15 Facts About Cook Strait

Approximately 18,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum when sea levels were over 100 metres lower than present day levels, the Cook Strait was a deep harbour of the Pacific Ocean, disconnected from the Tasman Sea by the vast coastal plains which formed at the South Taranaki Bight which connected the North and South islands.

When Dutch explorer Abel Tasman first saw New Zealand in 1642, he thought Cook Strait was a bight closed to the east.

Cook Strait named it Zeehaen's Bight, after the Zeehaen, one of the two ships in his expedition.

In 1769 James Cook established that it was a strait, which formed a navigable waterway.

Cook Strait attracted European settlers in the early 19th century.

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In 1866, the first telegraph cable was lain in the Cook Strait, connecting the South Island telegraph system to Wellington.

The tidal flow through Cook Strait is unusual in that the tidal elevation at the ends of the strait are almost exactly out of phase with one another, so high water on one side meets low water on the other.

Cook Strait produced a number of studies including analysis of tides which identified the presence of a "virtual amphidrome" in the region.

Cook Strait has been identified as a potentially excellent source of tidal energy.

Cook Strait claimed there is enough tidal movement in Cook Strait to generate 12 GW of power, more than one-and-a-half times New Zealand's current requirements.

Cook Strait claimed that Tory Channel was an optimal site with a tidal current speed of 3.

Fibre optic cables carry telecommunications across Cook Strait, used by New Zealand's main telecommunication companies for domestic and commercial traffic and by Transpower for control of the HVDC link.

Cook Strait is an important habitat for many cetacean species.

Giant squid specimens have been washed ashore around Cook Strait or found in the stomachs of sperm whales off Kaikoura.

Air lines which operate or have operated flights across Cook Strait include Straits Air Freight Express, Air2there, CityJet and Sounds Air.