Great Barrier Island Great Barrier Island ( mi, Aotea) lies in the outer Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, north-east of central Auckland. With an area of it is the sixth-largest island of New Zealand and fourth-largest in the main chain. Its highest point, Mount Hobson ...

Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,Overtons Beach, also called Harataonga Beach, which runs roughly west to east. The Harataonga Stream flows over the sand at the western end of the beach. There is also a small sandy bay at the northernmost corner of the bay that is only accessible by boat. Dragon Island at the eastern end of the bay provides some protection from the Pacific Ocean from the east and south-east, with further protection provided by the larger Rakitu (Arid) Island to the north. Road access is by a narrow gravel road. 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 ...

runs a campground that is surrounded by farmland and forest 300 metres from the beach. It can accommodate 120 people. The sheltered bay is used for fishing, diving, swimming and snorkelling. Fishing can be done from rock outcrops at each end of Overtons Beach. Vehicle access onto the beach and dogs are both prohibited. There are two walking tracks: the 30-minute Harataonga Loop Track and the 4–5 hour Harataonga Coastal Walkway that ends near Whangapoua Beach. The tracks run through regenerating forest of mānuka,

kānuka ''Kunzea ericoides'', commonly known as kānuka, kanuka, white tea-tree or burgan, is a tree or shrub in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to New Zealand. It has white or pink flowers similar to those of '' Leptospermum'' and from it ...

, nikau palms, cabbage trees, and ''

pittosporum ''Pittosporum'' ( or ) is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Pittosporaceae. The genus is probably Gondwanan in origin; its present range extends from Australasia, Oceania, eastern Asia and some parts of Africa. ''Cit ...

'' that is habitat for birds including

grey warbler The grey warbler (''Gerygone igata''), also known by its Māori name or outside New Zealand as the grey gerygone, is an insectivorous bird in the family Acanthizidae endemic to New Zealand. Its natural habitat is temperate forest A for ...

,

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

,

kererū The kererū (''Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae'') or New Zealand pigeon is a species of pigeon native to New Zealand. Johann Friedrich Gmelin described the bird in 1789 as a large, conspicuous pigeon up to in length and in weight, with a white br ...

(wood pigeon),

silvereye The silvereye or wax-eye (''Zosterops lateralis'') is a very small omnivorous passerine bird of the south-west Pacific. In Australia and New Zealand its common name is sometimes white-eye, but this name is more commonly used to refer to all membe ...

, and tui. The bay is an important nesting area for pāteke (brown teal),

New Zealand dotterel The New Zealand dotterel (''Charadrius obscurus'') is a species of shorebird found only in certain areas of New Zealand. It is also called the New Zealand plover or red-breasted dotterel, and its Māori names include , , and . The southern ...

,

oystercatchers The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, ''Haematopus''. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia. The e ...

and banded rail.

History

Ngāti Rehua Ngati Wai ki Aotea had been present in the bay before the arrival of European settlers. The area has several Māori historic sites and settler graves. In 2007, the

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...

Castaway 2007 ''Castaway 2007'' is a follow-up to the BBC series ''Castaway 2000'' in which a group of people from the British public are "castaway" on a remote island. While in the 2000 series 36 men, women and children moved to a remote Scottish island for ...

History

References