30-403: The Hutt River ( Māori : Te Awa Kairangi , Te Wai o Orutu or Heretaunga ; officially Te Awa Kairangi / Hutt River ) flows through the southern North Island of New Zealand . It flows south-west from the southern Tararua Range for 56 kilometres (35 mi), forming a number of fertile floodplains , including Kaitoke , central Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt . The Hutt River Trail,
60-406: A 29 kilometre cycling and walking route, follows the entire length of the river from Petone to Kaitoke Regional Park at Upper Hutt , linking up to Kaitoke Regional Park . Most of the track is gravel, but some is sealed or grass. Some low-lying parts of the track can be affected by flooding. There are several spots for swimming, fishing and kayaking. The trail includes some filming locations for
90-414: A regional park administered by Wellington Regional Council , runs alongside the eastern side of the river. Early Māori residents, such as Ngāi Tara, called the river Te Awa Kairangi. Later Māori settlers named it Te Wai o Orutu after Orutu, a Ngāti Mamoe ancestor. By the time European settlers arrived, Māori called it Heretaunga, a name adopted by an Upper Hutt suburb and secondary school . The river
120-709: A whole. During the Last Glacial Period when sea levels were over 100 metres lower than present day levels, the North and South islands were connected by a vast coastal plain which formed at the South Taranaki Bight . During this period, most of the North Island was covered in thorn scrubland and forest , while the modern-day Northland Peninsula was a subtropical rainforest . Sea levels began to rise 7,000 years ago, eventually separating
150-465: Is in the North Island", "my mother lives in the North Island". Maps, headings, tables, and adjectival expressions use North Island without "the". According to Māori mythology , the North and South Islands of New Zealand arose through the actions of the demigod Māui . Māui and his brothers were fishing from their canoe (the South Island) when he caught a great fish and pulled it right up from
180-473: Is now and navigable for some distance by large canoes and boats. Māori would take produce grown in the Hutt Valley down the river by canoe and across the harbour to Wellington city. Thick bush grew down to the water's edge. When early European settlers cleared the bush, the river banks began to disintegrate and collapse into the river. This led to soil being washed into the river, more flooding and changes in
210-474: Is one of the two main islands of New Zealand , separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait . With an area of 113,729 km (43,911 sq mi), it is the world's 14th-largest island , constituting 43% of New Zealand's land area. It has a population of 4,077,800 (June 2024), which is 76% of New Zealand's residents, making it the most populous island in Polynesia and
240-711: Is the Kaitoke Gorge, a popular destination for rafting . Below the gorge is Te Mārua , where the Mangaroa River joins the Hutt from the east. Further down, at Birchville , the Akatarawa River joins the Hutt from the west. Here it flows in a deep channel between the surrounding hills and is turned to flow across the Wellington Fault to Maoribank . The movement of the fault can be seen from
270-448: The 28th-most-populous island in the world. Twelve main urban areas (half of them officially cities) are in the North Island. From north to south, they are Whangārei , Auckland , Hamilton , Tauranga , Rotorua , Gisborne , New Plymouth , Napier , Hastings , Whanganui , Palmerston North , and New Zealand's capital city Wellington , which is located at the south-west tip of the island. The island has been known internationally as
300-878: The Lord of the Rings film franchise. The Lower Hutt Parkrun runs along the last 2.5-kilometre (1.6 mi) section of the Hutt River from just north of the Ewen Bridge down to the Waione Bridge and back. The river has a good stock of brown trout. Heading downstream: 41°14′S 174°54′E / 41.233°S 174.900°E / -41.233; 174.900 North Island The North Island ( Māori : Te Ika-a-Māui [tɛ i.kɐ ɐ mɑː.ʉ.i] , lit. 'the fish of Māui', officially North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui or historically New Ulster )
330-566: The North Island for many years. The Te Reo Māori name for it, Te Ika-a-Māui , also has official recognition but it remains seldom used by most residents. On some 19th-century maps, the North Island is named New Ulster (named after Ulster province in northern Ireland) which was also a province of New Zealand that included the North Island. In 2009 the New Zealand Geographic Board found that, along with
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#1732791129270360-590: The 2023 census, 63.1% of North Islanders identified as European ( Pākehā ), 19.8% as Māori , 10.6% as Pacific peoples , 19.3% as Asian , 1.9% as Middle Eastern/Latin American/African, and 1.1% as other ethnicities. Percentages add to more than 100% as people can identify with more than one ethnicity. Māori form the majority in three districts of the North Island: Kawerau (63.2%), Ōpōtiki (66.2%) and Wairoa (68.5%). Europeans formed
390-532: The Hutt Aquifer, is a pressurized zone of water-retaining sand, gravel and boulders beneath the Hutt Valley and Wellington Harbour which provides about 40% of the public fresh water supply for Lower Hutt and Wellington city. Water flows down into the aquifer from a five-kilometre stretch of the Hutt River south of Taita Gorge, at the rate of 1000 litres per second. It takes several years for water in
420-519: The South Island, the North Island had no official name. After a public consultation, the board officially named it North Island, or the aforementioned Te Ika-a-Māui, in October 2013. In prose, the two main islands of New Zealand are called the North Island and the South Island , with the definite article. It is also normal to use the preposition in rather than on , for example "Hamilton
450-437: The South Island, this is solely due to the North Island having higher natural increase (i.e. births minus deaths) and international migration; since the late 1980s, the internal migration flow has been from the North Island to the South Island. In the year to June 2020, the North Island gained 21,950 people from natural increase and 62,710 people from international migration, while losing 3,570 people from internal migration. At
480-462: The South Island, with the country's largest city, Auckland, and the capital, Wellington, accounting for nearly half of it. There are 30 urban areas in the North Island with a population of 10,000 or more: The sub-national GDP of the North Island was estimated at NZ$ 282.355 billion in 2021 (78% of New Zealand's national GDP). Nine local government regions cover the North Island and its adjacent islands and territorial waters. Healthcare in
510-461: The building of state housing by the first Labour Government starting in 1937, there were many market gardens in Lower Hutt. Well-established foot tracks along the river were formally signposted in the 1990s, through a collaboration between Wellington Regional Council , local Rotary International clubs, Hutt City Council , Upper Hutt City Council and other groups. The Hutt River Trail,
540-411: The circumnavigation of New Zealand. The maps described the North Island as " Ea Heinom Auwe " and " Aeheinomowe ", which recognises the "Fish of Māui" element. Another Māori name that was given to the North Island, but is now used less commonly, is Aotearoa . Use of Aotearoa to describe the North Island fell out of favour in the early 20th century, and it is now a collective Māori name for New Zealand as
570-451: The conclusion of the Otago gold rush in the 1860s, New Zealand's European population growth has experienced a steady 'Northern drift' as population centres in the North Island have grown faster than those of New Zealand's South Island. This population trend has continued into the twenty-first century, but at a much slower rate. While the North Island's population continues to grow faster than
600-588: The direction of the Hutt River to the Falcon Shoals area (between Karaka Bay and Worser Bay ) at the harbour mouth via the paleochannel. State Highway 2 follows the course of the river for most of its length, with the exception of the Kaitoke Gorge and the head waters, before crossing the Remutaka Range into the Wairarapa . In the early nineteenth century, the Hutt River was deeper than it
630-583: The displacement of the river terraces in Harcourt Park. At the top of the Upper Hutt floodplain, the river makes a sharp turn against the bedrock at the foot of the cliff at Maoribank to flow down the valley. The Upper Hutt floodplain contains the greater portion of Upper Hutt city. The Whakatiki River joins the Hutt from the west and it is about this point the river starts to flow along the virtually straight Wellington geologic fault , which lies on
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#1732791129270660-660: The islands and linking the Cook Strait to the Tasman Sea . The North Island has an estimated population of 4,077,800 as of June 2024. The North Island had a population of 3,808,005 at the 2023 New Zealand census , an increase of 213,453 people (5.9%) since the 2018 census , and an increase of 570,957 people (17.6%) since the 2013 census . Of the total population, 733,893 people (19.3%) were aged under 15 years, 743,154 (19.5%) were 15 to 29, 1,721,427 (45.2%) were 30 to 64, and 609,534 (16.0%) were 65 or older. Ever since
690-458: The lofty branches, was superb. The river being much narrower that it is now, while the valley was under forest, the flood waters would necessarily be held back, and the scour and rush of gravel and sand that has since contributed to widen it did not then prevail to nearly the same extent. The river was also changed by a major earthquake in 1855 that raised the riverbed. The regular flooding of Lower Hutt resulted in highly fertile land and prior to
720-540: The mouth at Petone the river is narrower and the banks steeper. The larger populated areas in Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt are protected from flooding by stopbanks and introduced willow trees , as is common in New Zealand. The headwaters in the Kaitoke Regional Park are closed to preserve the quality of the drinking water drawn off at Kaitoke to supply the greater Wellington area. Below Kaitoke
750-470: The plurality in the Auckland region (49.8%) and are the majority in the remaining 39 districts. The proportion of North Islanders born overseas at the 2018 census were 29.3%. The most common foreign countries of birth were England (15.4% of overseas-born residents), Mainland China (11.3%), India (10.1%), South Africa (5.9%), Australia (5.5%) and Samoa (5.3%). The North Island has a larger population than
780-448: The river's course. Writing in 1880, James Coutts Crawford described the river as he had seen it in 1840: The alluvial land on the banks of the Hutt was at this time covered by a dense forest, many of the trees being of gigantic size. Boats could ascend the river to the locality of the present bridge [near the current Ewen Bridge], and the sight of the foliage on the banks at this point, with the white clematis hanging in graceful folds from
810-486: The sea. While he was not looking, his brothers fought over the fish and chopped it up. This great fish became the North Island, and thus a Māori name for the North Island is Te Ika-a-Māui ("The Fish of Māui"). The mountains and valleys are believed to have been formed as a result of Māui's brothers' hacking at the fish. During Captain James Cook 's voyage between 1769 and 1770 , Tahitian navigator Tupaia accompanied
840-654: The underground aquifer to reach Waterloo from the Taita Gorge, and about 10 years to reach the Petone foreshore. The water level in Wellington Harbour was much lower 20,000 years ago, and the ancient Hutt River used to flow down a paleochannel to the east of Matiu / Somes Island as far as the present-day Miramar Peninsula . Much of the water in the Waiwhetu Aquifer moves under the sea bed from
870-543: The western side of the river valley. At the lower end of the Upper Hutt floodplain is Taita Gorge, which separates Upper Hutt from Lower Hutt ; this gorge is significantly shorter and less constricting than Kaitoke Gorge. The river's outflow, at Petone , is into Wellington Harbour . The geological fault that the river previously followed continues as a steep bluff at the edge of the Wellington Harbour . The Waiwhetu artesian aquifer , sometimes referred to as
900-646: Was named Hutt after Sir William Hutt , chairman of the New Zealand Company . This name was given by Captain Edward Main Chaffers and Colonel William Wakefield while charting Port Nicholson in 1839. The official name since 2011 is Te Awa Kairangi / Hutt River. For most of its length, the Hutt is a shallow and sometimes braided river in a wide rocky bed, but in the Kaitoke gorge the river flows directly over bedrock , and approaching
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