Balclutha, New Zealand established a ferry service across the Clutha in 1857; as a result the town was initially called Clutha Ferry. The Māori name for the area is Iwikatea, literally "Bleached bones" (a local Māori tribal battle in 1750 left the decomposing bodies of the defeated, their bones whitened in the sun). The Clutha River flows through the town. It is the largest river in New Zealand by volume of water, and the country's second longest after the Waikato. It provides the town with various recreational facilities, including fishing (brown trout), water skiing and power boating. The most prominent structure in the
Blackball, New Zealand Blackball, New Zealand Blackball is a small town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, approximately 29 km from Greymouth. The town was named after the Black Ball Shipping Line, which leased land in the area to mine for coal. Blackball is a centre of New Zealand radicalism and workers' militancy. It is credited as the birthplace of the New Zealand Labour Party, which followed the 1908 miners 'cribtime' strike, at ten weeks the longest in New Zealand history. In the 1913 Great Strike, Blackball miners were the last to return to work, in 1914. During