- Banks Peninsula
Banks Peninsula is in the Canterbury region on the east coast of the
South Island ofNew Zealand , partly surrounded by thePacific Ocean , and adjacent to the largest city in the South Island, Christchurch. Thepeninsula has a land area of approximately 1,000 km². The peninsula, including neighbouring areas that are not on the peninsula proper, was governed by the Banks Peninsula District Council from 1989 until6 March 2006 when it was merged with neighbouring Christchurch City Council. The population of the peninsula in 2001 was 7,833 residents (2001 census).History
Three successive phases of
Māori settlement took place on the peninsula which was known to Māori as Horomaka.Waitaha settled there first, followed byKāti Mamoe and thenNgai Tahu took over in the 17th century.The crew of Captain
James Cook became the first Europeans to sight the peninsula, during Cook's first circumnavigation of New Zealand in 1769, when he named the feature in honour of the "Endeavour"'s botanist,Joseph Banks . The peninsula occasioned one of Cook's two major New Zealand cartographical errors - unable to see the low plains adjoining the peninsula, he charted it as an island. Distracted by a phantom sighting of land to the southeast, he sailed away before exploring any closer and never discovered the two good harbours.By the 1830s, Banks Peninsula had become a European
whaling centre - to the detriment of the Māori, who succumbed in large numbers to disease and inter-tribal warfare exacerbated by the use ofmusket s. Two significant events in the assumption of British sovereignty over New Zealand occurred atAkaroa . First, in 1830 the Māori settlement at Takapuneke became the scene of a notorious incident. The Captain of the British brig "Elizabeth," John Stewart, helped North IslandNgāti Toa chief,Te Rauparaha , to capture the local Ngai Tahu chief, Te Maiharanui. The settlement of Takapuneke was sacked. (Partly as a result of this massacre, the British authorities sent an official British Resident,James Busby , to New Zealand in 1832 in an effort to stop such atrocities. The events at Takapuneke thus led directly to the signing of theTreaty of Waitangi .) Then in 1838 Captain Langlois, a French whaler, decided that Akaroa would make a good settlement to service whaling ships and "purchased" the peninsula in a dubious land deal with the local Māori. He returned toFrance , floated the Nanto-Bordelaise company, and set sail for New Zealand with a group of French and German families aboard the ship "Comte de Paris", with the intention of forming aFrench colony on a French South Island of New Zealand.However, by the time Langlois and his colonists arrived at Banks Peninsula in August 1840, many Māori had already signed the Treaty of Waitangi (the signatories including two chiefs at Akaroa in May) and New Zealand's first British Governor,
William Hobson , had declared British sovereignty over the whole of New Zealand. On hearing of the French plan for colonisation, Hobson quickly dispatched the HMS "Britomart" from the Bay of Islands to Akaroa with police magistrates on board. While Langlois and his colonists sheltered from unfavourable winds at Pigeon Bay on the other side of the peninsula, the British raised their flag at Greens Point between Akaroa and Takapuneke and courts of law convened to assert British sovereignty over the South Island.From the 1850s, Lyttelton and then Christchurch outgrew
Akaroa , which has developed into a holiday resort and retained many French influences as well as many of its nineteenth-century buildings.Historic harbour defence works dating from 1874 onwards survive at
Ripapa Island inLyttelton Harbour , and atGodley Head .Geology
Banks Peninsula forms the most prominent volcanic feature of the South Island. Geologically, the peninsula comprises the eroded remnants of two large
shield volcano es (Lyttelton formed first, then Akaroa). These formed due to intraplate volcanism between approximately eleven and eight million years ago (Miocene ) on a continental crust. The peninsula formed as offshore islands, with the volcanoes reaching to about 1,500 m above sea level. Two dominant craters formed Lyttelton andAkaroa Harbours. The Canterbury Plains formed from the erosion of theSouthern Alps (an extensive and high mountain range caused by the meeting of the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates) and from thealluvial fan s created by largebraided river s. These plains reach their widest point where they meet the hilly sub-region of Banks Peninsula. A layer ofloess , a rather unstable fine silt deposited by thefoehn wind s which bluster across the plains, covers the northern and western flanks of the peninsula. The portion of crater rim lying between Lyttelton Harbour and Christchurch city forms thePort Hills .Land use
Estimates suggest that native forest once covered 98% of the peninsula. However, Māori and European settlers successively denuded the forest cover and less than 2% remains today, although some reforestation has started. European settlers have planted many English trees, notably
walnut .Hinewai Reserve , a privatenature reserve , has been established on the peninsula to allow for native forest to regenerate on land that was once farmed.Several sites off the coast of the peninsula serve for
mariculture cultivation ofmussel s.A large Marine Mammal Sanctuary, mainly restricting set-net fishing, surrounds much of the peninsula. This has the principal aim of the conservation of
Hector's dolphin , the smallest of alldolphin species. Eco-tourism based around the playful dolphins has now become a significant industry in Akaroa.A relatively small
marine reserve called Pohatu centres on Flea Bay on the south-east side of the peninsula.The Summit Road forms a notable feature on the peninsula. Built in the 1930s, the road is in two sections:
* one section runs along the crest of the Port Hills from Godley Head (the northern head of Lyttelton Harbour) to Gebbies Pass at the head of the harbour
* the other section runs around the crater rim of Akaroa Harbour from 'Hill Top' - the junction with the main Christchurch-Akaroa highway - to a point above Akaroa. Both roads afford spectacular views as well as providing vehicular access to many parks, walkways, and other recreational features.Tourism
A popular attraction for trampers/bushwalkers is the
Banks Peninsula Track .Statistics
* Highest point: Mount Herbert (919 m)
* Permanent population : 7600External links
* [http://www.ccc.govt.nz/ Now part of Christchurch City]
* [http://www.stats.govt.nz/domino/external/web/CommProfiles.nsf/FindInfobyArea/061-ta 2001 census results, Banks Peninsula District]
* [http://www.ccc.govt.nz/Maps/WardMaps/BanksPeninsula.pdf Map of Banks Peninsula ward, Christchurch]
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