Northland Peninsula

The Northland Peninsula, called the North Auckland Peninsula in earlier times, is in the far north of the North Island of New Zealand. It is joined to the rest of the island by the Auckland isthmus, a narrow piece of land between the Waitematā Harbour and the Manukau Harbour in the middle of the Auckland metropolitan area. The peninsula is not conterminous with the local government area of Northland Region, which occupies the northern 80% of the peninsula. The southern section of the peninsula is administratively part of the Auckland Region.

Geology

The peninsula formed as an island 22 million years ago, when the area was uplifted due to interactions between the Pacific Plate and Australian Plate.^[1] Between 25 and 22 million years ago, Northland and the East Cape were adjacent, with the East Cape moving south-east due to tectonic forces.^[2] Much of the land of Northland is an allochthon, a large block of land formed elsewhere and moved into its current position.^[2] When Northland was uplifted, much of the land that would form the central Auckland Region was subsided 2-3,000 metres to the sea floor. The Waitemata Group sedimentary rock found in the Northland and Auckland Regions is material which was eroded from the Northland island and deposited on the deep sea floor.^[1]

Geography

The peninsula stretches northwest for about 330 kilometres from the Auckland isthmus (or Tamaki isthmus),^[3] reaching a maximum width of 85 kilometres.^[4][5] It has a convoluted coastline, with many smaller peninsulas branching off it.

The northernmost 100 kilometres of the Northland Peninsula forms the

The largest settlement on the peninsula (other than parts of the Auckland conurbation) is Whangārei, on a harbour opening on the Pacific Ocean close to the peninsula's widest point.

References

35°23′13″S 173°48′36″E / 35.387°S 173.810°E / -35.387; 173.810