Arapawa Island
| Arapawa Island | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | Marlborough Sounds ( South Pacific ) | |
| Geographical location | 41 ° 11 ′ 0 ″ S , 174 ° 19 ′ 0 ″ E | |
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| surface | 75 km² | |
Arapawa Island is a small island in the Marlborough Sounds on the northeast tip of New Zealand's South Island . It belongs to the Marlborough region .
The island has an area of 75 km². It is bounded to the west by Queen Charlotte Sound and to the south by the Tory Channel . This is an important shipping route from Wellington to Picton .
From a hill of Arapawa Iceland from saw James Cook in 1770 for the first time later after him Cook Strait named passage between the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea . This discovery refuted the existence of a large "southern continent", which geographers assumed at the time.
From the late 1820s to the mid 1960s, the island was a whaling base in the Marlborough Sounds. Perano Head on the east coast of the island was the main whaling station in the area. The buildings built by the Perano family now serve as tourist accommodation.
Arapawa Island is known for endemic breeds of pigs, sheep, and goats. The origin of these breeds is unknown. There is evidence that these could be breeds introduced by early whalers, Captain Cook, or other explorers, but are now extinct in England.
A power line between the island and the mainland across the Tory Channel was the site of a plane crash in 1985. The line was supported by a Metro III of the airline Air Albatross hit that crashed then. Despite immediate rescue efforts from the ferry operating on the Cook Strait, there was only one survivor, Cindy Mosey . She was on her way to a gymnastics competition with her family and became world champion in kite surfing in 2002, 2003 and 2004 . The airline had to file for bankruptcy in December 1985 as a result of the drop in passenger numbers due to the accident.