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Lyttelton, New Zealand

 
Lyttelton, New Zealand

 
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Lyttelton, New Zealand
 
 
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Lyttelton is a port
Port

||-||-|-||-||-||-||-||-||-|}A port is a facility for receiving ships and transferring cargo. They are usually found at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake....
 town
Town

A town is a type of human settlement ranging from a few to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition....
 on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour
Lyttelton Harbour

Lyttelton Harbour is one of two major inlets in Banks Peninsula, on the coast of Canterbury, New Zealand, New Zealand. It is approximately 15 km in length, from its mouth to Teddington....
 next to Banks Peninsula
Banks Peninsula

Banks Peninsula is in the Canterbury, New Zealand region on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, partly surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, and adjacent to the largest city in the South Island, Christchurch, New Zealand....
, 12 km by road from Christchurch on the eastern coast of the South Island
South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major Islands of New Zealand of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. The Maori name for the South Island, Te Wai Pounamu, meaning "The Water/s of Greenstone" , possibly evolved from Te Wahi Pounamu which means "The Place Of Greenstone"....
 of New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
. According to the 2001 census
New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings

The New Zealand government department Statistics New Zealand conducts a census of population and dwellings every five years.The census officially occurs at midnight on a Tuesday in March....
, the usually-resident population of Lyttelton (including neighbouring bays such as Rapaki and Corsair Bay) was 3,042.

The town is linked to Christchurch by railway and road tunnels through the Port Hills
Port Hills

The Port Hills are a range of hills running approximately east-west, between the port of Lyttelton, New Zealand and the city of Christchurch in Canterbury, New Zealand....
. At 1.9 km long, the Lyttelton Road Tunnel (opened in 1964) is the country's longest road tunnel
Tunnels in New Zealand

This is a link page for railway, road and waterway tunnels, including hydroelectric intakes and tailraces and Artillery battery tunnels. It includes artificial chambers but excludes caves and Minings....
; and the railway tunnel
Lyttelton rail tunnel

The Lyttelton rail tunnel links the city of Christchurch with the port of Lyttelton, New Zealand in the Canterbury, New Zealand of New Zealand?s South Island....
 of the Main South Line
Main South Line

|}The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, runs south from Lyttelton, New Zealand in New Zealand through Christchurch and down the east coast of the South Island to Invercargill via Dunedin....
, officially opened on 1867-12-09, is the country's oldest.

The harbour is an inlet on the north-western side of Banks Peninsula, extending 18 km inland from the southern end of Pegasus Bay
Pegasus Bay

Pegasus Bay is on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand.The bay has a sandy beach and runs from Banks Peninsula to the Waipara River mouth....
.






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Lyttelton is a port
Port

||-||-|-||-||-||-||-||-||-|}A port is a facility for receiving ships and transferring cargo. They are usually found at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake....
 town
Town

A town is a type of human settlement ranging from a few to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition....
 on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour
Lyttelton Harbour

Lyttelton Harbour is one of two major inlets in Banks Peninsula, on the coast of Canterbury, New Zealand, New Zealand. It is approximately 15 km in length, from its mouth to Teddington....
 next to Banks Peninsula
Banks Peninsula

Banks Peninsula is in the Canterbury, New Zealand region on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, partly surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, and adjacent to the largest city in the South Island, Christchurch, New Zealand....
, 12 km by road from Christchurch on the eastern coast of the South Island
South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major Islands of New Zealand of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. The Maori name for the South Island, Te Wai Pounamu, meaning "The Water/s of Greenstone" , possibly evolved from Te Wahi Pounamu which means "The Place Of Greenstone"....
 of New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
. According to the 2001 census
New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings

The New Zealand government department Statistics New Zealand conducts a census of population and dwellings every five years.The census officially occurs at midnight on a Tuesday in March....
, the usually-resident population of Lyttelton (including neighbouring bays such as Rapaki and Corsair Bay) was 3,042.

The town is linked to Christchurch by railway and road tunnels through the Port Hills
Port Hills

The Port Hills are a range of hills running approximately east-west, between the port of Lyttelton, New Zealand and the city of Christchurch in Canterbury, New Zealand....
. At 1.9 km long, the Lyttelton Road Tunnel (opened in 1964) is the country's longest road tunnel
Tunnels in New Zealand

This is a link page for railway, road and waterway tunnels, including hydroelectric intakes and tailraces and Artillery battery tunnels. It includes artificial chambers but excludes caves and Minings....
; and the railway tunnel
Lyttelton rail tunnel

The Lyttelton rail tunnel links the city of Christchurch with the port of Lyttelton, New Zealand in the Canterbury, New Zealand of New Zealand?s South Island....
 of the Main South Line
Main South Line

|}The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, runs south from Lyttelton, New Zealand in New Zealand through Christchurch and down the east coast of the South Island to Invercargill via Dunedin....
, officially opened on 1867-12-09, is the country's oldest.

The harbour is an inlet on the north-western side of Banks Peninsula, extending 18 km inland from the southern end of Pegasus Bay
Pegasus Bay

Pegasus Bay is on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand.The bay has a sandy beach and runs from Banks Peninsula to the Waipara River mouth....
. It is surrounded by steep hills formed from the sides of an extinct volcanic crater, which rise to a height of 500 m. Several smaller settlements are dotted along the shore of the harbour, notably Governors Bay and Diamond Harbour. A small island, Quail Island, sits in the upper harbour south-west of Lyttelton.

A home for Maori
Maori

The Maori are the indigenous people Polynesian people of Aotearoa . The group probably arrived in south-western Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300....
 for about 700 years, Lyttelton, or Te whaka raupo was discovered by European settlers on 16 February, 1770 during the Endeavour's first voyage to New Zealand. The earliest evidence of a human presence in the area are moa bones dating from approx 1250.

In August 1849 it was officially proclaimed a port
Port

||-||-|-||-||-||-||-||-||-|}A port is a facility for receiving ships and transferring cargo. They are usually found at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake....
.

Lyttelton was formerly called Port Cooper and Port Victoria. It was the original settlement in the district (1850). The name Lyttelton was given to it in honour of George William Lyttelton of the Canterbury Association, which had led the colonisation of the area.

The Lyttelton Times was one of the principal newspaper
Newspaper

A newspaper is a publication containing news, information and advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. General-interest newspapers often feature articles on Politics, crime, business, art/entertainment, society and sports....
s of the Canterbury region for 80 years, published from 1851 until 1929, at which time it became the Christchurch Times, until publication ceased in 1935.

Aiming to establish a Church of England
Church of England

The Church of England is the State religion Christianity Ecclesia in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches....
 colony in New Zealand, the Canterbury Association
Canterbury Association

The Canterbury Association was formed in order to establish a colony in what is now the Canterbury, New Zealand in the South Island of New Zealand....
 was founded in 1850. As Lyttelton was a harbour, and had a large amount of flat land suitable for farming and development
Subdivision (land)

Subdivision is the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known as a subdivision; if it is used for housing it is typically known as a housing subdivision or housing development, although some developers tend to call these areas community....
 nearby, it was ideal for a colony.

In 1862 the first telegraph transmission in New Zealand was made from Lyttelton Post Office.

In 1870 fire destroyed all the wooden buildings in Norwich Quay, on the main street of Lyttelton.

On January 1 1908, the Nimrod Expedition
Nimrod Expedition

The British Antarctic Expedition 1907?09, otherwise known as the Nimrod Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton....
, headed by Ernest Shackleton
Ernest Shackleton

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton Royal Victorian Order Order of British Empire, was an Anglo-Irish explorer who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration....
 to explore Antarctica
Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
 left from the harbour here.

The Lyttelton Harbour Board was created in 1877 to be in charge of the harbour's management. It was dissolved in 1989 after the passing of the 1988 Port Companies Act, which forced it to split into two separate organizations, one commercial (the Lyttelton Port Company, currently owned by Christchurch City Holdings, the commercial arm of the city council) and one non-commercial. In 1996 the Lyttelton Port Company registered on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

One of the features of Lyttelton is the Timeball station. The Lyttelton Timeball Station was erected in 1876 and is one of only five remaining timeball stations in working order in the world. The castle-like building is located high on a ridge above the port with extensive views over the harbour. It is now operated as a museum by the Historic Places Trust
New Zealand Historic Places Trust

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust is a non-profit trust which advocates for the protection of heritage buildings in New Zealand. It was set up through the Historic Places Act 1954 with a mission to "...promote the identification, protection, preservation and conservation of the historical and cultural heritage of New Zealand."...
 and is open for visitors from 10:00am-5:30pm daily.

On 19 November 2005, it was announced that 60% of the Banks Peninsula District ratepayers voted to amalgamate with the neighbouring Christchurch City Council, which took place on 6 March 2006.

Pilgrim's Rock shows the place that European settlers first set foot in the harbour. The location of the rock is well inland from the sea, because much of Lyttelton's land has been reclaimed from the ocean since the Pilgrims arrived.

The Holy Trinity Church, the oldest stone church in Canterbury
Canterbury, New Zealand

The Regions of New Zealand of Canterbury is mainly composed of the Canterbury Plains and the surrounding mountains. Its main city, Christchurch, hosts the main office of the Christchurch City Council, the Canterbury Regional Council and the University of Canterbury....
, was built out of stone transported from Quail Island on land intended for the Cathedral of the Diocese.

Lyttelton was the location for most of the exterior scenes in Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson

Peter Robert Jackson, New Zealand Order of Merit is a three-time Academy Award-winning New Zealand filmmaker, film producer and screenwriter, best known for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy trilogy adapted from the The Lord of the Rings by J....
's 1996 horror movie The Frighteners
The Frighteners

The Frighteners is a 1996 comedy horror film directed by Peter Jackson and co-written with his wife, Fran Walsh. The film's cast includesMichael J....
.

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