke"
"the oldest swimmer at 55 years. John Coutts was the first person to swim the strait in both directions. By 2010, 74 single crossings had been made by 65 individuals, and three double crossings had been made by two individuals (Philip Rush and Meda McKenzie). In March 2016, Marilyn Korzekwa became the first Canadian and oldest woman, at 58 years old, to swim the strait. Crossing times are largely determined by the strong and sometimes unpredictable currents that operate in the strait. Cook Strait Cook Strait () is a strait that separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand."
"northeast of New Zealand, between French Polynesia and American Samoa. There are 15 major islands spread over of ocean, divided into two distinct groups: the Southern Cook Islands and the Northern Cook Islands of coral atolls. The islands were formed by volcanic activity; the northern group is older and consists of six atolls, which are sunken volcanoes topped by coral growth. The climate is moderate to tropical. The Cook Islands consist of 15 islands and two reefs. The table is ordered from north to south. Population figures from the 2016 census. The Cook Islands were first settled in the 6th"
"sizes, they are not coterminous with the Local Government Regions. North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest island. It has a population of Twelve main urban areas (half of them officially cities) are in the North Island. From north to south, they are Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Napier, Hastings, Whanganui, Palmerston North, and Wellington, the capital, located at the south-west"
"Foveaux Strait Foveaux Strait (Te Ara a Kiwa (""the path of Kiwa"") or Te Ara a Kewa (""the path of the whale"") (Māori) separates Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand's third largest island, from the South Island. According to a Maori legend, the strait was created by Kewa the obedient whale when traditional Maori ancestor Kiwa summoned the whale to create a waterway. Three large bays, Te Waewae Bay, Oreti Beach and Toetoes Bay, sweep along the strait's northern coast, which also hosts Bluff township and harbour. Across the strait lie the Solander Islands, Stewart Island/Rakiura, Dog Island and Ruapuke Island. The"
"Island and saw the strait (which he named Cook Strait) separating North and South Islands. This strait, which had been foreshadowed by Abel Tasman in 1642, proved that New Zealand was an archipelago and not part of the imagined Southern Continent. Cook sighted Foveaux Strait during his circumnavigation of the South Island in March 1770, but decided to hide it. The Admiralty had issued its usual instructions to hide strategically important discoveries that could become security risks, such as off-shore islands from which operations could be mounted by a hostile power, such as France. Consequently, Cook amended both his journal"
"due to the carriages being steam-heated. The final steam-hauled service in New Zealand, headed by a member of the J class, ran on 26 October 1971. The South Island is separated from the North Island by Cook Strait, which is wide at its narrowest point, and requires a ferry trip to cross. Dunedin was the headquarters of the Union Steam Ship Company, once the largest shipping company in the Southern Hemisphere. The South Island, with an area of , is the largest land mass of New Zealand; it contains about one quarter of the New Zealand population and is the"
"Allen Strait and is serviced weekly by a mail boat from Havelock. Forsyth Island (New Zealand) Forsyth Island lies in the outer Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand's South Island and is separated from the mainland by the 300m wide Allen Strait (also known as Guards Pass). The island comprises a mixture of farm land and native bush on hills rising to over with views into the Marlborough Sounds and east towards the North Island. As of 2012, it is one of the largest entirely privately owned islands in the South Pacific, and offers exclusive accommodation, accessible via helicopter and boat."
"high proportion of native bush, and glaciers. The North Island is the second-largest island, and the 14th-largest in the world. It is separated from the South Island by the Cook Strait, with the shortest distance being . The North Island is less mountainous than the South Island, although a series of narrow mountain ranges form a roughly north-east belt that rises up to . Much of the surviving forest is located in this belt, and in other mountain areas and rolling hills. The North Island has many isolated volcanic peaks and New Zealand's largest lake. Besides the North and South"
"Torres Strait The Torres Strait () is a strait which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mainland. To the north is the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. It is named after navigator Luís Vaz de Torres, who passed through the Strait in 1606. The strait links the Coral Sea to the east with the Arafura Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria in the west. Although it is an important international sea lane, it is very"
"New Zealand New Zealand ( ) is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island (""Te Ika-a-Māui""), and the South Island (""Te Waipounamu"")—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and plant life. The country's varied"
"New Zealand lies along the boundary between the Australian and Pacific plates. In the South Island most of the relative displacement between these plates is taken up along a single dextral (right lateral) strike-slip fault with a major reverse component, the Alpine Fault. In the North Island the displacement is mainly taken up along the Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone, although the remaining dextral strike-slip component is accommodated by the North Island Fault System. The Poulter Fault runs for approximately 50 km Northeast from the junction of the Bealey and Mahinga rivers to the valley of the Hurunui River. Between 16 km"
"Coastline of New Zealand New Zealand has of coastline making it the 9th longest in the world. The coastline borders the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The northern and southernmost points of the coastline on the two main islands are Surville Cliffs and Slope Point respectively. Cape Reinga in the north and Bluff in the south are often incorrectly given as the extremities of the coastline on the North and South Islands. Coastal development, such as buildings and marine farms, has become contentious in recent decades. The geography of the New Zealand coastline is varied. As well as sheltered"
"low-nutrient water from the Solomon Sea northwestward along the north coast of Papua New Guinea through the Vitiaz Strait"". However, the surface layer current running through the strait, the New Guinea Coastal Current, experiences a seasonal reversal. In boreal summer (northern hemisphere summer) characterized by the south-easterly monsoon, the westward current dominates; during boreal winter (northern hemisphere winter) under the influence of the northwesterly monsoonal winds, the eastward flow dominates. Abel Tasman sighted Umboi Island in the Vitiaz Strait in 1643 but failed to realise that the Strait separated the island from the coast of New Guinea. William Dampier charted"
"Coast, crosses the Main Divide by means of the Otira Tunnel, between Arthur's Pass township and Otira. When opened in 1923, the tunnel was the longest in the British Empire. Arthur's Pass (mountain pass) Arthur's Pass, a mountain pass ( above sea level) in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand, marks part of the boundary between the West Coast and Canterbury regions. Located 140 km from Christchurch and 95 km from Greymouth, the pass comprises part of a saddle between the valleys of the Otira River (a tributary of the Taramakau River in the west) and"
"South Island The South Island, also officially named Te Waipounamu, is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area; the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, and to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers , making it the world's 12th-largest island. It has a temperate climate. It has a 32 percent larger landmass than the North Island so is sometimes referred to as the ""mainland"" of New Zealand, especially by"
"the installations have been restored and are open to the public. <br> Coastline of New Zealand New Zealand has of coastline making it the 9th longest in the world. The coastline borders the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The northern and southernmost points of the coastline on the two main islands are Surville Cliffs and Slope Point respectively. Cape Reinga in the north and Bluff in the south are often incorrectly given as the extremities of the coastline on the North and South Islands. Coastal development, such as buildings and marine farms, has become contentious in recent decades. The"
"Australia without a passport. The two routes through the Strait are: Torres Strait The Torres Strait () is a strait which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mainland. To the north is the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. It is named after navigator Luís Vaz de Torres, who passed through the Strait in 1606. The strait links the Coral Sea to the east with the Arafura Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria in the west."
"Strath Taieri Strath Taieri is a large glacial valley and river plateau in New Zealand's South Island. It is surrounded by the rugged hill ranges to the north and west of Otago Harbour. Since 1989 it has been part of the city of Dunedin. The small town of Middlemarch is located at its southern end. The name is a hybrid word, from ""Strath"" (anglicised Irish and Scots Gaelic ""srath""), meaning a broad river valley, and the Māori name ""Taieri"" (traditional spelling Taiari) of the river which runs through it. There are Archaic (moa hunter) Māori sites on Strath Taieri, also"
"islands are Stewart Island (across the Foveaux Strait), Chatham Island, Great Barrier Island (in the Hauraki Gulf), d'Urville Island (in the Marlborough Sounds) and Waiheke Island (about from central Auckland). New Zealand is long and narrow (over along its north-north-east axis with a maximum width of ), with about of coastline and a total land area of . Because of its far-flung outlying islands and long coastline, the country has extensive marine resources. Its exclusive economic zone is one of the largest in the world, covering more than 15 times its land area. The South Island is the largest landmass"
"coast of the South Island from that of the Clarence River, north of Kaikoura, to that of the Waitaki River, in South Canterbury. It is New Zealand's largest region by area, with an area of 45,346 km. Canterbury was traditionally bounded in the north by the Conway River, to the west by the Southern Alps, and to the south by the Waitaki River. The area is commonly divided into North Canterbury (north of the Rakaia River to the Conway River), Mid Canterbury (from the Rakaia River to the Rangitata River), South Canterbury (south of the Rangitata River to the Waitaki"
"wildlife sanctuaries unparalleled in New Zealand. Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km², and lies between, in anticlockwise order, the Auckland Region, the Hauraki Plains, the Coromandel Peninsula, and Great Barrier Island. Most of the gulf is part of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. Hauraki is Māori for ""north wind"". In 2014, the gulf was officially named Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana. The gulf is part of the Pacific Ocean, which it joins to the north and east. It is largely"
"formed by compression of the crust beside the Alpine Fault. Elsewhere the plate boundary involves the subduction of one plate under the other, producing the Puysegur Trench to the south, the Hikurangi Trench east of the North Island, and the Kermadec and Tonga Trenches further north. New Zealand is part of Australasia, and also forms the southwestern extremity of Polynesia. The term Oceania is often used to denote the region encompassing the Australian continent, New Zealand and various islands in the Pacific Ocean that are not included in the seven-continent model. New Zealand's climate is predominantly temperate maritime (Köppen: Cfb),"
"French Pass Te Aumiti / French Pass is a narrow and treacherous stretch of water that separates D'Urville Island, at the north end of the South Island of New Zealand, from the mainland coast. At one end is Tasman Bay, and at the other end the outer Pelorus Sound leads out to Cook Strait. French Pass has the fastest tidal flows in New Zealand, reaching 8 knots (4 m/s). When the tide changes, the current can be strong enough to stun fish. The local tribes are Ngāti Koata and Ngāti Kuia. In the oral tradition of some Māori tribes, French"
"crossed the Dampier Strait on landing craft. Dampier Strait (Papua New Guinea) Dampier Strait in Papua New Guinea separates Umboi Island and New Britain, linking the Bismarck Sea to the north with the Solomon Sea to the south. The strait is named after the first European to sail through it, British navigator William Dampier in 1700 in . Dampier described his discoveries in his ""A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland"" Ch. 4 New Britain Discovered in these terms: NEW BRITAIN. The easternmost part of New Guinea lies 40 miles to the westward of this tract of land, and"
"Bellot Strait Bellot Strait is a passage of water in Nunavut separating Somerset Island on the north from the Boothia Peninsula on the south. At its eastern end is the Murchison Promontory, the northernmost part of mainland North America. The wide 25 km long strait connects the Gulf of Boothia and Prince Regent Inlet on the east with Peel Sound and Franklin Strait on the west. The north side of the strait rises steeply to approximately , and the south shore to approximately . The current in the strait can run at up to and often changes its direction. It"
"'New Munster', and 'New Leinster'"". These divisions were at first of geographical significance only, not used as a basis for the government of the colony, which was centralised in Auckland. New Munster consisted of the South Island and the southern portion of the North Island, up to the mouth of the Patea River. The name New Munster was given by the Governor of New Zealand, Captain William Hobson, in honour of Munster, the Irish province in which he was born. The situation was altered in 1846 when the New Zealand Constitution Act 1846. divided the colony into two provinces: New"
"Little Barrier Island Little Barrier Island, or Hauturu in Māori language (the official Māori title is Te Hauturu-o-Toi), lies off the northeastern coast of New Zealand's North Island. Located to the north of Auckland, the island is separated from the mainland to the west by Jellicoe Channel, and from the larger Great Barrier Island to the east by Cradock Channel. The two aptly named islands shelter the Hauraki Gulf from many of the storms of the Pacific Ocean. Settled by Māori sometime between 1350 and 1650, the island was occupied by those people until the New Zealand government declared the"
"In Australia, two Spirit of Tasmania ferries carry passengers and vehicles 300 kilometres across Bass Strait, the body of water that separates Tasmania from the Australian mainland, often under turbulent sea conditions. These run overnight but also include day crossings in peak time. Both ferries are based in the northern Tasmanian port city of Devonport and sail to Melbourne. In New Zealand, ferries connect Wellington in the North Island with Picton in the South Island, linking New Zealand's two main islands. The 92 km route takes three hours, and is run by two companies – government-owned Interislander, and independent Bluebridge."
"Wapiti River (New Zealand) The Wapiti River is a river in the Southland Region of New Zealand. It rises in the northern extremity of the Stuart Mountains in Fiordland National Park, the top of its watershed being part of the main divide. Two branches feed Lake Sutherland, (elevation ) the outflow of which flows southwest to Lake Thomson. A further reach of the river heads east to Lake Hankinson, which is separated from the North West Arm of the Middle Fiord of Lake Te Anau by a final stretch of the river. The river is named for the Wapiti (Cervus"
"Vitiaz Strait Vitiaz Strait is a strait between New Britain and the Huon Peninsula, northern New Guinea. The Vitiaz Strait was so named by Nicholai Nicholaievich Mikluho-Maklai to commemorate the Russian corvette ""Vitiaz"" in which he sailed from October 1870 by way of South America and the Pacific Islands reaching Astrolabe Bay in September 1871. The 1200 m deep Vitiaz Strait ""was a focus of attention by Australian and USA oceanographers on voyages in 1985, 1986, 1988, 1991 and 1992 as part of the Western Equatorial Pacific Ocean Circulation Study, WEPOCS"". The New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent transports ""high-salinity, low-tritium, high-oxygen,"