Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, central otago, New Zealand
Otago (pronunciation (help·info)) is a region of New Zealand in the south of the South Island. It has an area of approximately 32,000 square kilometres (12,000 sq mi)[3] making it the country's second largest region. In the 2006 census, it had a population of 193,800.[4] The name "Otago" is an old southern Maori word whose North Island dialect equivalent is "Otakou", introduced to the south by Europeans in the 1840s.[5] "Otago" is also the old name of the European settlement on the Otago Harbour, established by the Weller Brothers in place later became the focus of the Otago Association, an offshoot of the Free Church of Scotland, notable for its high-minded adoption of the principle that ordinary people should choose their ministers, not the landowner. Major centres of what is now the Otago Region of the old province, [include Dunedin (the principal city of the region), Oamaru (made famous by Janet Frame), Balclutha, Alexandra, and the major tourist centres Queenstown and Wanaka. Kaitangata in South Otago provides a prominent coal source. The Waitaki and Clutha rivers also provide for much of the country's hydroelectric power. Some parts of the area originally covered by Otago Province are now administered as part of Southland Region (qv). New Zealand's first university, The University of Otago, was founded in 1869 as the provincial university in Dunedin.
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Photo credit: © martin berry / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: beauty, bush, cloud, green, hill, hills, lake, landscape, mountains, mrb, nature, otago, queenstown, scenery, unspolit, vegetation, wakatipu, water, wild, zealand
