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Harbour in New Zealand

Wellington Harbour ( ), officially called Wellington Harbour / Port Nicholson, is a large natural harbour on the southern tip of New Zealand's North Island. The harbour entrance is from Cook Strait. Central Wellington is located on parts of the western and southern sides of the harbour, and the suburban area of Lower Hutt is to the north and east. The harbour area bounded by a line between Pencarrow Head to Petone foreshore, was officially named Port Nicholson until it assumed its current dual name in 1984. Te Whanganui a Tara, another Māori name for the area, translates literally as "the great harbour of Tara". It is believed to refer to Tara, a son of the Polynesian explorer Whātonga, who was sent down from the Māhia Peninsula by his father to explore southern lands for their people to settle. Captain James Herd is said to have named the harbour "Port Nicholson" after Sydney's harbourmaster Captain John Nicholson. A further Māori name for Wellington, Pōneke, is said to be a transliteration of Port Nick (Port Nicholson). An alternative suggested etymology for the name Pōneke states that it derives from a shortening of the Māori phrase pō nekeneke, meaning "the journey into the night", in reference to the exodus of Te Āti Awa after they were displaced from the Wellington area by the first Europeans. However, the name Pōneke was already in use by February 1842, earlier than the displacement is said to have happened. William Wakefield is thought to have named the harbour Lambton Harbour in 1839 in honour of the Earl of Durham, who had the family name of "Lambton". Alternatively, it could have been named for the Lambton, a cutter commanded by Captain Barnett, who in 1826 had produced one of the earliest charts of the harbour.

According to oral history, Wellington Harbour was first discovered by the Polynesian explorer Kupe, who visited in the 10th century. A number of place names in the area commemorate Kupe, such as Te Tangihanga o Kupe or Te Raranga o Kupe (Barrett Reef), and Te Aroaro o Kupe or Te Ure o Kupe (Steeple Rock). or nieces.

During his voyage on HMS Resolution, James Cook passed by the entrance to the harbour on 2 November 1773, and then put about, in an attempt to see what lay within the entrance. He anchored a mile from Barrett Reef, and made some brief observations noting that it appeared to be a sheltered harbour. A wind change led him to leave the area, and there were no further observations from European explorers for the next 50 years. The 1855 Wairarapa earthquake uplifted the north western side of the Wellington bay. This led to the reclamation of Wellington Harbour, which increased the availability of flat land for Wellington City. In 1968, the inter island passenger ferry Wahine grounded at Barrett Reef, near the harbour entrance, during a storm. Fifty one people died at the time and two more died much later from injuries suffered that day. Ngake could hear the waters of Raukawa Moana (Cook Strait) pounding to the south, and decided to escape the lake to get to it. He went to the north of the lake to build up his speed for the attempt, then headed off rapidly towards the south. Ngake crashed into and through the rocks at Seatoun and headed out into the Strait. Barrett Reef is said to be the debris left from Ngake's escape. It flew high above the harbour and wept for the taniwha, whose body was lifted high onto the hills close to the harbour entrance. To this day, Mount Victoria is known to Māori as Tangi Te Keo, "The weeping of Te Keo", and the suburb on the hills immediately below it is named Hataitai.

Wellington Harbour is a natural harbour with an area of around 76 km², with an entrance from Cook Strait at its southern end between Pencarrow Head and Palmer Head on the southern tip of Miramar Peninsula. The harbour has a maximum length of over 11 kilometres and a width of 9.25 kilometres, and the entrance is over 1.6 kilometres wide from shore to shore. The shipping channel through the harbour entrance lies between Barrett Reef on the western side, and Pencarrow Head to the east. Barrett Reef is a cluster of rocks that is partly exposed even at high tide. It has been the site of a large number of shipwrecks. The most serious loss caused by impact with Barrett Reef is the wreck of the inter island ferry TEV Wahine in 1968, with the loss of 53 lives. Wellington harbour provides sheltered anchorage in a region where wind velocities may exceed 160 km/h. The depth of water over most of the harbour exceeds 20 metres or 10 fathoms. There are two main bays within the harbour, Evans Bay and Lambton Harbour. The small Oriental Bay to the north of Mount Victoria features beaches and cafes. The suburbs of Wellington city are spread around the low lying terrain immediately surrounding the harbour, and the hills overlooking the west and south west of the harbour. Lambton Harbour is surrounded by the reclaimed land of Wellington's central business district and contains the majority of the city's port facilities. Evans Bay lies between Mt Victoria and the Miramar Peninsula, and is below the flight path to low lying Wellington Airport. 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. Researchers have concluded that the earthquake happened around 1460AD.

Although the harbour is almost entirely surrounded by land, several tsunami have been recorded within it. The 1855 Wairarapa earthquake caused a tsunami 3 4 metres high which entered Wellington harbour through the harbour entrance and also straight over the isthmus between Lyall Bay and Kilbirnie. In August 1868, the Arica earthquake in South America causes unusual changes in water levels in the harbour. A gravel bar appeared at Ngauranga, and water almost reached the street at Te Aro. In May 1877, the Iquique earthquake in South America caused water to rush into the harbour, and water levels rose and fell dramatically around the harbour for hours.

The Waiwhetu aquifer is a pressurized zone of water retaining sand, gravel and boulders beneath the Hutt Valley and Wellington Harbour, which provides around 40 percent of the Wellington region's annual water supply. The harbour basin contains massive quantities of gravel washed down from the Hutt River, in some places hundreds of metres deep. Above the gravel is a layer of mud and silt which seals fresh water within the gravel, creating an artesian aquifer. There are several aquifers in the area in different layers underground, but the Waiwhetu aquifer is the largest and most productive one. Water flows down into the aquifer from a five kilometre stretch of the Hutt River south of Taita Gorge, and rainwater also contributes to the aquifer.

Reclamation of Wellington Harbour started in the 1850s, in order to increase the amount of usable land for the then new City of Wellington. Land plots in the early city were scarce, with little room for public buildings and parks, as well as inadequate dockside areas for shipping. Reclamation progressively advanced into the harbour throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, providing room for public, commercial and industrial areas for the city.

Fish species commonly caught in the harbour by recreational fishers include red cod, kahawai, gurnard, tarakihi, snapper, trevally, elephant fish and kingfish. Children enjoy catching spotties. Eagle rays and stingrays can both be found in the harbour: eagle rays are often seen in the shallow water around Whairepo Lagoon, which was named after the Māori name for the species. Several species of octopus live in the harbour. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, large octopuses would occasionally grab people at the water's edge. Rig sharks visit the harbour each year to mate and give birth. Other species seen less often include basking sharks, blue sharks and seven gilled sharks.

Common dolphins and orca visit the harbour quite often. In the nineteenth century, southern right whales bred within Wellington Harbour, but in the 21st century sightings are rarer. Humpback whales are also seen occasionally. There is a fur seal colony at Pariwhero / Red Rocks on the south coast facing Cook Strait, and seals sometimes appear in and around the harbour. Vagrant and rare marine mammal visitors include leopard seals (reclassified from vagrant to resident in 2019), crabeater seals, and an elephant seal nicknamed 'Blossom' that hung around the harbour for several years in the 1960s.

Over 100 species of seaweed are found in Wellington Harbour. Rocky shores around the harbour support kelp forests, for example at Kau Bay, but rising sea temperatures may be affecting the health of these areas. Sponge beds are found in deeper parts of the harbour.

Between 2018 and 2022, annual surveys were made of indigenous coastal birdlife along the coastlines of the south coast and the western side of Wellington Harbour. Thirty four native or endemic species and 14 naturalised introduced species were observed, though some of these were only seen on the south coast and not within the harbour. The surveys showed that stretches of the coastline "hardened" by reclamation or seawall construction have lower densities of birds and less diversity of species, probably due to the steepness of the shoreline and lack of intertidal foraging habitats. Changes to average sea level and temperature may affect some species in the future. Little blue penguins are found in many locations, with nesting boxes provided in some places to encourage them.

As part of maintaining a healthy marine environment, Greater Wellington Regional Council and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) have monitored water quality in Wellington Harbour since 2016. Water quality is affected by sediment, nutrients and pollutants from the whole catchment around the harbour, turbidity caused by rainfall and outflow from the Hutt River, and tides. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and NIWA have carried out surveillance on non indigenous marine species which may arrive in the harbour in water ballast or attached to hulls of ships. Examples of marine pests found in the harbour include the Northern Pacific sea star

Volunteers from the group Ghost Diving organise regular harbour clean ups, collecting tonnes of rubbish from the water around the inner city waterfront and bringing attention to the problem of littering.

Wellington Harbour is a significant port serving the lower North Island, with the Regional Council owned company CentrePort recording around 14,000 commercial shipping movements each year. Wellington Harbour, the region's third largest container port, is located in Wellington City. There is a tanker terminal at Seaview in Lower Hutt. Big weather is an anthology of 100 poems about Wellington's harbour, hills, and environment. It was published in 2009 and in later editions. The Wellington Writers Walk is a series of 23 quotations from New Zealand poets, novelists, and playwrights, installed along the Wellington waterfront in the form of contemporary concrete plaques or inlaid metal text on wooden 'benchmarks'. The plaques celebrate the lives and works of these well known writers, all of whom had (or have) some connection to Wellington. Many of the quotations reference the harbour.