Wellington Harbour

Wellington Harbour is the large natural harbour on the southern tip of New Zealand's North Island. New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, is located on its western side. The harbour, the sea area bounded by a line between Pencarrow Head to Petone foreshore, was officially named Port Nicholson, until it assumed its current name in 1984.In the Māori language the harbour is known as Te Whanganui-a-Tara the great harbour of Tara. Another Māori name for Wellington, Pōneke, is said to be a transliteration of Port Nick (Port Nicholson).GeographyWellington Harbour is an arm of Cook Strait, covering some 76 km², with a two-km wide entrance at its southern end between Pencarrow Head and Palmer Head on the tip of Miramar Peninsula. It has a maximum length of over 11 kilometres and a width of 9.25 kilometres. The harbour has an entrance over 1.6 kilometres wide from shore to shore and as it is surrounded by hills over 300 meters high, it provides sheltered anchorage in a region where wind velocities may exceed 160 k.p.h. The depth of water over the great bulk of the harbour exceeds 20 metres or 10 fathoms.The harbour is of seismic origin, and a major earthquake fault lies along its western shore. At the northern end of the harbour lies the narrow triangular plain of the Hutt River, which largely follows the line of the earthquake fault to the north-east. The city of Lower Hutt is located on this plain.