Diamond Harbour, New Zealand
Encyclopedia
Diamond Harbour is a small settlement on Banks Peninsula
Banks Peninsula
Banks Peninsula is a peninsula of volcanic origin on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It has an area of approximately and encompasses two large harbours and many smaller bays and coves...
, in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is on the peninsula's northern coast, on the southern shores of Lyttelton Harbour
Lyttelton Harbour
Lyttelton Harbour is one of two major inlets in Banks Peninsula, on the coast of Canterbury, New Zealand. The other is Akaroa Harbour.Approximately 15 km in length from its mouth to Teddington, the harbour was formed from a series of ancient volcanic eruptions that created a caldera, the...
, and is administratively part of the city of Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
.
The name is applied not only to Diamond Harbour proper but to the nearby settlements of Church Bay
Church Bay
Church Bay is a bay wide, indenting the north coast of South Georgia between Low Rock Point and Cape North. It was roughly charted by Discovery Investigations personnel in the period 1925–30 and surveyed by the South Georgia Survey, 1951–57. The name is well established in local use....
, Charteris Bay, and Purau. In the 2006 census, this area had a population of slightly under 1,400.
A ferry connects Diamond Harbour to Lyttelton
Lyttelton, New Zealand
Lyttelton is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour close to Banks Peninsula, a suburb of Christchurch on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand....
, on the harbour's northern shore. In combination with buses from Lyttelton to downtown Christchurch, this allows residents of Diamond Bay to commute to the city.
Still standing are the original cottage and later homestead of Mark Stoddart, the early settler who named the bay for the glint of sunlight on water.