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3 unusual facts about Cook Strait


Duvaucel's gecko

Duvaucel's gecko, Hoplodactylus duvaucelli, is a gecko found on predator-free offshore islands of New Zealand, including Great Barrier Island and a number of Cook Strait islands.

Euan Dickson

After the war he returned to New Zealand and was the first person to fly across the Cook Strait.

Straits Air Freight Express

Straits Air Freight Express (SAFE) was a cargo airline, established in 1950, named for the fact that it encompassed Cook Strait and connected the North Island and South Island (of New Zealand) railway systems from the 1950s to the 1970s.


Cape Turnagain

Cape Turnagain is a prominent headland on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, part way between Hawke Bay and Cook Strait, between the mouths of the Porangahau and Akitio Rivers.

Iridoteuthis maoria

It occurs in Cook Strait and Chatham Rise off North Island in New Zealand, and has also been recorded from the Nazca and Sala y Gomez submarine ridges in the eastern Pacific.

Ocean's seven

Ocean's Seven is a group of 7 long distance swims scattered across the globe: Irish Channel, the Cook Strait, the Molokai Channel, the English Channel, the Catalina Channel, the Tsugaru Strait and the Strait of Gibraltar.

Te Rangihaeata

In 1819 while returning from a raid in the Cook Strait area the Ngati Toa clashed with the Ngatiapa around Turakina, near Bulls.


see also

Meda McKenzie

After retiring to raise two children, she returned after five years to swim across Lake Erie in Canada, and two firsts: the first double crossing of Cook Strait by a woman and a circumnavigation of Rarotonga.

Miramar Peninsula

Atatürk Memorial: a plinth on a cliff overlooking Tarakena Bay and Cook Strait commemorates Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, statesman and general, who led Turkish troops in action against New Zealand soldiers at Gallipoli in the First World War.