Wairarapa’s locally owned community newspaper
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 2021
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Finding the middle ground When most people think of New Zealand, geographically speaking, they think of the two islands we call North and South. However, the Aotearoa we know is just a tiny part of a much greater geographical shelf that we can’t see. And the centre of it sits right in Wairarapa’s own backyard. JOHN LAZO-RON reports. GNS principal scientist Cornel de Ronde and conceptual artist Billy Apple have been friends for a long time. The pair have been getting together for more than a decade to talk about each other’s work. In one of those discussions, de Ronde told Apple about how GNS scientists and NIWA had
conducted surveys between 1998 and 2002 that discovered New Zealand was sitting on a landmass two times the size of Mongolia. That the land we stand on today was just 4 per cent of a continent
that lies below the sea called the Extended Continental Shelf of New Zealand. It is 1.6 million
The centre of the extended continental shelf of New Zealand.
Artist Billy Apple with GNS data technician Jenny Black at the unveiling of a canvass that points out the centre of the Extended Continental Shelf of New Zealand, 11kms northwest of Greytown. PHOTO/GLENN EVANS
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square km, to be exact. Intrigued, Apple asked de Ronde, “so where is the centre”? That question sparked a mighty quest between the pair, GNS data technician Jenny Black, and the Department of Conservation, to find exactly where the middle point of the Extended Continental Shelf of New Zealand was. After much work and debate, they eventually discovered the centre of the Extended Continental Shelf of New Zealand was in the Tararua Ranges, 11kms northwest of Greytown – adjacent to the Mount Reeves Track. The finding was set in concrete with a plaque near the location in 2019. The plaque recognises that since 2008, the United Nations has acknowledged that New Zealand’s territory includes the undersea continental shelf and the landmass above the sea. But now, Apple and GNS have teamed up again to acknowledge the scientific discovery with a brand new full-colour framed canvas unveiled at GNS Science’s Wellington base last Thursday. Apple’s latest artwork now hangs on the wall at the GNS Continued on page 3
