Qualla: Cook Strait

Cook Strait: Introduction

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. High water on one side, low water on the other. The tides at either end of Cook Strait are almost perfectly out of phase, which means the 22-kilometre gap between New Zealand's two main islands is not simply a body of water to cross -- it is a body of water at war with itself. Described as "one of the most dangerous and unpredictable waters in the world," the strait funnels the roaring forties into a channel where currents can hold direction for ten hours straight, where ferries have heeled to 50 degrees in 14-metre waves, and where the seabed is littered with the hulls of ships that did not make it across.

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Cook Strait: Kupe's Octopus and Tasman's Mistake

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit James Dignan, CC BY-SA 3.0. In Maori legend, the navigator Kupe discovered the strait while chasing a monstrous octopus called Te Wheke-a-Muturangi, pursuing it by canoe until he destroyed the creature in Tory Channel. When Abel Tasman arrived in 1642, he looked at the strait and saw a dead end -- a bight c...

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Image: James Dignan | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cook Strait: The Dolphin Who Chose a Side

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Partyzane, CC BY 3.0. Between 1888 and 1912, a Risso's dolphin named Pelorus Jack became one of the most famous animals in the Southern Hemisphere. Jack would appear in Admiralty Bay, near French Pass, and swim alongside ships travelling between Wellington and Nelson, guiding them through the treacher...

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Image: Partyzane | CC BY 3.0

Cook Strait: A Graveyard That Keeps Growing

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Quentin Davies, CC BY-SA 4.0. The strait's toll is long. In 1851, the barque Maria wrecked on rocks at Cape Terawhiti, killing 28. The paddle steamer City of Dunedin went down in 1865, taking between 50 and 60 lives. The SS Penguin struck Thoms Rock in 1909, killing 75 -- New Zealand's worst maritime disaster...

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Image: Quentin Davies | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cook Strait: Swimmers, Cables, and the Impossible Bridge

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ron Heath, CC0. According to Maori oral tradition, the first woman to swim Cook Strait was Hine Poupou, aided by a dolphin. In modern times, Barrie Devenport completed the crossing in 1962, and Philip Rush has done it eight times, including two double crossings. The youngest swimmer was 11-year-...

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Image: Ron Heath | CC0

Cook Strait: Where Two Oceans Collide

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ulanwp, CC BY-SA 3.0. Eighteen thousand years ago, during the Last Glacial Maximum, the strait did not exist. Sea levels were 100 metres lower, and a vast coastal plain connected the North and South Islands. As the ice melted and the sea rose, the land bridge drowned. Today, the strait is a meeting po...

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Image: Ulanwp | CC BY-SA 3.0