For further information, see List of universities in New Zealand.

Early in 1848 Edward John Eyre was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New Munster.

The Canterbury Plains formed from the erosion of the Southern Alps (an extensive and high mountain range caused by the meeting of the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates) and from the alluvial fans created by large braided rivers. It has been used as a quarantine station for people and animals, and was an internment camp during World War I and World War II. They then attacked Kāi Tahu on Banks Peninsula and took the pā at Onawe. The Wellington urban area, which only includes urbanised areas within Wellington City, has a population of 212,100 residents as of June 2019. The Marlborough Sounds, a series of deep indentations in the coastline at the northern tip of the South Island, are in fact rias, drowned river valleys.

The east side of the island is home to the Canterbury Plains while the West Coast is famous for its rough coastlines such as Fiordland, a very high proportion of native bush, and Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. Although the first Chinese migrants had been invited by the Otago Provincial government they quickly became the target of hostility from white settlers and laws were enacted specifically to discourage them from coming to New Zealand.[25]. However, the water assets of these councils are managed by an infrastructure asset management company, Wellington Water.

Nearly all (98.7%) of the island's electricity is generated by hydroelectricity, with most of the remainder coming from wind generation.[39]. To the best of our knowledge, these details are correct as of the last update: 27 Sep 2020. In July 2007 the New Zealand Government awarded oil and gas exploration permits for four areas of the Great South Basin, situated in the volatile waters off the Southern Coast of New Zealand.

Rome2rio is a door-to-door travel information and booking engine, helping you get to and from any location in the world.

Christchurch Prison, also known as Paparua, is located in Templeton a satellite town of Christchurch. Wellington is more densely populated than most other cities in New Zealand due to the restricted amount of land that is available between its harbour and the surrounding hills. In the year ending March 2011, there were 6495 conference events involving nearly 800,000 delegate days; this injected approximately NZ$100 million into the economy.[113]. Banks Peninsula forms the most prominent of these volcanic features. The sub-national GDP of the South Island was estimated at NZ$61.5 billion in 2017, 22.7% of New Zealand's national GDP. Since 2020, the polytechnics are branches of the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology.[56]. Wellington Harbour ranks as one of New Zealand's chief seaports and serves both domestic and international shipping.

The Governor-General's residence, Government House (the current building completed in 1910) is situated in Newtown, opposite the Basin Reserve.

[17][22] A later Māori explorer, Whatonga, named the harbour Te Whanganui-a-Tara after his son Tara.

Before European colonisation, the area in which the city of Wellington would eventually be founded was seasonally inhabited by indigenous Māori. The South Island has seven regional stations (either non-commercial public service or privately owned) that broadcast only in one region or city: 45 South TV, Channel 9, Canterbury Television, CUE, Mainland Television, Shine TV, and Visitor TV. Wellington is home to groups that perform improvised theatre and improvisational comedy, including Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT), The Improvisors and youth group Joe Improv. Statistics New Zealand (2013 Census)[64], Wellington ranks 12th in the world for quality of living,[6] according to a 2014 study by consulting company Mercer; of cities in the Asia–Pacific region, Wellington ranked third behind Auckland and Sydney (as of 2014[update]). The high-pressure transmission pipelines supplying Wellington are now owned and operated by First Gas, with Powerco owning and operating the medium- and low-pressure distribution pipelines within the urban area.[140]. Popular tourist activities include sightseeing, adventure tourism, such as glacier climbing and Bungee jumping, tramping (hiking), kayaking, and camping.

More expensive properties declined more steeply, sometimes by as much as 20%.

Wellington is served by State Highway 1 in the west and State Highway 2 in the east, meeting at the Ngauranga Interchange north of the city centre, where SH 1 runs through the city to the airport.

The South Island has no separately represented country subdivision, but is guaranteed 16 of the electorates in the New Zealand House of Representatives. Three territorial authorities (Nelson City Council, and the Tasman and Marlborough District Councils) also perform the functions of a regional council and thus are known as unitary authorities.

Supported by Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton and Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt, Bob Parker said that increased cooperation and the forming of a new South Island-wide mayoral forum were essential to representing the island's interests in Wellington and countering the new Auckland Council.[30].

Wellington is the major population centre of the southern North Island, and is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region, which also includes the Kapiti Coast and the Wairarapa.

Today, the Deloitte South Island Index[44] is compiled quarterly from publicly available information provided by NZX, Unlisted and Bloomberg. To the north stretch the golden beaches of the Kapiti Coast.

It was built in 1925, and also includes a youth unit, a self-care unit and the Paparua Remand Centre (PRC), built in 1999 to replace the old Addington Prison. Major daily newspapers include the Ashburton Guardian, the Greymouth Star, The Marlborough Express, The Nelson Mail, the Oamaru Mail, the Otago Daily Times, The Press, the Southland Times, The Timaru Herald, and the West Coast Times. Bus transport in Wellington is supplied by several different operators under the banner of Metlink.

Jackson described Wellington: "Well, it's windy.

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