Physical oceanography of Rangaunu Harbour, Northland, New Zealand

Current meter, current drogue, salinity, temperature, and tidal elevation observations from Rangaunu Harbour are presented. The flow is dominated by the tides, the ebb tide in general being stronger than the flood. The time of high tide is increasingly delayed with distance from the open ocean. High tide at the head of the harbour lags about an hour behind that at the mouth. The phase of the flow relative to that of the elevation is less than that for a frictionless system. This difference from a quarter of a tidal period results from tidal energy dissipation and probably varies through the spring-neap tidal cycle. The outer harbour has essentially coastal water which is exchanged each tide. Residence time of the inner harbour waters and the inner harbour shallows (where evaporation is sufficient to raise the salinity) is several days.