The Auckland Islands (
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
: ''Motu Maha'' "Many islands" or ''Maungahuka'' "Snowy mountains")
are an archipelago of
New Zealand, lying south of the
South Island. The main
Auckland Island, occupying , is surrounded by smaller
Adams Island,
Enderby Island,
Disappointment Island,
Ewing Island
Ewing Island is an ice-covered, dome-shaped island in diameter, lying northeast of Cape Collier, off the east coast of Palmer Land. It was discovered from the air on November 7, 1947, by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE), under ...
,
Rose Island, Dundas Island, and Green Island, with a combined area of . The islands have no permanent human inhabitants.
The islands are listed with the
New Zealand Outlying Islands
The New Zealand outlying islands are nine offshore island groups that are part of New Zealand, with all but Solander Islands lying beyond the 12nm limit of the mainland's territorial waters. Although considered an integral parts of New Zealand, ...
. The islands are an immediate part of New Zealand, but not part of any
region or
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...
, but instead ''Area Outside Territorial Authority'', like all the other outlying islands except the
Solander Islands.
Ecologically, the Auckland Islands form part of the
Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion. Along with other
New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, they were designated a UNESCO
World Heritage Site in 1998.
Geography
The Auckland Islands lie south of
Stewart Island, and from the
South Island port of
Bluff, between the latitudes 50° 30' and 50° 55' S and longitudes 165° 50' and 166° 20' E.
They include
Auckland Island,
Adams Island,
Enderby Island,
Disappointment Island,
Ewing Island
Ewing Island is an ice-covered, dome-shaped island in diameter, lying northeast of Cape Collier, off the east coast of Palmer Land. It was discovered from the air on November 7, 1947, by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE), under ...
,
Rose Island, Dundas Island, and Green Island, with a combined area of . The islands are close to each other, separated by narrow channels, and the coastline is rugged, with numerous deep inlets.
Auckland Island, the main island, has an approximate land area of , and a length of . It is notable for its steep cliffs and rugged terrain, which rises to over . Prominent peaks include Cavern Peak (), Mount Raynal (),
Mount D'Urville (), Mount Easton (), and the Tower of Babel (). The southern end of the island broadens to a width of .
Here, the narrow channel of
Carnley Harbour (the Adams Straits on some maps) separates the main island from the roughly triangular Adams Island (area approximately ), which is even more mountainous, reaching a height of at
Mount Dick. The channel is the remains of the crater of an extinct
volcano, and Adams Island and the southern part of the main island form the crater rim. The main island features many sharply incised inlets, notably
Port Ross at the northern end.
The group includes numerous other smaller islands, notably Disappointment Island ( northwest of the main island) and Enderby Island ( off the northern tip of the main island), each covering less than .
Most of the islands have a volcanic origin, with the archipelago dominated by two 12-million-year-old
Miocene shield volcanoes, subsequently eroded and dissected.
These rest on older volcanic rocks 15–25 million years old with some older
granites and fossil-bearing
sedimentary rocks from around 100 million years ago.
Climate
Port Ross features a
subpolar oceanic climate (''Cfc'' according to the
Köppen climate classification system). Like many other Subpolar oceanic climates, Port Ross, along with the Auckland Islands in general, are characterised by the near-constant overcast weather and never being too hot or too cold.
Carnley Harbour also features a
subpolar oceanic climate (''Cfc'' according to the
Köppen climate classification system), though it exaggerates the features shown in Port Ross, as it is much wetter and a lot more affected by ocean-moderation.
The Auckland Islands have a fairly constant cool and wet weather year-round, with neither winter being excessively cold nor summer excessively hot. The climate is most similar to that seen in the
Faroe Islands and
Aleutian Islands.
History
Discovery and early exploitation
Evidence exists that
Polynesian voyagers first discovered the Auckland Islands. Traces of Polynesian settlement, possibly dating to the 13th century, have been found by archaeologists on Enderby Island. This is the most southerly settlement by Polynesians yet known.
The
whaler discovered the islands in 1806, finding them uninhabited.
Captain
Abraham Bristow named them "Lord Auckland's" on 18 August 1806 in honour of his father's friend
William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland. Bristow worked for the businessman
Samuel Enderby, the namesake of
Enderby Island. The following year Bristow returned on to claim the
archipelago for
Britain. The explorers
Dumont D'Urville and
James Clark Ross visited in 1839 and in 1840 respectively.
Whalers and sealers set up temporary bases, the islands becoming one of the principal sealing stations in the Pacific in the years immediately after their discovery.
By 1812, so many seals had been killed that the islands lost their commercial importance and sealers redirected their efforts towards
Campbell and
Macquarie Islands. Visits to the islands declined, although recovering seal populations allowed a modest revival in sealing in the mid-1820s.
The sealing era lasted from 1807 till 1894, during which time 82 vessels are recorded as visiting for sealing purposes. Some 11 of these ships were wrecked off-shore. Relics of the sealing period include inscriptions, the remains of huts, and graves.
Settlement
Now
uninhabited, the islands saw unsuccessful settlements in the mid-19th century. In 1842, a small party of 70
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
and their
Moriori slaves from the
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about t ...
migrated to the archipelago, surviving for about 20 years or so on sealing and
flax growing. Samuel Enderby's grandson,
Charles Enderby, proposed a community based on agriculture and
whaling in 1846. This settlement, established at
Port Ross in 1849 and named Hardwicke, lasted only two and a half years. Māori and Moriori settlement continued until 1866, when most of the Māori and some of the Moriori returned to the
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about t ...
; however, most of the
Moriori settled on
Rakiura, where some of their descendants continue to live today.
The Auckland Islands were part of the
Colony of New Zealand under the Letters Patent of April 1842, which fixed the southern boundary of New Zealand at
53° south, but they were then excluded by the
New Zealand Constitution Act 1846, which defined the southern boundary at
47° 10' south; however, they were again included by the New Zealand Boundaries Act of 1863, an act of the
Imperial Parliament at
Westminster that extended the boundaries of the colony once more.
Shipwrecks
The rocky coasts of the islands have proven disastrous for several ships. The , captained by
Thomas Musgrave, was wrecked in
Carnley Harbour in 1864. Madelene Ferguson Allen's narrative about her great-grandfather, Robert Holding, and the wreck of the Scottish sailing ship , wrecked in the Auckland Islands a few months later in 1864, counterpoints the ''Grafton'' story.
François Édouard Raynal wrote ''Wrecked on a Reef''.
In 1866, one of New Zealand's most famous shipwrecks, that of the , occurred on the western coast. Ten survivors waited for rescue on Auckland Island for 18 months. Several attempts have failed to salvage its cargo, allegedly including
bullion.
Because of the probability of wrecks around the islands, calls arose for the establishment of
emergency depots for castaways in 1868. The New Zealand authorities established and maintained three such depots, at Port Ross, Norman Inlet and
Carnley Harbour from 1887. They also cached additional supplies, including boats (to help reach the depots) and 40 finger-posts (which had smaller amounts of supplies), around the islands.
A further maritime tragedy occurred in 1907, with the loss of the and 12 of her crew, off Disappointment Island. The 15 survivors lived off the supplies in the Auckland Island depot.
In 2019, a helicopter with three passengers crashed into the ocean near Enderby Island, when they were en route to uplift an ill man on a fishing trawler. The three passengers survived the crash, and were found the next day with only minor injuries. The rescue effort was led by
Richard Hayes.
Scientific research and reserve
The
Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition of 1907 spent 10 days on the islands conducting a magnetic survey and taking botanical, zoological and geological specimens.
From 1941 to 1945, the islands hosted a New Zealand
meteorological station as part of a
coastwatching programme staffed by scientist volunteers and known for security reasons as the "
Cape Expedition".
The staff included
Robert Falla
Sir Robert Alexander Falla (21 July 1901 – 23 February 1979) was a New Zealand museum administrator and ornithologist.
Early life
Falla was born in Palmerston North in 1901 to George Falla and his wife, Elizabeth Kirk. As his father was work ...
, later an eminent New Zealand scientist. the islands have no inhabitants, although scientists visit regularly and the authorities allow limited tourism on Enderby Island and Auckland Island.
The marine environment surrounding the archipelago became a marine mammal sanctuary in 1993 and, unusually, also a marine reserve in 2003, measuring . The Subantarctic Islands marine reserves around the Auckland, Antipodes, Bounty and Campbell Islands combined form the largest natural sanctuary in New Zealand.
Ecology
Plants
The botany of the islands was first described in the ''
Flora of Lord Auckland and Campbell's Islands'', a product of the
Ross expedition of 1839–43, written by
Joseph Dalton Hooker and published by Reeve Brothers in London between 1843 and 1845.
The vegetation of the islands sub-divides into distinct altitudinal zones. Inland from the salt-spray zone, the fringes of the islands predominantly feature forests of southern rata ''
Metrosideros umbellata'', and in places the subantarctic tree daisy (''
Olearia lyallii''), probably introduced by sealers. Above this exists a subalpine shrub zone dominated by ''
Dracophyllum'', ''
Coprosma
''Coprosma'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is found in New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Borneo, Java, New Guinea, islands of the Pacific Ocean to Australia and the Juan Fernández Islands.
Description
The name ''Copros ...
'' and ''
Myrsine'' (with some rata). At higher elevations
tussock grass and
megaherb communities dominate the flora.
Invertebrates
The islands host the largest communities of subantarctic invertebrates, with 24 species of spider, 11 species of
springtail and over 200 insects. These include 57 species of
beetle, 110
flies and 39
moths. The islands also boast an endemic
genus and species of
wētā, ''
Dendroplectron aucklandensis''.
Fresh and saltwater fauna
The freshwater environments of the islands host a freshwater fish, the kōaro or
climbing galaxias, which lives in saltwater as a juvenile but which returns to the rivers as an adult. The islands have 19 species of endemic freshwater invertebrates, including one
mollusc, one
crustacean, a
mayfly, 12 flies and two
caddisflies. The
Auckland Islands cockle is endemic to the islands.
Marine mammals
There are two species of seal which
haul out
Hauling-out is a behaviour associated with pinnipeds (true seals, sea lions, fur seals and walruses) temporarily leaving the water. Hauling-out typically occurs between periods of foraging activity. Rather than remain in the water, pinnipeds ha ...
on the islands, the
New Zealand fur seal and the threatened
New Zealand sea lion.
Southern elephant seals are frequent migrants in winter, and
leopard seals may also appear.
A well-recovering population in excess of 2,000
southern right whales is found off the islands, and
Port Ross area is considered to be the most important and well-established congregating ground for whales in New Zealand waters. Its importance exceeds the
Campbell Island ground.
Birds
The islands hold important
seabird breeding colonies, among them
albatrosses, penguins and several small
petrels,
with a million pairs of
sooty shearwater. Landbirds include
red-fronted and
yellow-crowned parakeet
The yellow-crowned parakeet (''Cyanoramphus auriceps'') is a species of parakeet endemic to the islands of New Zealand. The species is found across the main three islands of New Zealand, North Island, South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura, as ...
,
New Zealand falcon,
tui,
bellbirds,
pipits, and an endemic subspecies of
tomtit.
The whole Auckland Island group has been identified as an
Important Bird Area (IBA) by
BirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for several species of seabirds as well as the endemic
Auckland shag,
Auckland teal,
Auckland rail
The Auckland rail (''Lewinia muelleri'') is a small nearly flightless rail endemic to the Auckland Islands 460 km south of New Zealand. It is somewhat of a biogeographical anomaly, being the only species in the genus ''Lewinia'' to have reac ...
, and
Auckland snipe. The seabirds include
southern rockhopper and
yellow-eyed penguins;
Antipodean
In geography, the antipode () of any spot on Earth is the point on Earth's surface diametrically opposite to it. A pair of points ''antipodal'' () to each other are situated such that a straight line connecting the two would pass through Ear ...
,
southern royal,
light-mantled and
white-capped albatrosses; and
white-chinned petrel
The white-chinned petrel (''Procellaria aequinoctialis'') also known as the Cape hen and shoemaker, is a large shearwater in the family Procellariidae. It ranges around the Southern Ocean as far north as southern Australia, Peru and Namibia, and ...
.
Ecological history
Several
introduced species have come to the islands; goats, other useful animals and seed were brought to the islands by Captains Musgrave and Norman 1865, returning to search for castaways; ecologists eliminated or allowed to go extinct
cattle, sheep, goats, dogs,
possums and
rabbits in the 1990s, but
feral cats,
pigs and
mice remain on Auckland Island. The last rabbits on Enderby Island were
removed in 1993 through the application of poison, also eradicating mice there.
Curiously,
rats have never colonised the islands, in spite of numerous visits and shipwrecks and their ubiquity on other islands. Introduced species affected the native vegetation and bird life, and caused the
extinction
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the Endling, last individual of the species, although the Functional ext ...
of the
New Zealand merganser, a duck formerly widespread in southern New Zealand, and ultimately confined to the islands.
The
New Zealand Department of Conservation plans to remove the last remaining introduced mammals from Auckland Island, making the entire island group pest-free, in what would be one of the largest multi-species eradication plans in the world. This project started in November 2018, with NZ$2m of initial scoping work. The total cost for the eradication could stretch to NZ$40–50 million over 10 years.
List of endemic species
*
Auckland Islands cockle
*
Auckland Island wētā
*
Auckland Islands shore plover
The shore plover ( mi, tūturuatu, Moriori: ''tchūriwat’'', ''Thinornis novaeseelandiae''), also known as the shore dotterel, is a small plover endemic to New Zealand. Once found all around the New Zealand coast, it is now restricted to a few ...
(extinct)
*
Auckland rail
The Auckland rail (''Lewinia muelleri'') is a small nearly flightless rail endemic to the Auckland Islands 460 km south of New Zealand. It is somewhat of a biogeographical anomaly, being the only species in the genus ''Lewinia'' to have reac ...
*
Auckland teal
*
Auckland snipe
*''
Gentianella concinna''
Legal status
The Auckland Islands – as with all of New Zealand's subantarctic islands – is a National Nature Reserve, afforded the highest possible level of protection under New Zealand law. In addition, a marine reserve encompasses all of the Auckland Islands territorial sea and internal waterways.
All of New Zealand's subantarctic islands are managed by the Southland Conservancy of the
Department of Conservation
An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...
(DOC). Expedition party size, length of stay and landing on the islands are kept to a minimum. Entry is by permit only and applicants must undergo thorough pre-expedition quarantine checks.
When
Andrew Fagan made a solo voyage there in a plywood yacht (and nearly added to the shipwreck tally), he described the DOC permitting process thus:
See also
*
Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica
*
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
*
Territorial claims in Antarctica
*
New Zealand Subantarctic Islands
*
List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands
*
List of islands of New Zealand
References
Further reading
* ''Wise's New Zealand Guide'' (4th ed.) (1969). Dunedin: H. Wise & Co. (N.Z.) Ltd.
* ''Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand'' (1863, Session III Oct–Dec) (A5)
* ''Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked At the Edge of the World'' (2007) by
Joan Druett
Joan Druett is a New Zealand historian and novelist, specialising in maritime history and crime fiction.
Life
Joan Druett was born in Nelson, and raised in Palmerston North, moving to New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, when she was 16. Sh ...
– an account of the Grafton and Invercauld wrecks
* ''Sub Antarctic New Zealand: A Rare Heritage'' by Neville Peat – the Department of Conservation guide to the islands
*''Lost Gold : Ornithology of the subantarctic Auckland Islands''. (2020) by Colin Miskelly. Wellington: Te Papa Press. OCL
1141973732
External links
Auckland Islands Marine Reserve (New Zealand Department of Conservation)High Resolution Map* Murihiku.com
*
*
*
(abandoned website
(abandoned website
by the
Wayback Machine.
Diary of a 1962–63 biological visit by E. J. FisherIslas Auckland – El archipiélago de los naufragios(in Spanish)
{{Use dmy dates, date=September 2019
New Zealand subantarctic islands
Archipelagoes of New Zealand
Archipelagoes of the Southern Ocean
Volcanic islands of New Zealand
Volcanoes of the New Zealand outlying islands
Important Bird Areas of the Auckland Islands
Moriori
Miocene shield volcanoes
Miocene Oceania
Submarine calderas
Subantarctic islands
Uninhabited islands of New Zealand
Former British colonies and protectorates in Oceania
Seal hunting
Whaling stations in New Zealand