Rangitoto Island is a 3.4-mile-wide volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland that reaches s height of 850 feet. The 5,710-acre island is the youngest and largest of the roughly 50 volcanoes of the Auckland volcanic field. It last erupted approximately 600 years ago. Rangitoto is named for the Māori word for ‘Bloody Sky. Its name is derived from the full phrase Ngā Rangi-i-totongia-a Tama-te-kapua , which means The days of the bleeding of Tama-te-kapua. Today, the island is a popular destination for visitors to Auckland, and ferries depart regularly from the city.
Captain Robert Falcon Scott was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery expedition of 1901-1904 and the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition of 1910-1913. His widow, Kathleen Scott, sculpted a statue of Robert Falcon Scott that stands at the intersection of Oxford Terrace and Worcester Street in Christchurch. The statue was completed in Carrara, Italy, in April 1916, but was not shipped until October 1916 because of World War I. The statue was damaged in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake and was reinstated in October 2017.
Shantytown Heritage Park, located roughly six miles south of Greymouth, opened in 1971. The park includes 30 re-created historic buildings making up a 19th-century gold-mining town. In 1968, local enthusiasts formed the West Coast Historical and Mechanical Society. The park opened to the public on Jan. 23, 1971. Shantytown features a re-created narrow-gauge bush tram line using a 19th-century sawmill tram track. It runs 1.5 km from the Shantytown train station to a terminus at the Infants Creek Sawmill.
The Skyline Queenstown gondola that takes visitors to Bob’s Peak, the prominent hill above Queenstown, part of the Ben Lomond mountain. Bus company owner Ian Hamilton had a road cut in 1961 to drive tourists to the viewpoint. Two years after Hamilton died, Jon Dumble purchased his shares and took on two business partners for Skyline Tours. The company built a chalet on Bob’s Peak that opened in January 1964. The following year, they received planning permission to build a gondola. Skyline Enterprises launched as a public company and purchased Skyline Tours. Dumble became the company’s first managing director. The gondola system opened officially on Nov. 17, 1967.
Sky Tower, located at the corner of Victoria and Federal Streets in the heart of Auckland, is telecommunications and observation tower offering some of the best views in New Zealand. The 1,076-foot-tall tower, the 25th tallest tower in the world, is the tallest freestanding structure in the Southern Hemisphere. The tower, built between 1994 and 1997, is today an iconic structure in Auckland’s skyline and is home to the only revolving restaurant in New Zealand.
The original Speight’s brewery is located in the heart of Dunedin. The brewery, best-known for its Gold Medal Ale, one of the best-selling beers in New Zealand, is owned by the Japanese-controlled holding company Lion. The brewery also led to a chain of Speight’s Ale House gastropubs across the country.
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St Paul’s Cathedral is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Dunedin. While the first parish church of St Paul was built on the site from 1862 to 1863, work on the modern incarnation of the church began in 1913. Bishop Samuel Tarratt Nevill consecrated the cathedral on Feb. 12, 1919. Construction on a new chancel, which features a more modernist design, started in December 1969 and finished in July 1971.
Stirling Point feels like the end of the Earth. In reality, it is the southern end of State Highway 1 that runs the length of New Zealand.