Portal:New Zealand/Selected article

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Week 1           view - talk - edit - history

The Buzzy Bee is a popular children's toy in New Zealand. It resembles a bee with rotating wings that move and make a clicking noise while the toy is pulled along the ground. Designed and first produced in the 1940s by Hec and John Ramsey, it became popular during the post-war baby boom. Its bright colours and clicking sound call are familiar to many New Zealanders, making it one of the most well-recognised items of Kiwiana.
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Week 2           view - talk - edit - history

The Beehive is the common name for the Executive Wing of the New Zealand Parliament Buildings, located at the corner of Molesworth Street and Lambton Quay, Wellington. Credit for the design is usually given to Scottish architect Sir Basil Spence, who made a rough sketch on the back of a dinner napkin in 1964 while dining with Sir Keith Holyoake. The building was subsequently drafted and constructed by government departments and completed in 1981.

The building is ten storeys (72 m) high. The top floor is occupied by the Cabinet offices, with the Prime Minister's offices on the ninth floor (and part of the eighth). Other floors contain the offices of individual cabinet ministers.

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Week 3           view - talk - edit - history

The University of Auckland (Māori: Te Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki Makaurau) is New Zealand's largest university. Established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand, the university is now made up of eight faculties over six campuses, and has more than 39,000 students at April 2006. [1] Over 1300 doctoral candidates were enrolled at the University of Auckland in 2004.

It offers a wide range of programmes including Arts, Business, Education, Music, Teacher Training and Special Education, Architecture, Planning, Nursing, Creative and Performing Arts, Theology, Science, Information Management, Engineering, Medicine, Optometry, Food and Wine Science, Property, Law, Fine and Visual Arts and Pharmacy.

It also provides the most conjoint combinations across the entire nation, with over 35 combinations available. Conjoint programs allow students to achieve multiple degrees in a shortened period of time.

The University of Auckland was the only New Zealand institution ranked in the top 50 of the THES - QS World University Rankings, ranked at number 46.

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Week 4           view - talk - edit - history

The Moeraki Boulders are unusually large and spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach on the wave cut Otago coast of New Zealand between Moeraki and Hampden. They occur scattered either as isolated or clusters of boulders within a stretch of beach where they have been protected in a scientific reserve. The erosion by wave action of mudstone, comprising local bedrock and landslides, frequently exposes embedded isolated boulders. These boulders are grey-colored septarian concretions, which have been exhumed from the mudstone enclosing them and concentrated on the beach by coastal erosion.
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Week 5           view - talk - edit - history

Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park is situated in the South Island of New Zealand near the town of Twizel. Aoraki/Mount Cook village lies within the park. The area was formally gazetted as a national park in October 1953 and consists of reserves that were established as early as 1887 to protect the area's significant vegetation and landscape. The park covers a little over 700 km². Glaciers cover 40% of the park area, notably the Tasman Glacier on the slopes of Aoraki/Mount Cook itself.

Of New Zealand's 20 peaks over 3,000 metres, all except Mount Aspiring lie in the park. These include New Zealand's highest mountain, Aoraki/Mount Cook, at 3753 metres. Other prominent peaks include Mount Tasman, Mount Hicks, Mount Sefton, and Mount Elie de Beaumont. The mountains of the Southern Alps in general are young, less than ten million years old, and are still building. Uplift in the region of the national park is at the rate of 50 centimetres per century.

The park is also part of Te Wahipounamu South Westland World Heritage Site in recognition of its outstanding natural values.

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Week 6           view - talk - edit - history

The Huntly power station is the largest thermal power station in New Zealand and is located in the town of Huntly in the Waikato. It is operated by Genesis Energy, a state-owned enterprise, and supplies around 17% of the country's power.

Each of the four main coal-fired units, installed in stages between 1973 and 1985, is capable of generating 250 MW (Megawatts) of electricity, giving the station a total generating capacity of 1000 MW, plus 50MW from a gas turbine commissioned in 2004. Its chimneys are 150 metres high[1] and each chimney has two flues that are 7 metres in diameter.

The operator has recently (2004-2007) constructed a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant next to the existing station. This plant increased the total generating capacity of Huntly by 385 MW (250 MW gas turbine + 135 MW steam turbine).[1] The new turbine is a NZ$ 520 million investment.

Huntly runs at a load factor of 85%, about twice what the best wind farms could achieve in New Zealand, and is currently used to provide a large amount of the baseline energy needs of the northern North Island - in other words, it is rarely running substantially below peak capacity.

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Week 7           view - talk - edit - history

The Treaty of Waitangi (Māori: Tiriti o Waitangi) is a treaty signed on February 6, 1840 by representatives of the British Crown, and Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand. Prepared hastily and without legal assistance, it was first signed on February 6, 1840 at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand by a representative of the British Crown, and Māori chiefs from the upper North Island. Over the following months, copies were signed by other chiefs around the country. From the British point of view, the Treaty justified making New Zealand a British colony; it also gave Māori the rights of British citizens and the right to ownership of their lands and other properties. However significant differences between the Māori and English language versions of the Treaty mean that there is no consensus as to what rights the Treaty gives to which groups.
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Week 8           view - talk - edit - history

The Pink and White Terraces in New Zealand, or Otukapuarangi ("fountain of the clouded sky") and Te Tarata (Māori) were a natural wonder until they were destroyed by a violent volcanic eruption in 1886.

Similar to Pamukkale in Turkey, hot water containing large amounts of calcium bicarbonate precipitated calcium carbonate, leaving thick white layers of limestone and travertine cascading down the mountain slope, forming pools of water and terraces. The White terraces were the larger and more beautiful formation while the Pink terraces were where people went to bathe.

The terraces located on the edges of Lake Rotomahana near Rotorua were considered to be the eighth wonder of the natural world and were New Zealand's most famous tourist attraction ( they were attracting tourists from Europe in the early 1880s when New Zealand was still relatively inaccessible) until they were destroyed when Mount Tarawera, five kilometres to the north, erupted at 03:00 on June 10, 1886.

The volcano belched out hot mud, red hot boulders and immense clouds of black ash. The eruption caused approximately 153 deaths and buried the village of Te Wairoa. The lake, and several others nearby, were substantially altered in shape and area by the eruption.

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Week 9           view - talk - edit - history

The koru is the Māori name given to the new unfurling fern frond and symbolizes new life, growth, strength and peace. It is an integral symbol in Māori carving and tattoos.

Koru can also refer to bone carvings. Those generally take the shape of the uncurling fern plant. When bone is worn on the skin, it changes colour as oil is absorbed. The Māori took this to symbolise that the spirit of the person was inhabiting the pendant. When someone gives a pendant to someone else, it is the custom that they wear it for a time so that part of their spirit is given as well.

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Week 10           view - talk - edit - history

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. On 29 May 1953 he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt. Hillary also led the third team to reach the South Pole over land. He devoted much energy to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal through his Himalayan Trust, building many schools and hospitals for instance.

Hillary was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) on 16 July 1953; a member of the Order of New Zealand (ONZ) in 1987; and a Knight of the Order of the Garter (KG) on 23 April 1995. He has been the only New Zealander to appear on a banknote during their lifetime. Various streets, schools, and organisations around New Zealand and abroad are named after him.

To mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest, the Nepalese Government conferred honorary citizenship upon Hillary at a special Golden Jubilee celebration in Kathmandu. He was the first foreign national to receive such an honour from the Nepalese.

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Week 11           view - talk - edit - history

The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand. It runs for 425 kilometres from the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and emptying into Lake Taupo, New Zealand's largest lake. It then drains Taupo at the lake's north-eastern edge, creates the Huka Falls, then flows northwest, through the Waikato Plains. It empties into the Tasman Sea south of Auckland at Port Waikato. It gives its name to the Waikato region that surrounds the Waikato Plains.

The name "Waikato" comes from Māori and translates as "flowing water".

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Week 12           view - talk - edit - history

Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM PC FRS (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937), widely referred to as Lord Rutherford, was a nuclear physicist who became known as the "father" of nuclear physics. He pioneered the orbital theory of the atom through his discovery of Rutherford scattering off the nucleus with his gold foil experiment.

Rutherford was born at Spring Grove (now Brightwater), near Nelson, New Zealand. His name was mistakenly spelt Earnest Rutherford when his birth was registered. He studied at Havelock and then Nelson College and won a scholarship to study at Canterbury College, University of New Zealand where he was president of the debating society among other things. In 1895, after gaining his BA, MA and BSc, and doing two years of research at the forefront of electrical technology, Rutherford travelled to England for postgraduate study at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge (1895–1898), and he briefly held the world record for the distance over which electromagnetic waves could be detected. During the investigation of radioactivity he coined the terms alpha and beta to describe the two distinct types of radiation emitted by thorium and uranium.

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Week 13           view - talk - edit - history

The All Blacks are New Zealand's national team in rugby union, which is the country's national sport. The All Blacks are a formidable force in international rugby and have a winning record against every international rugby team, including the British and Irish Lions and the World XV.

The All Blacks compete annually with the Australian rugby team (the Wallabies), and the South African rugby team, (the Springboks), in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with Australia. The All Blacks have been Tri-Nations champions seven times in the tournament's eleven-year history, and twice completed a Grand Slam (in 1978 and in 2005), and currently hold the Bledisloe Cup. According to the official IRB World Rankings, the All Blacks are ranked second in the world behind current world champions South Africa. The All Blacks were also named the 2006 International Rugby Board (IRB) Team of the Year. Fourteen former All Blacks have been inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame, and one has been inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame.

The team first competed internationally in 1884 against Cumberland County, New South Wales, and played their first Test match in 1903, a victory against Australia. This was soon followed by a tour of the northern hemisphere in 1905, during which the team's only loss was to Wales in Cardiff.

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Week 14           view - talk - edit - history

The Auckland Harbour Bridge is an eight-lane, box truss motorway bridge over the Waitemata Harbour, joining Saint Marys Bay in Auckland City with Northcote in North Shore City, New Zealand. It has a total length of 1,020 m (3,348 feet), with a main span of 243.8 m, rising 43.27 m above high water[2] allowing ships access to the deepwater port at the Chelsea Sugar Refinery up harbour (nowadays one of the few remaining wharves needing such access west of the bridge). It is part of the Auckland Northern Motorway running from the Central Motorway Junction in downtown Auckland to Orewa.
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Week 15           view - talk - edit - history

The New Zealand Bellbird (Anthoris melanura) is a passerine bird endemic to New Zealand. It has greenish coloration and is the only living member of the genus Anthornis. The bellbird forms a significant component of the famed New Zealand dawn chorus of bird song that was much noted by early European settlers. It has a bell-like song which is sometimes confused with that of the Tui. The species is common across much of New Zealand an its offshore islands as well as the Auckland Islands. The Māori language name is Korimako.

The bellbird is found throughout both the main islands of New Zealand apart from the north of the North Island. Its population and distribution had been seriously affected by the introduction of European-style farming, which has led to the removal of native forests (the natural habitat of the bellbird). Another important factor is the introduction of predatory species such as cats, weasels, stoats, ferrets, rats and food-robbing species like wasps. Predators either eat the birds or consume eggs, while food robbers compete with the bellbird for its natural food sources of nectar, honeydew and insects. The decline occurred around the same time as many other New Zealand species, but for unknown reasons was reversed and the species is still common across much of New Zealand (Bartle & Sagar 1987).

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Week 16           view - talk - edit - history

The New Zealand Sea Lion or Hooker's Sea Lion (Phocarctos hookeri) is a species of sea lion that breeds around the coast of New Zealand's South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura to some extent, and to a greater extent around New Zealand's sub-antarctic islands, especially the Auckland Islands. As one of the larger New Zealand animals, it has been a protected species since the 1890s.

There was thought to be a population of around 15,000 in the mid-1990s. This may have declined somewhat since an outbreak of disease in 1998 caused the deaths of an estimated 20% of adult females and 50% of pups that year. Estimates (based on pup-counts) are about 13,000 for 2004.

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Week 17           view - talk - edit - history

David Russell Lange CH, ONZ (who pronounced his name "long-ee", IPA: /ˈlɒŋi/) (4 August 1942 – 13 August 2005), served as Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989. He headed New Zealand's fourth Labour Government, one of the most reforming administrations in his country's history, but one which did not always conform to traditional expectations of a social-democrat party. He had a reputation for cutting wit and eloquence. His government implemented far-reaching free market reforms, some of which he later came to oppose and regret. New Zealand's nuclear-free legislation, perhaps his most lasting legacy, symbolised for many a pacifist identity for New Zealand.

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Week 18           view - talk - edit - history

Split Enz was a successful New Zealand band during the late 1970s and the early 1980s featuring brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. They achieved success with the music charts in New Zealand, Australia and Canada during the early 1980s and built a cult following elsewhere. Their musical style was eclectic and original, incorporating influences from art rock, vaudeville, swing, punk, rock, New Wave and pop

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Week 19           view - talk - edit - history

TangataWhenua.com is an indigenous, Māori-run and Māori-operated online news and information Limited Liability Company based in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. It is the only web-based media company of its kind in the world (Tu Mai 2006). It was founded in 2002 by Potaua & Nikolasa Biasiny-Tule while students at Waikato University. The fortnightly web-based newsletter was developed during a time when there were no Māori-focused newsletters of this type. The newsletter's content provides relevant news, information and events targeted at a predominantly Māori audience.

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Week 20           view - talk - edit - history

Flight of the Conchords is a Grammy Award-winning folk, pop, and comedy band composed of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Billing themselves as "Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo" (having been bumped by a tribute band of themselves, Like of the Conchords), the group uses a combination of witty observation, characterization,acoustic guitars, and microphones to work the audience. The duo's comedy and music became first the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series, which premiered in 2007, also called Flight of the Conchords. Named Best Alternative Comedy Act at the 2005 US Comedy Arts Festival, Best Newcomer at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and receiving a nomination for the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2003, the duo's live performances have gained them a worldwide cult following.
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Week 21           view - talk - edit - history

A larger bach in the North Island
Bach (pronounced batch, with the alternative of crib used in the southern part of New Zealand) is the name given in New Zealand to structures akin to small, often very modest holiday homes or beach houses. They are an iconic part of New Zealand history and culture, especially in the middle of the 20th century, where they symbolized the beach holiday lifestyle that was becoming more accessible to the middle class
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Week 22           view - talk - edit - history

The Maungatautari Restoration Project is the largest ecological restoration project in New Zealand, involving the total removal of all pest mammals. It is located just south of Lake Karapiro in the Waikato region of the North Island and comprises 33.63 square kilometres of forested volcanic peak surrounded by pastoral farmland, bordered on two sides by the Waikato River. The Maungatautari Restoration Project is comprised of private land and a government-owned scenic reserve administered by Waipa District Council. It is a community project under the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust.
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Week 23           view - talk - edit - history

The Crusaders (formerly the Canterbury Crusaders) are a New Zealand rugby union team based in Christchurch that compete in the Super 14 (formerly the Super 12). They are the most successful team in Super Rugby history. The franchise represents the Buller, Canterbury, Mid-Canterbury, South Canterbury, Tasman, and West Coast provincial rugby unions. Their main home ground is AMI Stadium, formerly known as Jade Stadium and Lancaster Park.

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Week 24           view - talk - edit - history

Great Barrier Island is a large island of New Zealand, situated 90 km to the north-east of central Auckland in the outer Hauraki Gulf. With an area of 285 km² it is the fourth-largest island of New Zealand's main chain of islands, though its highest point, Mount Hobson, rises only 621 m. The remote island, initially exploited for its kauri trees and seeing some very limited agriculture, is now inhabited by a small population of around 850 people, mostly living from farming and tourism.

The island receives its European name because it acts as a barrier between the Pacific Ocean and Gulf. For centuries, the indigenous Māori called it Motu Aotea, meaning (island [of the] white cloud) in the Māori language.

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Week 47           view - talk - edit - history

Pelorus Jack was the name given to a dolphin that was famous for meeting and escorting ships over a certain stretch of water in Cook Strait, New Zealand, between 1888 and 1912. The dolphin's habits were so regular that on 26 September 1904, it was protected by Order in Council under the Sea Fisheries Act and remained so until its disappearance in 1912. It is thought to be the first individual sea creature protected in this way by any country.

Pelorus Jack was 4 metres (12–14 ft) long and was of a white colour with grey lines or shadings, and a round, white head. Although its sex was never determined, it was identified from photographs as a Risso's Dolphin, Grampus griseus. This is an uncommon species in New Zealand waters, and only 12 Risso's Dolphins have been reported in that area.

Pelorus Jack was usually spotted in Admiralty Bay between Cape Francis and Collinet Point, near French Pass, a treacherous channel used by ships travelling between Wellington and Nelson. In spite of his name, he did not frequent nearby Pelorus Sound, and local residents familiar with his habits assert that he never went through French Pass itself.

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Week 48           view - talk - edit - history

Possibly the best-known building in the southern half of New Zealand's South Island, Dunedin Railway Station is a jewel in the country's architectural crown.

Designed by George Troup, the station is the fourth building to have served as Dunedin's railway station. It earned its architect the nickname of "Gingerbread George".

In Flemish style, it is constructed from local dark basalt rock capped with lighter Oamaru stone, giving it the distinctive light and dark pattern common to many of the more stately buildings of Dunedin and Christchurch. The booking hall features a mosaic floor of almost 750,000 tiles of Royal Doulton porcelain. Its main platform is the country's longest, being one kilometre in length. It was opened in 1906 by Prime Minister Joseph Ward. A thorough refurbishment of the exterior took place in the late 1990s, accompanied by the landscaping of the gardens outside the entrance, in Anzac Square.

With the decrease in passenger rail traffic, the station now serves more functions that the one for which it was originally designed. It is still the city's railway station, catering for the Otago Excursion Train Trust's Taieri Gorge Railway tourist train. Much of its ground floor is now used as a restaurant, and the upper floor is home to both the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame and the Otago Art Society.

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Week 49           view - talk - edit - history

Pavlova is a meringue dessert named after the ballet dancer, Anna Pavlova. It is crispy on the outside but light and fluffy inside.

Some sources say the recipe originated in New Zealand, while others claim it was invented in Australia. However, like the Anzac biscuit, the earliest known books containing the recipe were published in New Zealand.

Professor Helen Leach, a culinary anthropologist at Otago University in New Zealand found a pavlova recipe in a 1933 Rangiora Mothers' Union cookery book. Professor Leach also has an even earlier copy of the pavlova recipe from a 1929 rural New Zealand magazine.

Keith Money, a biographer of Anna Pavlova, wrote that a chef at a hotel in Wellington, New Zealand, created the dish when Pavlova visited there in 1926 on her world tour.

The claim that it was an Australian invention states that the pavlova is based on a cake baked by Bert Sachse at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth on 3 October 1935. Sachse's descendants believe he may have come up with the recipe earlier than that, since Anna Pavlova visited Australia in 1926 and 1929 and died in 1931.

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Week 50           view - talk - edit - history

The cabbage tree Cordyline australis, known as Tī rākau or Tī kōuka (and, more rarely, whanake) in the Māori language is a monocotyledon endemic to New Zealand. It grows up to 15 m tall, at first on a single stem, but dividing into a much-branched crown, each branch may fork after producing a flowering stem. The leaves are sword-shaped, 40 to 90 cm long and 3 to 7 cm broad at the base, with numerous parallel veins. The flowers are creamy white, each flower small, about 1 cm diameter with six tepals, and produced in a large, dense cluster 50 to 100 cm long. The fruit is a white berry 5 to 7 mm in diameter.
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Week 51           view - talk - edit - history

The tuatara is an amniote of the family Sphenodontidae, endemic to New Zealand. The two species of tuatara are the only surviving members of the Sphenodontians who flourished around 200 million years ago, and are in the genus Sphenodon. Tuatara resemble lizards, but are equally related to lizards and snakes, both of which are classified as Squamata, the closest living relatives of tuatara. For this reason, tuatara are of great interest in the study of the evolution of lizards and snakes, and for the reconstruction of the appearance and habits of the earliest diapsids (the group that additionally includes birds and crocodiles).
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Week 52           view - talk - edit - history

Whale Island - Moutohora, is a small island located off the Bay of Plenty coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is located about 12 kilometres north of the town of Whakatane. A whaling station existed on the island during the 19th century. The 1.43 km² island is a remnant of a complex volcano which has eroded, leaving two peaks. This is still an area of volcanic activity and there are hot springs on the island in Sulphur Valley, McEwans Bay, and Sulphur Bay.
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