Chatham Islands - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Chatham Islands are an archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

territory in the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

consisting of about ten island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

s within a 40 kilometres (24.9 mi) radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun. These remote islands, over 800 kilometres (497.1 mi) east of southern New Zealand, have officially been part of New Zealand since 1842.

Geography

The islands are at about 43°53′S 176°31′W, roughly 800 kilometres (497.1 mi) east of Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

. They cover a total of 966 square kilometres (373 sq mi), almost all of which is in the two main islands.

The islands sit on the Chatham Rise

Chatham Rise

The Chatham Rise is an area of ocean floor to the east of New Zealand, forming part of the Zealandia continent. It stretches for some from near the South Island in the west, to the Chatham Islands in the east...

, a large, relatively shallowly submerged (no more than 1000 metres (3,281 ft) deep at any point) part of the Zealandia

Zealandia (continent)

Zealandia , also known as Tasmantis or the New Zealand continent, is a nearly submerged continental fragment that sank after breaking away from Australia 60–85 million years ago, having separated from Antarctica between 85 and 130 million years ago...

continent that stretches east from near the South Island. The Chatham Islands, which emerged only within the last four million years, are the only part of the Chatham Rise showing above sea level.

The islands are generally hilly with the coasts a varied mixture including cliff

Cliff

In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...

s and sand dunes, beach

Beach

A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...

es and lagoon

Lagoon

A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...

s. Pitt is more rugged than Chatham (Rekohu), although the highest point (299 metres (981 ft)) is on a plateau near the southernmost point of the main island, which is dotted with numerous lakes and lagoons, notably the large Te Whanga Lagoon

Te Whanga Lagoon

Covering , Te Whanga Lagoon dominates the geography of Chatham Island, in the South Pacific Ocean off New Zealand's east coast.It is the outflow of several small rivers in the island's hilly south, and drains to the Pacific via gaps in Hanson Bay on the east coast of the island.It contains many...

as well as Huro and Rangitahi. Chatham has a number of streams including Te Awainanga and Tuku. The climate is cold, wet and windy with average high temperatures between 5 °C (41 °F) and 10 °C in July, the southern hemisphere winter.

Chatham and Pitt are the only inhabited islands, with the remaining smaller islands being conservation reserves with access restricted or prohibited. The livelihoods of the inhabitants depend on agriculture, with the island being an exporter of coldwater crayfish

Crayfish

Crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads – members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea – are freshwater crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related...

in particular, and increasing tourism.

The names of the main islands, in the order of occupation are:

English name	Moriori name	Maori name	Remarks
Chatham Island	Rekohu	Wharekauri
Pitt Island	Rangiaotea	Rangiauria
South East Island	Rangatira	Rangatira
The Fort	Unknown	Mangere Mangere Island Mangere Island is part of the Chatham Islands archipelago, located east of New Zealand's South Island and has an area of . The island lies off the west coast of Pitt Island, south-east of the main settlement in the Chathams, Waitangi, on Chatham Island....	The Maori name has supplanted the English name for this island.
Little Mangere Little Mangere Island Little Mangere Island or Tapuaenuku is part of the Chatham Islands chain, located east of New Zealand's South Island. The island lies off the west coast of Pitt Island, south-east of the chain's main settlement, Waitangi, on Chatham Island...	Unknown	Tapuenuku
Star Keys Star Keys/Motuhope Star Keys/Motuhope is part of the Chatham Islands chain, located east of New Zealand's South Island. It is a group of five rocky islets — located east of Pitt Island....	Motuhope	Motuhope
The Sisters The Sisters/Rangitatahi The Sisters/Rangitatahi is part of the Chatham Islands chain, located east of New Zealand's South Island. The northernmost part of the group, they lie north of Cape Pattison on Chatham Island....	Rangitatahi	Rangitatahi	about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) north of Cape Pattison Cape Pattison, Chatham Island Cape Pattisson is a headland in the northwest of Chatham Island, the largest island in the Chatham Islands chain, located 800 km east of New Zealand's South Island.-References:... , a headland in the northwestern part of Chatham Island
The Forty-Fours Forty-Fours/Motuhara Forty-Fours/Motuhara is part of the Chatham Islands group, located east of New Zealand's South Island. The islands lie east of the group's main island, Chatham Island. Area Type:* Hypsographic...	Motuhara		the easternmost point of New Zealand, about 50 kilometres (31.1 mi) from Chatham Island.

The international date line

International Date Line

The International Date Line is a generally north-south imaginary line on the surface of the Earth, passing through the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that designates the place where each calendar day begins...

lies to the east of the Chathams, even though the islands lie east of 180° longitude

Longitude

Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....

. Consequently, the Chathams observe their own time, 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand time

Time in New Zealand

New Zealand has two time zones. The main islands use New Zealand Standard Time , 12 hours in advance of Coordinated Universal Time , while the outlying Chatham Islands use Chatham Standard Time , 12 hours 45 minutes in advance of UTC.During summer daylight saving time is observed and clocks are...

, including during periods of daylight saving; their time zone is distinctive as one of very few which differ from others by a period other than a whole hour or half-hour. (New Zealand Time orients itself to 180° longitude). Chatham Island is the antipodes

Antipodes

In geography, the antipodes of any place on Earth is the point on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to it. Two points that are antipodal to one another are connected by a straight line running through the centre of the Earth....

of the French department of Hérault

Hérault

Hérault is a department in the south of France named after the Hérault river.-History:Hérault is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

(Languedoc-Roussillon

Languedoc-Roussillon

Languedoc-Roussillon is one of the 27 regions of France. It comprises five departments, and borders the other French regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Rhône-Alpes, Auvergne, Midi-Pyrénées on the one side, and Spain, Andorra and the Mediterranean sea on the other side.-Geography:The region is...

Subdivision

The Chatham Islands are subdivided into seven survey districts:

Rangitihi Survey District 43°41′50"S 176°37′46"W (north)
Rekohu Survey District 43°44′11"S 176°20′48"W (northeast)
Tawirikoko Survey District 43°48′37"S 176°50′00"W (northwest)
Te Whanga Survey District 43°49′26"S 176°32′26"W (center-north)
Oropuke Survey District 44°01′28"S 176°36′53"W (south)
Rangimene Survey District 44°02′28"S 176°19′58"W (southeast)
Rangiuria Survey District 44°16′49"S 176°14′58"W (Pitt Island)

Ecology

The natural vegetation of the islands was a mixture of forest, scrubby heath and swamp, but today most of the land is fern or pasture covered, although there are some areas of dense forest and areas of peat bogs and other habitats. Of interest are the macrocarpa

Cupressus macrocarpa

Cupressus macrocarpa, commonly known as Monterey Cypress or Macrocarpa, is a species of cypress that is endemic to the Central Coast of California. In the wild, the species is confined to two small populations, near Monterey and Carmel, California. These two small populations represent what was...

trees, with branches trailing almost horizontally in the lee of the wind. The ferns in the forest understory

Understory

Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs...

include Blechnum discolor
Blechnum discolor
Blechnum discolor is a species of fern in the family Blechnaceae. This species is endemic to New Zealand. As noted by C. Michael Hogan, this species is found in a number of forest communities in diverse locations within New Zealand, and is sometimes a dominant understory component.Spores are...

.

The islands are home to a rich bio-diversity including about fifty endemic plants adapted to the cold and the wind, of which Chatham Islands forget-me-not (Myosotidium hortensia
Myosotidium
Myosotidium is a genus of plants belonging to the family Boraginaceae. This genus is represented by the single species Myosotidium hortensia, the Chatham Islands forget-me-not, which is endemic to the Chatham Islands, New Zealand....

), Chatham Islands Sow-thistle (Embergeria grandifolia), rautini (Brachyglottis huntii
Brachyglottis huntii
Brachyglottis huntii is a species of the genus Brachyglottis in the Asteraceae family and used to be one of the genus Senecio. It is found only in New Zealand.-References:* de Lange, P.J. 1998. . Downloaded on 20 July 2007....

), Chatham Islands kakaha (Astelia chathamica) , soft speargrass (Aciphylla dieffenbachii) and Chatham Island akeake or Chatham Island tree daisy (Olearia traversiorum) are among the best-known.

The islands are a breeding ground for huge flocks of seabirds and are home to number of endemic birds, some of them seabirds and some of them living on the islands themselves. The best known species are the Magenta Petrel

Magenta Petrel

The Magenta Petrel or Chatham Island Taiko is a small seabird in the gadfly petrel genus, Pterodroma....

and the Black Robin

Black Robin

The Black Robin or Chatham Island Robin is an endangered bird from the Chatham Islands off the east coast of New Zealand. It is closely related to the New Zealand Robin . It was first described by Walter Buller in 1872. The binomial commemorates the New Zealand botanist Henry H. Travers...

, both of which came perilously close to extinction

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

before being subjected to conservation

Bird conservation

Bird conservation is a field in the science of conservation biology related to threatened birds. Humans have had a profound effect on many bird species...

efforts. Other endemic species are the Chatham Island Oystercatcher

Chatham Island Oystercatcher

The Chatham Oystercatcher or Chatham Island Oystercatcher, Haematopus chathamensis, is a species of oystercatcher. It is a wading bird endemic to the Chatham Islands, New Zealand....

, the Chatham Gerygone, the Parea

Parea

The Chatham Pigeon, Chatham Island Pigeon, or Parea is a bird endemic to the Chatham Islands in New Zealand...

or Chatham Islands Pigeon, Forbes' Parakeet

Forbes' Parakeet

The Chatham Parakeet , also known as the Forbes' Parakeet or the Yellow-fronted Parakeet, is a rare parrot endemic to the Chatham Islands.-Range and habitat:...

, the Chatham Snipe and the Shore Plover

Shore Plover

The Shore Dotterel or Shore Plover is a small species of Plover endemic to New Zealand. Its Māori name is Tuturuatu....

. A number of species have also gone extinct since European settlement, including the three endemic species of rail

Rallidae

The rails, or Rallidae, are a large cosmopolitan family of small to medium-sized birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity and the family also includes the crakes, coots, and gallinules...

, Chatham Islands Raven

Chatham Islands Raven

The Chatham Islands Raven was a large songbird native to the Chatham Islands . Another closely related raven occurred on the North Island and South Island of New Zealand, namely the New Zealand Raven, C. antipodum. This was formerly included in C...

and the Chatham Islands Fernbird

Chatham Islands Fernbird

The Chatham Islands Fernbird is an extinct bird species endemic to Pitt Island and Mangere Island . Its next living relatives are the Snares Fernbird and the New Zealand Fernbird or Matata...

.

There are also a number of endemic insects while mammals found in the waters of the Chathams include New Zealand Sea Lion

New Zealand Sea Lion

The New Zealand Sea Lion also known as Hooker's Sea Lion or Whakahao in Māori 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 the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, especially the Auckland...

, Leopard Seal

Leopard Seal

The leopard seal , also referred to as the sea leopard, is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic...

, and Southern Elephant Seal

Southern Elephant Seal

The Southern Elephant Seal is one of the two extant species of elephant seal. It is both the most massive pinniped and member of the order Carnivora living today...

.

Much of the natural forest of these islands has been cleared for farming, but Mangere and Rangatira Islands are now preserved as nature reserves to conserve some of this unique flora and fauna. Another threat to wildlife here comes from introduced species

Introduced species

An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...

which prey on the indigenous birds and reptiles, whereas on Mangere and Rangatira livestock has been removed and native wildlife is recovering.

History

The first human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

habitation of the Chathams involved migrating Polynesia

Polynesia

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...

n tribe

Tribe

A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...

s who settled the islands about 1500 CE

Common Era

Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...

, and in their isolation became the Moriori

Moriori

Moriori are the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands , east of the New Zealand archipelago in the Pacific Ocean...

people. The belief as to their origins was overturned late in the 20th century. The former belief, which arose in the 1800s, was that the original Moriori migrated directly from more northerly Polynesian islands, just as with the settlement of New Zealand by the ancestors of the Māori. However, linguistic research indicates instead that the ancestral Moriori were Māori wanderers from New Zealand.
As Howe (2003) puts it,

Scholarship over the past 40 years has radically revised the model offered a century earlier by Smith: the Moriori as a pre-Polynesian people have gone (the term Moriori is now a technical term referring to those ancestral Maori who settled the Chatham Islands).'

The plants cultivated by the Māori arrivals were ill suited for the colder Chathams, so the Moriori lived as hunter-gatherer

Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...

s and fishermen. While their new environment deprived them of the resources with which to build ocean-going craft for long voyages, the Moriori invented what was known as the waka korari, a semi-submerged craft, constructed of flax and lined with air bladders from kelp. This craft was used to travel to the outer islands on 'birding' missions (King. M, 1989, Moriori, a people Rediscovered). The Moriori society was a peaceful society and bloodshed was outlawed by the chief Nunuku after generations of warfare. Arguments were solved by consensus or by duel

Duel

A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...

s rather than warfare, but at the first sign of bloodshed, the fight was over.

The name "Chatham Islands" comes from the ship of the Vancouver Expedition

Vancouver Expedition

The Vancouver Expedition was a four-and-a-half-year voyage of exploration and diplomacy, commanded by Captain George Vancouver. The expedition circumnavigated the globe, touched five continents and changed the course of history for the indigenous nations and several European empires and their...

, whose captain William R. Broughton landed on 29 November 1791, claimed possession for Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

and named the islands after the First Lord of the Admiralty, John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham

John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham

General John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, KG, PC was a British peer and soldier.-Career:He was the eldest son of William Pitt the Elder and an elder brother of William Pitt the Younger...

. A relative of his, Thomas Pitt

Thomas Pitt, 2nd Baron Camelford

Thomas Pitt, 2nd Baron Camelford was a British peer, naval officer and wastrel, best known for bedevilling George Vancouver during and after the latter's great voyage of exploration.-Early life:...

, was a member of the Vancouver Expedition. Sealers

Seal hunting

Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. The hunt is currently practiced in five countries: Canada, where most of the world's seal hunting takes place, Namibia, the Danish region of Greenland, Norway and Russia...

and whalers

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

soon started hunting in the surrounding ocean with the islands as their base. It is estimated that 10 to 20 percent of the indigenous population soon died from diseases introduced by foreigners. The sealing and whaling industries ceased activities about 1861, while fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

remained as a major economic activity.

The Māori conquest and genocide

On 19 November 1835, a British mercenary ship carrying 500 Māori armed with guns, clubs and axes arrived, followed by another ship on 5 December 1835 with a further 400 Māori. The Maori came from two tribes, the Tama and Mutunga

Ngati Mutunga

Ngāti Mutunga is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. Their tribal lands are in north Taranaki, with the principal marae being at Urenui.Prominent leader and anthropologist Te Rangi Hīroa was of Ngāti Mutunga descent.-External links:*...

. They proceeded to massacre the Moriori, who are thought to have numbered about 2,000, cannibalise the dead and enslave the survivors. A Moriori survivor recalled: "[The Māori] commenced to kill us like sheep.... [We] were terrified, fled to the bush, concealed ourselves in holes underground, and in any place to escape our enemies. It was of no avail; we were discovered and killed - men, women and children indiscriminately". A Māori conqueror justified their actions as follows: "We took possession... in accordance with our customs and we caught all the people. Not one escaped....."

After the invasion, Moriori were forbidden to marry Moriori, nor to have children with each other. All became slaves of the invaders until the 1860s. Many died in despair. Many Moriori women had children by their Māori masters. A number of Moriori women eventually married either Māori or European men. Some were taken from the Chathams and never returned.

An all-male group of German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

Lutheran missionaries arrived in 1843. After a group of women were sent out to join them three years later several marriages ensued, and many members of the present-day population can trace their ancestry back to the missionary families.

In 1865 the Māori leader Te Kooti

Te Kooti

Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki was a Māori leader, the founder of the Ringatu religion and guerrilla.While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to the Chatham Islands without trial along with captured Hauhau, he experienced visions and...

was exiled on the Chatham Islands.

Present day conditions

The Moriori community is organized as the Hokotehi Moriori Trust. The Moriori have received recognition from the Crown

The Crown

The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...

and the New Zealand government and some of their claims against those institutions for the generations of neglect and oppression have been accepted and acted on. Moriori are recognised as the original people of Rekohu. The Crown also recognised the invading Maori tribe: Ngati Mutunga

Ngati Mutunga

as having "indigenous" status in the Chathams by right of 160-odd years of occupation.

The population of the islands is 650, including members of both ethnic groups. In January 2005 the Moriori celebrated the opening of the new Kopinga Marae (meeting house).

Modern descendants of the 1835 Māori conquerors claimed to share in ancestral Māori fishing rights. This claim was granted. Now that the primordial population, the Moriori, have been recognized to be former Maori—over the objections of the Mutunga—they too share in the ancestral Maori fishing rights. Both groups have been granted fishing quotas.

Population

Chatham and Pitt Islands are inhabited, with 609 residents in the 2006 Census. The town of Waitangi

Waitangi, Chatham Islands

Waitangi is the main port and settlement on the Chatham Islands. It is located on the southern shore of Petre Bay, on the west coast of the main island...

is the main settlement with some 200 residents. There are other villages such as Owenga

Owenga

Owenga is a small settlement on Chatham Island, in New Zealand's Chatham Islands group. It is the second easternmost settlement in New Zealand, after Flower Pot Bay on Pitt Island. It is located in the southeast of the island, close to Cape Fournier....

, Te One and Kaingaroa, where there are two primary schools. A third school is on Pitt Island. There are also the fishing villages of Owenga and Port Hutt. The population is mainly of European

New Zealand European

The term New Zealand European refers to New Zealanders of European descent who identify as New Zealand Europeans rather than some other ethnic group...

, Māori and Moriori

Moriori

Moriori are the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands , east of the New Zealand archipelago in the Pacific Ocean...

background; 64% said they identified as Māori (which includes Moriori), and around 75% identified as European or New Zealander.

Waitangi facilities include a hospital with resident doctor, bank, several stores, and engineering and marine services. The main shipping wharf is located here.

Transport

Visitors to the Chathams usually arrive by air from Christchurch

Christchurch

, Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

or Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

(around 1.5 – 2 hours from Christchurch on a Convair 580) to the airport on Chatham Island. While freight generally arrives by ship (4–5 days' sailing time), the sea journey takes too long for many passengers, and is not always available.

The Chathams are part of New Zealand so there are no border controls or formalities on arrival, but visitors are advised to have prearranged their accommodation on the islands. Transport operators may refuse to carry passengers without accommodation bookings. There is no scheduled public transport but accommodation providers are normally able to arrange transport.

For many years a Bristol Freighter

Bristol Freighter

The Bristol Type 170 Freighter was a British twin-engine aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as both a freighter and airliner, although its best known use is as an air ferry to carry cars and their passengers over relatively short distances.-Design and development:The...

served the islands, a slow and noisy freight aircraft converted for carrying passengers by installing a passenger container equipped with airline seat

Airline seat

An airline seat is a chair on an airliner in which passengers are accommodated for the duration of the journey. Such seats are usually arranged in rows running across the airplane's fuselage...

s and a toilet in part of the cargo hold. The air service primarily served to ship out high-value export crayfish

Crayfish

Crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads – members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea – are freshwater crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related...

products.

The grass landing-field at Hapupu, at the northern end of the Island, proved a limiting factor, as few aircraft apart from the Bristol Freighter had both the range to fly to the islands and the ruggedness to land on the grass airstrip. Although other aircraft did use the landing field occasionally, they would often require repairs to fix damage resulting from the rough landing. Hapupu is also the site of the JM Barker (Hapupu) National Historic Reserve

JM Barker (Hapupu) Historic Reserve

JM Barker National Historic Reserve is 33 hectares of kopi forest which was created to protect Moriori tree carvings called momori-rakau ....

(one of only two in New Zealand) where there are momori rakau (Moriori tree carvings).

In 1981, after many years of requests by locals and the imminent demise of the aging Bristol Freighter aircraft, the construction of a sealed runway at Karewa, Tuuta Airport, allowed more modern aircraft to land safely. The Chathams' own airline, Air Chathams

Air Chathams

Air Chathams Limited is a commuter airline based in Te One, the Chatham Islands, New Zealand. It was established in 1986 and operates scheduled passenger services between the Chatham Islands and the North and South islands of New Zealand, as well as local charters. Its main base is Chatham Islands...

, now operates services to Auckland on Thursdays, Wellington on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and Christchurch on Tuesdays. The timetable varies seasonally, but generally planes depart the Chathams around 10.30 am (Chathams Time) and arrive in the mainland around noon. There they refuel and reload, and depart again at around 1 pm back to the Chathams. Air Chathams operates twin turboprop Convair 580 aircraft in combi (freight and passenger) configurations and Fairchild Metroliners

Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner

The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner or the Fairchild Aerospace Metro is a 19-seat, pressurised, twin turboprop airliner first produced by Swearingen Aircraft and later by Fairchild at a plant in San Antonio, Texas, United States....

.

Black Robin Freighters operates shipping services from Timaru

Timaru

TimaruUrban AreaPopulation:27,200Extent:Former Timaru City CouncilTerritorial AuthorityName:Timaru District CouncilPopulation:42,867 Land area:2,736.54 km² Mayor:Janie AnnearWebsite:...

.

There is a small section of tar sealed road between Waitangi and Te One, but the majority of the island's roads are gravel.

Government

Electorates

Until the 1980s the Chathams were in the Lyttelton

Lyttelton, New Zealand

Lyttelton is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour close to Banks Peninsula, a suburb of Christchurch on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand....

electorate, but since then they have formed part of the Rongotai

Rongotai (New Zealand electorate)

Rongotai is a New Zealand electorate, returning a single member to the New Zealand House of Representatitves. The current MP for Rongotai is Annette King, of the Labour Party. She has held this position since 1996.-Description:...

general electorate, which mostly lies in Wellington. Annette King

Annette King

Annette Faye King is a New Zealand politician. She is the current Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the New Zealand. She was a Cabinet Minister in the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand.-Early life:...

is the MP for Rongotai. The Te Tai Tonga

Te Tai Tonga

Te Tai Tonga is a New Zealand Parliamentary Māori electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The current MP for Te Tai Tonga is Rino Tirikatene of the Labour Party, who in 2011 defeated Rahui Katene of the Māori Party, who won the seat in 2008.Te Tai...

Māori seat

Maori seats

In New Zealand politics, Māori electorates, colloquially also called Māori seats, are a special category of electorate that gives reserved positions to representatives of Māori in the New Zealand Parliament...

(held since 2008 by Rahui Katene) includes the Chatham Islands.

Local government

Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...

on the islands, uniquely within New Zealand

New Zealand

, involves a council established by its own Act of Parliament, the Chatham Islands Council Act 1995 (Statute No 041, Commenced: 1 November 1995). The Chatham Islands Council operates as a district council

Territorial authorities of New Zealand

Territorial authorities are the second tier of local government in New Zealand, below regional councils. There are 67 territorial authorities: 13 city councils, 53 district councils, and the Chatham Islands Council...

with regional council

Regions of New Zealand

The region is the top tier of local government in New Zealand. There are 16 regions of New Zealand. Eleven are governed by an elected regional council, while five are governed by territorial authorities which also perform the functions of a regional council and thus are known as unitary authorities...

functions, making it in effect a unitary authority

Unitary authority

A unitary authority is a type of local authority that has a single tier and is responsible for all local government functions within its area or performs additional functions which elsewhere in the relevant country are usually performed by national government or a higher level of sub-national...

but with not quite as many responsibilities as the others. Some Regional Council functions are being administered by Environment Canterbury, the Canterbury Regional Council.

In the 2010 local government elections, Chatham Islands had NZ's highest rate of returned votes, with 71.3 percent voting.

State services

Policing

New Zealand Police

The New Zealand Police is the national police force of New Zealand, responsible for enforcing criminal law, enhancing public safety, maintaining order and keeping the peace throughout New Zealand...

is carried out by a sole-charge constable

Constable

A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...

appointed by the Wellington

Wellington

police district, who has often doubled as an official for many government departments

State sector organisations in New Zealand

Public sector organisations in New Zealand include the State sector plus the organisations of local government.Within the State sector lies the State services, and within this, lies the core Public service....

, including court registrar (Department for Courts), customs officer (New Zealand Customs Service) and immigration officer (Department of Labour - New Zealand Immigration Service).

A District Court judge sent from either the North Island

North Island

The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

or the South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

presides over court sittings, but urgent sittings may take place at the Wellington District Court.

Because of the isolation and small population, some of the rules governing daily activities undergo a certain relaxation. For example, every transport

Transport

Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...

service operated solely on Great Barrier Island

Great Barrier Island

Great Barrier Island is a large island of New Zealand, situated to the north-east of central Auckland in the outer Hauraki Gulf. With an area of it is the fourth-largest island of New Zealand's main chain of islands, with its highest point, Mount Hobson, rising...

, the Chatham Islands or Stewart Island/Rakiura

Stewart Island/Rakiura

Stewart Island/Rakiura is the third-largest island of New Zealand. It lies south of the South Island, across Foveaux Strait. Its permanent population is slightly over 400 people, most of whom live in the settlement of Oban.- History and naming :...

need not comply with section 70C of the Transport Act 1962 (the requirements for drivers to maintain driving-hours logbooks). Drivers subject to section 70B must nevertheless keep record of their driving hours in some form.

Health

The partially-elected Hawke's Bay District Health Board provides the islands with health services.

Education

There are three schools on the Chathams, at Kaingaroa, Te One and Pitt Island. Pitt Island and Kaingaroa are staffed by sole charge principals while Te One has three teachers and a principal. These schools cater for children from Year 1 to 8. There is no secondary school on the Chathams. The majority of secondary school aged students leave the island for boarding schools in New Zealand. A small number remain on the island and carry out their secondary education through correspondence.

Economy

Most of the Chatham Island economy is based on fishing and crabbing, with only a fragment of adventure tourism. This economic mix has been stable for the past 50 years, as there is little infrastructure or population to engage in higher levels of industrial or telecommunications activity.

Air Chathams

Air Chathams

has its head office in Te One.

Electricity generation

At present, the island is powered by two 200 kW wind turbines to provide most of the power on the island while diesel generators provide the rest.

Fiction

In Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...

's Robur the Conqueror
Robur the Conqueror
Robur the Conqueror is a science fiction novel by Jules Verne, published in 1886. It is also known as The Clipper of the Clouds. It has a sequel, The Master of the World, which was published in 1904.- Plot summary :...

, Robur anchors his flying vessel Albatross over the Chathams after the horizontal propellers are damaged in a storm.
The novel Cloud Atlas includes the diary of a fictitious 19th century American traveller who passes through the Chathams.
In Joe Buff
Joe Buff
Joe Buff is an American author of naval techno-thrillers. Before becoming a full-time writer in 1997, he was an actuary for 20 years.-Jeffrey Fuller series:...

's futuristic nuclear submarine warfare book Crush Depth (ISBN 0-06-000964-0), Chatham Island is destroyed by an Axis planted atomic bomb.

Television

The TVNZ series How the Other Half Lives (2008) had a segment on the Chatham Islands.

External links

Chatham Islands Council
Hokotehi Moriori Trust
1998 Information
Photographs from the Christchurch Public Library
Department of Conservation information
Unofficial Flag
Massey University study of Chathams ecology
Information and pictures of Chatham Islands. The Sisters are also mentioned
Pitt Island Education Resources.
Rekohu: The Chatham Islands Education Resources.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Geography

Subdivision

Ecology

History

The Māori conquest and genocide

Present day conditions

Population

Transport

Government

Electorates

Local government

State services

Health

Education

Economy

Electricity generation

Fiction

Television

See also

External links