Antipodes Islands
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The Antipodes Islands ( or ) are inhospitable islands to the south of—and territorially part of—New Zealand.
They lie 650 kilometres to the southeast of Stewart Island/Rakiura. The group consists of one main island of 60 km² area, Bollans Island of 2 km² to the north, and numerous small islets and stacks. The highest point is Mount Galloway (402 m).
The island group gets its name for its supposed antipodal position to Britain. Although they are the closest land to the true antipodes of Britain, their location is directly antipodal to a point in the sea a few kilometres to the east of Cherbourg on the north coast of France.
The island group was first charted in 1800 by Captain Henry Waterhouse of British ship HMS Reliance. An attempt to establish cattle on the islands was short-lived (as were the cattle). When the ship Spirit of Dawn foundered on the main island's coast in 1893, the eleven surviving crew spent nearly three months living as castaways on the island, living on a subsistence diet of raw seabird. Coincidentially, a well-supplied castaway depot was available on the other end of the island. The depot was found and used by the crew of the President Felix Faure wrecked in Anchorage bay in 1908. The last wreck at the Antipodes was the yacht Totorore with the loss of 2 lives in 1999.
The islands are home to numerous bird species including the endemic Antipodes snipe, Antipodes parakeet and the Antipodean albatross. The group is also home to half of the world population of erect-crested penguin. The flora of the islands has been recorded in detail, and includes some species of plants known as megaherbs.
In 1886, a shard of early Polynesian pottery was discovered roughly 2ft 6in below the surface on the main island, indicating prior visitation. The pottery fragment, apparently a piece of a bowl, is now housed in the Te Papa Museum in Wellington.
[edit] References
- Wise's New Zealand Guide (4th ed.) (1969). Dunedin: H. Wise & Co. (N.Z.) Ltd.
- "NGA-IWI-O-AOTEA". No. 59 (June 1967). Te Ao Hou - The Maori Magazine, pp. 43.
