| Native name: Rekohu, Wharekauri | |
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 Topographical map of the Chatham Islands |
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| Geography | |
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| Location | Southern Pacific Ocean |
| Coordinates | 43°53′S 176°31′W / 43.883°S 176.517°WCoordinates: 43°53′S 176°31′W / 43.883°S 176.517°W |
| Archipelago | Chatham Islands |
| Total islands | 10 |
| Major islands | Chatham Island, Pitt Island |
| Area | 966 km² |
| Highest point | Maungatere Hill (294 m) |
| Country | |
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New Zealand
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| Largest city | Waitangi |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 650 (According to Chatham Islands Council) |
The archipelago of the Chatham Islands (Rekohu in Moriori; Wharekauri in Māori) is a territory of New Zealand of about ten islands, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island, within a 40 kilometres (25 mi) radius. The remote islands, over 800 kilometres (500 mi) east of southern New Zealand, have officially belonged to that country since 1842.
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The islands are at about 43°53′S 176°31′W / 43.883°S 176.517°W, roughly 800 kilometres (500 mi) east of Christchurch, 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, a large, relatively shallowly submerged (no more than 1000 metres deep at any point) part of the Zealandia continent that stretches east from near the South Island. The Chatham Islands are the only part of the Chatham Rise to emerge above the sea. The islands themselves have only emerged within the last four million years.[1]
Chatham and Pitt are the only inhabited islands, with the remaining smaller islands being conservation reserves with access restricted or prohibited.
The names of the main islands, in Moriori, English and Māori in the order of occupation are:
Some of these islands, once cleared for farming, are now preserved as nature reserves to conserve some of the flora and fauna that are unique to the Chathams.
The international date line lies to the east of the Chathams, even though the islands lie east of 180° longitude. Consequently, the Chathams observe their own time, 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand time, including during periods of daylight saving. (New Zealand Time orients itself to 180° longitude). Chatham Island is the antipodes of the French department of Hérault (Languedoc-Roussillon).
The Chatham Islands are subdivided into seven survey districts:
Most of the land is fern or pasture covered, although there are some areas of forest. Of interest are the macrocarpa trees, with branches trailing almost horizontally in the lee of the wind. The islands are generally hilly, Pitt more so than Chatham, although the highest point (299 metres (980 ft)) is on a plateau near the southernmost point of the main island. The main island of the groups, Rekohu, is dotted with numerous lakes and lagoons, notably the large Te Whanga Lagoon. Other lakes on Chatham include Huro and Rangitahi. Rekohu has a number of streams including Te Awainanga and Tuku. The ferns in the forest understory include Blechnum discolor.
The island is home to a number of endemic plants, of which Chatham Islands forget-me-not (Myosotidium hortensia), rautini (Brachyglottis huntii), Chatham Islands kakaha (Astelia chathamica) , soft speargrass (Aciphylla dieffenbachii) and Chatham Island akeake or Chatham Island tree daisy (Olearia traversiorum) are among the most well known.
The island has a number of endemic birds. The most well known species of the islands are the Magenta Petrel and the Black Robin, both of which came perilously close to extinction before being subjected to conservation efforts. Other endemic species are the Chatham Island Oystercatcher, the Chatham Gerygone, the Parea or Chatham Islands Pigeon, Forbes' Parakeet, the Chatham Islands Snipe and the Shore Plover. A number of species have also gone extinct, including the three endemic species of rail, Chatham Islands Raven and the Chatham Islands Fernbird.
The first human habitation of the Chathams involved migrating Polynesian tribes who settled the islands about 1500 CE,[2] and in their isolation became the Moriori people. The exact origins of these people remain a matter of some dispute. The Moriori population of the islands numbered about 2000. Their agricultural resources were not suited for the colder Chathams, so they lived as hunter-gatherers, taking food from the sea and from native flora. Whilst their new environment deprived them of the resources with which to build ocean-going craft for long voyages, their intelligence and perseverance saw the invention of the most ingenious craft afloat. Moriori built 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 individual duels singular combat rather than warfare, but at the first sign of bloodshed, the fight was over.
The name "Chatham Islands" comes from the ship HMS Chatham of the Vancouver Expedition, whose captain William R. Broughton landed on November 29, 1791, claimed possession for Great Britain and named the islands after the political head of the Royal Navy, John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham). A relative of his, Thomas Pitt, was a member of the Vancouver Expedition. Sealers and whalers 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 remained as a major economic activity.
On November 19, 1835, a British ship carrying 500 Māori armed with guns, clubs and axes arrived, followed by another ship on December 5, 1835 with a further 400 Māori. They proceeded to massacre the Moriori 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....."[3]
After the invasion, Moriori were forbidden to marry Moriori, nor to have children with each other. All became slaves of the Ngati Tama and Ngati Mutunga invaders. Many died from despair. Many Moriori women had children to their Maori masters. A small amount of Moriori women eventually married either Maori or European men. Some were taken from the Chathams and never returned. Today, in spite of the difficulties and genocide that Moriori faced, Moriori are enjoying a renaissance, both on Rekohu and in the mainland of New Zealand. Moriori culture is being revived and they have celebrated the opening of the new Kopinga Marae (meeting house) in January 2005.
An all-male group of German 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.
Moriori have received recognition from the Crown and Government and some of their claims against those institutions for the generations of neglect and oppression have been listened to and acted on. Moriori are recognised as the original people of Rekohu. The Crown also recognised the invading Maori tribe: Ngati Mutunga as having "indigenous" status in the Chathams by right of 160-odd years of occupation. Both groups have been given settlement packages of fishing quota.
It had been thought since the 1800s that the original Moriori arrived directly from more northerly Polynesian islands, which would make the Moriori's fishing rights claim invalid. However, current research indicates that ancestral Moriori were Māori who came to the Chathams from New Zealand about 1500.[4][5][6][7] As Kerry Howe 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).'[8]
Modern inhabitants, descendants of those who invaded and conquered the archipelago in 1835, claim access to ancestral Māori fishing rights. An extensive report on these claims, "Rekohu", has been published by the Waitangi Tribunal.[1]
Chatham and Pitt Islands are inhabited. The population of 609 individuals[9] have European, Māori (64.2%) and Moriori origins. The town of Waitangi is the main settlement with some 200 residents. There are other villages such as Owenga, 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.
Waitangi facilities include a hospital with resident doctor, bank, several stores, and engineering and marine services. The main shipping wharf is located here.
Visitors to the Chathams usually arrive by air from Christchurch, Auckland or Wellington (around 1.5 – 2 hours from Christchurch on a Convair 580). 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 served the islands, a slow and noisy freight aircraft converted for carrying passengers by installing a passenger container equipped with airline seats and a toilet in part of the cargo hold. The air service primarily served to ship out high-value export crayfish 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 (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, 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.
Black Robin Freighters operates shipping services from Timaru and Napier.
There is a small section of tar sealed road between Waitangi and Te One, but the majority of the island's roads are gravel.
Until the 1980s the Chathams were in the Lyttelton electorate, but since then they have formed part of the Rongotai general electorate, which mostly lies in Wellington. Annette King is the MP for Rongotai. The Te Tai Tonga Māori seat (held since 2008 by Rahui Katene) includes the Chatham Islands.
Local government on the islands, uniquely within New Zealand, involves a council established by its own Act of Parliament, the (Chatham Islands Council Act 1995)[10]. The Chatham Islands Council operates as a district council with regional council functions, making it in effect a unitary authority but with not quite as many responsibilities as the others. Some Regional Council functions are being administered by Environment Canterbury, the Canterbury Regional Council.
Policing is carried out by a sole-charge constable appointed by the Wellington police district, who has often doubled as an official for many government departments, 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 or the South Island 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 service operated solely on Great Barrier Island, the Chatham Islands or Stewart Island/Rakiura 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. See New Zealand Gazette 14 August 2003.
The partially-elected Hawke's Bay District Health Board provides the islands with health services.
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.
At present, the island is powered by a number of diesel generators. In July 2009, final plans were made for the installation of two 200kw wind turbines to provide most of the power on the island.[2]
In Jules Verne's Robur the Conqueror, 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's futuristic nuclear submarine warfare book Crush Depth (ISBN 0-06-000964-0), Chatham Island is destroyed by an Axis planted atomic bomb.
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| Administrative divisions of New Zealand | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supranational level | Realm of New Zealand | ||||||||||
| National level | New Zealand | Tokelau | Cook Islands | Niue | Ross Dependency | ||||||
| Regions | 12 non-unitary regions | 4 unitary regions | Chatham Islands | Kermadec Islands | sub-Antarctic islands | ||||||
| Territorial authorities | 16 cities and 57 districts | ||||||||||
| Notes | Some districts lie in more than one region | These combine the regional and the territorial authority levels in one | Special territorial authority | Areas outside regional authority; these, plus the Chatham Islands and the Solander Islands, form the New Zealand outlying islands | State administered by New Zealand | States in free association with New Zealand | Claimed by New Zealand | ||||
The Chatham Islands [1], also known as Rekohu, are the eastern-most settled islands in New Zealand. The islands are in their own time zone, 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand time; the International Date Line jogs eastward to keep them on the same calendar day as the rest of New Zealand.
They lie some 860km to the East of Christchurch, in the middle of the "Roaring Forties". Steeped in culture and history, these islands are on the very edge of civilisation. Experience Moriori culture, experience Rekohu.
The Chatham Islands consist of two main islands and a number of rocky outcrops. The islands are volcanic in origin and have a unique and sensitive habitat that supports many rare and endangered species.
The only way for visitors to travel to the Chathams is via scheduled or chartered air service. Air Chathams [2], fly 5 day per week, from either Christchurch, Auckland or Wellington and seasonally, from Napier.
There are no passport requirements to travel to the Chatham Islands and there are no travel restrictions. You should, however, book or ensure accommodation, BEFORE you board a flight for there, as during the popular months of the Tourism season, between October and April, accommodation can be severely limited. There are no same-day return flights, so once there you do have to stay at least the night.
Although flying to the Chathams and back is not cheap, it is worth it. Even the mainland school groups [3]that fly there for school camps [4], and choose to stay at Kopinga Marae [5] get value for money by chartering a flight one way.
Anyway, you don't have a choice on how you get there, unless you happen to own an aeroplane, so fly Air Chathams and enjoy the personalised and friendly experience.
The only scheduled shipping service to the Chatham Islands remains the Black Robin Freighters "Rangatira", an antiquated, slow and small coastal trading vessel. This boat has serviced the islands for many years now, but does not carry passengers. Freight charges on the Rangatira appear to be flexible and subject to change. Vessels are able to call at the Chathams and there are a number of "safe" harbours for shelter if the need arises. Remember to notify the local Policeman, or Ministry of Fisheries Officer if you are entering New Zealand via the Chathams.
If you want a wharf berthage then call the local harbour master as you near the Chathams and he will sort you out.
There are several businesses on the Island that will rent you a vehicle. Do not expect the flashest and latest in rental cars though. The cars "will" be warranted and safe, but they won't be exceptionally "flash". Chatham Lodge can provide you with a rental vehicle, as part of your accommodation package with them. The Lodge has a range of accommodation and tour package options [6]. Chatham Motors have a range of very nice rental vans available as well and they provide pretty good service for visitors and locals alike. So, when you get off that aeroplane, if you haven't pre-organised transport, you will have to walk, and it is a long way into town!
If you book a packaged Tour with, not only are all of your accommodation worries taken care of, so are your travel arrangements and on-island transport issues.
One of the most remote parts of the world. Some of the worlds most Rare and endangered birds, plants and insects. Unique Tree carvings done by the peaceful Moriori people hundreds of years ago.
Too numerous to list them all today, check back in a few days and we'll get them listed.
Too numerous to list them all today, check back in a few days and we'll get them listed.
Maori have a marae and the local Iwi; Ngati Mutunga O Wharekauri have an office building here as well. Maori culture is very strong on the Chathams.
The "Chathams" culture is a blend of all three ethnicities and has been shaped by the environment, the lifestyle, the contributions from each "ethnicity' and a community that has learned to rely on each other and deal with whatever is thrown their way, usually with a grin and a great deal of determination. Kiwi ingenuity has nothing on Chatham Island know-how.
There are a wide range of on the islands that visitors can walk or beach comb on. Most of the time you will have the beach to yourself, or at least your group will.
The Basalt columns are one of the many natural wonders of Rekohu. Formed by a process of cooling with salt water these hexagonal columns of basalt are spectacular, as is the location and scenery around them.
There is plenty to do on Rekohu (the Chatham Islands) You can simply relax.... Relaxing is good,.. it works for me! Park up in the sun..... Yup, that works too. Or you could go exploring,..... ummm, like walking and that type of exploring...? Its trus. The Chathams has some of the most spectacular scenery in all of New Zealand. Rugged coastlines with towering cliffs, boulder strewn beaches and wide sandy exspansive beaches. Check out this Chatham Lodge website for a few photographs of the Chathams and some great booking information [10].
You cannot beat the fine dining at Chatham Lodge for a great meal out. Package tour guests get the luxury of buffet meals, steak dinners and crayfish meals. For fine dining and great Chatham Island cuisine, give Chatham Lodge a call. Next on the dining out list is the Waitangi cafe. Glenys will cook you up a feed fit for a king. Clean and reasonably priced, visitors always make a point of calling in at Waitangi cafe. The old piecart caravan has gone now and has been replaced by a brand new purpose built cafe betwenn Te One and Waitangi, overlooking Lake Huro. The Lakeside cafe will fill the gap, with "man-sized" meals and friendly service. Hotel Chathams also offer good a le carte dining, but houseguest usually take preference.
Whilst it is advisable to sort this out before you leave New Zealand, here are your choices:
You really do need to sort this out BEFORE you hop on a plane to Rekohu. The plane doesn't go back from here each day. It starts off from here and flies to NZ and then back here. So passengers in, always have to spend at least one night here. Most of our accommodation providers do get fully booked during our summer months, so take a really big hint: book ahead.
| This is a usable article. It has information for getting in as well as some complete entries for restaurants and hotels. An adventurous person could use this article, but please plunge forward and help it grow! |
Category: Usable articles
CHATHAM ISLANDS, a small group in the Pacific Ocean, forming part of New Zealand, 536 m. due E. of Lyttelton in the South Island, about 44° S., 177° W. It consists of three islands, a large one called Whairikauri, or Chatham Island, a smaller one, Rangihaute, or Pitt Island, and a third, Rangatira, or South-east Island. There are also several small rocky islets. Whairikauri, whose highest point reaches about 1000 ft., is remarkable for the number of lakes and tarns it contains, and for the extensive bogs which cover the surface of nearly the whole of the uplands. It is of very irregular form, about 38 m. in length and 25 m. in extreme breadth, with an area of 321 sq. m. - a little larger than Middlesex. The geological formation is principally of volcanic rocks, with schists and tertiary limestone; and an early physical connexion of the islands with New Zealand is indicated by their geology and biology. The climate is colder than that of New Zealand. In the centre of Whairikauri is a large brackish lake called Tewanga, which at the southern end is separated from the sea by a sandbank only i 50 yds. wide, which it occasionally bursts through. The southern part of the island has an undulating surface, and is covered either with an open forest or with high ferns. In general the soil is extremely fertile, and where it is naturally drained a rich vegetation of fern and flax occurs. On the north-west are several conical hills of basalt, which are surrounded by oases of fertile soil. On the southwestern side is Petre Bay, on which, at the mouth of the river Mantagu, is Waitangi, the principal settlement.
The islands were discovered in 1791 by Lieutenant W. R. Broughton (1762-1821), who gave them the name of Chatham from the brig which he commanded. He described the natives as a bright, pleasure-loving people, dressed in sealskins or mats, and calling themselves Morioris or Maiorioris. In 1831 they were conquered by Boo Maoris who were landed from a European vessel. They were almost exterminated, and an epidemic of influenza in 1839 killed half of those left; ten years later there were only 90 survivors out of a total population of 1200. They subsequently decreased still further. Their language was allied to that of the Maoris of New Zealand, but they differed somewhat from them in physique, and they were probably a cross between an immigrating Polynesian group and a lower indigenous Melanesian stock. The population of the islands includes about 200 whites of various races and the same number of natives (chiefly Maoris). Cattle and sheep are bred, and a trade is carried on in them with the whalers which visit these seas. The chief export from the group is wool, grown upon runs farmed both by Europeans and Morioris. There is also a small export by the natives of the flesh of young albatrosses and other sea-birds, boiled down and cured, for the Maoris of New Zealand, by whom it is reckoned a delicacy. The imports consist of the usual commodities required by a population where little of the land is actually cultivated.
There are no indigenous mammals; the reptiles belong to New Zealand species. The birds - the largest factor in the fauna - have become very greatly reduced through the introduction of cats, dogs and pigs, as well as by the constant persecution of every sort of animal by the natives. The larger bell-bird (Anthornis melanocephala) has become quite scarce; the magnificent fruit-pigeon (Carpophaga chathamensis), and the two endemic rails (Nesolimnas dieffenbachii and Cabalus modestus), the one of which was confined to Whairikauri and the other to Mangare Island, are extinct. Several fossil or subfossil avian forms, very interesting from the point of view of geographical distribution, have been discovered by Dr H. O. Forbes, namely, a true species of raven (Palaeocorax moriorum), a remarkable rail (Diaphorapteryx), closely related to the extinct Aphanapteryx of Mauritius, and a large coot (Palaeolimnas chathamensis). There have also been discovered the remains of a species of swan belonging to the South American genus Chenopis, and of the tuatara (Hatteria) lizard, the unique species of an ancient family now surviving only in New Zealand. The swan is identical with an extinct species found in caves and kitchen-middens in New Zealand, which was contemporaneous with the prehistoric Maoris and was largely used by them for food. One of the finest of the endemic flowering plants of the group is the boraginaceous "Chatham Island lily" (M y ousitidium nobile), a gigantic forget-me-not, which grows on the shingly shore in a few places only, and always just on the high-water mark, where it is daily deluged by the waves; while dracophyllums, leucopogons and arborescent ragworts are characteristic forms in the vegetation.
See Bruno Weiss, Funfzig Jahre auf Chatham Island (Berlin, 1 900); H. 0. Forbes, "The Chatham Islands and their Story," Fortnightly Review (1893), vol. liii. p. 669, "The Chatham Islands, their relation to a former Southern Continent," Supplementary Papers, R.G.S., vol. iii. (1893); J. H. Scott, "The Osteology of the Maori and the Moriori," Trans. New Zealand Institute, vol. xxvi. (1893); C. W. Andrews, "The Extinct Birds of the Chatham Islands," Novitates Zoologicae, vol. ii. p. 73 (1896).
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