Goat Island or Te Hāwere-a-Maki is a tiny island (approximately ) in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

located close to the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

coast, north of

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, northeast of Warkworth, and directly west of

Little Barrier Island Little Barrier Island, or Hauturu in Māori language (the official Māori title is ''Te Hauturu-o-Toi''), lies off the northeastern coast of New Zealand's North Island. Located to the north of Auckland, the island is separated from the mainla ...

. It is within

Cape Rodney-Okakari Point Marine Reserve Cape Rodney-Okakari Point Marine Reserve is a protected area in the North Island of New Zealand. The reserve covers an area of , extending from Cape Rodney to Okakari Point, extending 800m offshore. Te Hāwere-a-Maki / Goat Island lies within t ...

, New Zealand's first

marine reserve A marine reserve is a type of marine protected area (MPA). An MPA is a section of the ocean where a government has placed limits on human activity. A marine reserve is a marine protected area in which removing or destroying natural or cultural ...

History

The island is spiritually significant to the local

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 C ...

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...

Ngāti Manuhiri Ngāti Manuhiri is a Māori iwi of the Mahurangi Peninsula area of New Zealand. They have an interest in the region from the Okura River in the south to Mangawhai in the north, and extending out to Great Barrier Island. They are descended from ...

, because their ancestral

waka (canoe) Waka () are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes (''waka tīwai'') used for fishing and river travel to large, decorated war canoes (''waka taua'') up to long. The earliest remains of a canoe in New Z ...

, ''

Moekākara In Māori tradition, ''Moekākara'' was one of the great ocean-going, voyaging canoes that was used in the migrations that settled New Zealand. It was captained by Tāhuhunui-o-te-rangi, the ancestor of Ngāi Tāhuhu. The canoe first landed at ...

'', is said to have landed nearby. The

was established in 1975, making Goat Island and the surrounding waters a protected area. As well as being in a marine reserve, Goat Island is a scenic reserve. The

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

has a research facility at Goat Island known as the

Leigh Marine Laboratory The Leigh Marine Laboratory is the marine research facility for the University of Auckland in New Zealand. The laboratory is situated in north eastern New Zealand, north of Auckland city. The facility is perched on the cliffs overlooking the Ca ...

headed by Professor John Montgomery. This will form the base for the University's new South Pacific Centre for Marine Science (SPCMS). Prime Minister

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

launched the national and international campaign to raise funds for the SPCMS at Leigh on 21 June 2008.

Takangaroa Takangaroa Island (formerly known as Goat Island) is one of the two Mayne Islands located near Kawau Island, in New Zealand's Hauraki Gulf. It is approximately in size. Its name is Māori language, Māori, and means "The Long Casting of the Ne ...

– another island in the same area – was also once known as "Goat Island".

Flora and fauna

Goat Island and its surrounding area provide the habitat for the

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

beetle species '' Hyphalus wisei''.

References

{{Authority control Uninhabited islands of New Zealand Islands of the Hauraki Gulf Rodney Local Board Area Marine reserves of New Zealand Islands of the Auckland Region

History

Flora and fauna

See also

References