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Chatham Island

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island off eastern New Zealand

Key facts

Archipelago
Chatham Islands
Area
920 km (360 sq mi)
Highest elevation
294 m (965 ft)
Highest point
Maungatere Hill
Population
660 (2022)
Pop density
0.8/km (2.1/sq mi)
Ethnic groups
Moriori , Māori

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
island
Capital
Waitangi
Population
600
Area
920
Elevation
299
Time zone
UTC+12:45
Body of water
Pacific Ocean
Image
Chatham-Island map topo en.png
Show 1 more fact
located in/on physical feature
Chatham Islands
Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~4 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Chatham Island (/ˈtʃætəm/ CHAT-əm) (Moriori: Rēkohu, lit. 'Misty Sun'; Māori: Wharekauri) is the largest island of the Chatham Islands group, in the south Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is said to be "halfway between the equator and the pole, and right on the International Date Line", although that point is 173 miles WSW of the island's westernmost point. The Moriori are the first settlers of the Chatham Islands. The island is called Rekohu ("misty skies") in Moriori, and Wharekauri in Māori.

The island was named after the survey ship HMS Chatham which was the first European ship to locate the island in 1791. It covers an area of 920 km (355 sq mi). Chatham Island lies 650 km (404 mi) south-east of Cape Turnagain, the nearest point of mainland New Zealand.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Chatham Island” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

On the map

53 mapped locations