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Kaipara Harbour is a large enclosed harbour estuary complex on the north western side of the North Island of New Zealand. The northern part of the harbour is administered by the Kaipara District and the southern part is administered by the Auckland Council. The local Māori tribe is Ngāti Whātua. By area, the Kaipara Harbour is one of the largest harbours in the world. It covers at high tide, with exposed as mudflats and sandflats at low tide.〔Heath, RA (1975) ''Stability of some New Zealand coastal inlets.'' New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 9 (4):449-57.〕〔Fahy, F; Irving, P and John, S (1990) ''Coastal Resource Inventory First Order Survey.'' Department of Conservation.〕〔Robertson, B; Gillespie, P; Asher, R; Frisk, S; Keeley, N; Hopkins, G; Thompson, S and Tuckey, B (2002) ''Estuarine Environmental Assessment and Monitoring: A National Protocol.'' Prepared for Supporting Councils and The Ministry for the Environmental Sustainable Management Fund. Contract No. 5096.〕 According to Māori tradition, the name Kaipara had its origins back in the 15th century when the Arawa chief, Kahumatamomoe, travelled to the Kaipara to visit his nephew at Pouto. At a feast, he was so impressed with the cooked root of the para fern, that he gave the name Kai-para to the district. "Kai" means food in the Māori language. == Geography == The harbour extends for some from north to south. Several large arms extend into the interior of the peninsula at the northeast of the harbour, one of them ending near the town of Maungaturoto, only ten kilometres (6 mi) from the Pacific Ocean coast. The harbour has extensive catchments feeding five rivers and over a hundred streams, and includes large estuaries formed by the Wairoa, Otamatea, Oruawharo, Tauhoa (Channel) and Kaipara. A number of small islands off the shoreline are connected to the mainland by mudflats at low tide. The Kaipara Harbour is broad and mostly shallow, as it is formed from a system of drowned river valleys.〔Hume, T. M. & Herdendorf, CE (1988) ''A geomorphic classification of estuaries and its application to coastal resource management - a New Zealand example.'' Ocean and Shoreline Management, 11 :249-274.〕 The harbour shoreline is convoluted by the entry of many rivers and streams, and is about long,〔(Kaipara - Kumeu Catchment Management Plan )〕 being the drainage catchment for about 640,000 ha of land.〔 The harbour entrance is a channel to the Tasman Sea. It narrows to a width of ,〔Haggit T, Mead S, and Bellingham M (2008) (''Kaipara Harbour Environmental Information Review'' ) ARC Technical Publication TP 354.〕 and is over deep in parts. On average, Kaipara tides rise and fall . Spring tidal flows reach 9 km/h (5 knots) in the entrance channel and move 1,990 million cubic metres per tidal movement or 7,960 million cubic metres daily.〔Bellve, AR; Austin, G and Woods, B (2007) (Pathway to energy generation from marine tidal currents in New Zealand's Kaipara Harbour ) University of Auckland.〕 The harbour head is a hostile place. Big waves from the Tasman Sea break over large sandbanks about five metres below the surface, two to five kilometres from the shore. The sand in these sandbanks comes mainly from the Waikato River. Sand discharged from this river is transported northward by the prevailing coastal currents. Some of this sand is carried into the Kaipara harbour entrance, but mostly cycles out again and then continues moving northwards along the west coast. The southern sandbanks at the entrance are constantly accumulating and releasing this sand.〔 These treacherous sandbanks shift and change position, and are known locally as ''the graveyard''. The graveyard is responsible for more shipwrecks than any other place in New Zealand, and has claimed at least 43 vessels—some say as many as 110.〔Gerard Hutching. (Shipwrecks: Graveyard harbours'' ) Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 31 Mar 2008.〕〔King, Amanda (16 October 2008). "(Would you call this a school of fish? )." ''Howick and Pakuranga Times''. Retrieved on 7 November 2008.〕 In Māori mythology, the ocean-going canoe ''Māhuhu'' voyaged from Hawaiki to New Zealand and overturned on the northern side of the entrance. It was commanded by the chief Rongomai, who drowned. His body was eaten by araara (white trevally), and his descendants to this day will not eat that type of fish.〔 The first European shipwreck was the ''Aurora'', a 550-ton barque, in 1840,〔Brett, Henry (1928), ''White Wings'' (volume II) (''The Aurora'' ) The Brett Printing Company〕 and the most recent was the yacht ''Aosky'' in 1994. Today, the remains of wrecks still become visible under certain tidal and sand conditions. For this reason, the Kaipara is rarely used today for shipping, and no large settlements lie close to its shores, although many small communities lie along its coastline. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kaipara Harbour」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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