Everything about Cook Strait totally explained
Cook Strait lies between the
North and
South Islands of
New Zealand. Twenty kilometres wide (twelve miles) at its narrowest point
(External Link
), its north side stands the city of
Wellington; on the south side lie the
Marlborough Sounds and
Cloudy Bay.
Two large bays,
Golden Bay and
Tasman Bay, flank the South Island coast immediately to its west, and the North Island coast to the west recedes towards the giant curve of the
Kapiti Coast and the
South Taranaki Bight. To its east the South Island recedes, the coast running south-west after reaching the headland of
Cape Campbell. The North Island's short south coast stretches along
Palliser Bay, terminating at
Cape Palliser. The
Wellington suburbs of
Owhiro Bay,
Island Bay,
Houghton Bay,
Lyall Bay,
Rongotai,
Moa Point and
Breaker Bay face the strait.
In good weather one can clearly see across Cook Strait. At its narrowest point only 23 km separate
Cape Terawhiti in the North Island from Perano Head on
Arapawa Island in the
Marlborough Sounds). Counter-intuitively, at this point the South Island's coast lies further north than that of the North Island.
Regular
ferry services run between
Picton in the Sounds and
Wellington. The strait often experiences rough water and heavy swells due to strong winds, especially from the south. New Zealand's position directly athwart the
Roaring Forties means that the strait funnels westerly winds and deflects them into northerlies.
The strait has an average depth of 128 metres.
Naming
The strait takes its name from Captain
James Cook, the first
European commander to sail through it, in January - February 1770. In
Māori it has the name
Raukawa or
Raukawa Moana.
Raukawa may mean "bitter leaves".
European History
When Dutch explorer
Abel Tasman first saw New Zealand in 1642, he interpreted the area of Cook Strait as a bight closed to the east. He named it
Zeehaen's Bight, after the
Zeehaen, one of the two ships in his expedition. In
1769 James Cook found that the strait formed a navigable waterway.
Cook Strait attracted European settlers in the early 19th century. Because of its use as a
whale migration route,
whalers established bases in the
Marlborough Sounds and in the
Kapiti area. From 1840 more permanent settlements sprang up, first at Wellington, then at
Nelson and at
Wanganui (Petre). At this period the settlers saw Cook Strait in a broader sense than today's ferry-oriented New Zealanders: for them the strait stretched from
Taranaki to
Cape Campbell, so these early towns all clustered around "Cook Strait" (or "Cook's Strait", in the pre-Geographic Board parlance of the times) as the central feature and central waterway of the new colony. By the same token, traffic on the Strait resulted in a number of shipwrecks.
Swimming the Strait
Māori accounts tell of at least one swimmer who conquered the strait in 1831. Following the crossing by Barrie Devenport on 20 November 1962, many successful swims across the strait have taken place. One of these successful swimmers was Lynne Cox. She swam it in 1975.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Cook Strait'.
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