White Island is an island off the coast of
Otago, within the boundaries of the city of
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
, South Island, New Zealand. It is uninhabited, and is a well-known landmark visible from the city's two inner city beaches at
St Clair and
St Kilda. The island is in length and wide at its widest point, covering and rising to a height of approximately . A rocky reef, parts of which break the surface at low tide, extends for from the western end of the island.
Name
The island's Māori name is Ponuiahine - also given as 'Pomuiahine'. It has been translated, probably too literally, as 'The girl's great night', giving rise to witty suggestions as to why that might be. Goodall and Griffiths suggested it should be understood as 'Pou-nui-a-Hine, referring to a post being a memorial to some significant event involving Hine'. They observe 'Hine' can be a man's name but clearly this suggestion leaves open the original ribald speculations. As a place for a lovers' tryst it seems unpromising.
Ragged Rock
White Island may be the 'Ragged Rock' where the Sydney
sealer ''Brothers'', chartered by
Robert Campbell and under the command of Robert Mason landed three men out of a gang of eleven in November 1809.
William Tucker who later settled at
Whareakeake
Whareakeake (; formerly and colloquially Murdering Beach, also "Murderers Beach" or "Murdering Bay") is a beach northeast of Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand, as well as the valley above and behind the beach. Located to the west of Ar ...
(Murdering Beach), near Otago Heads, was in the gang. Alternatively Ragged Rock may be
Green Island.
1826 sighting
On 1 May 1826 Thomas Shepherd, keeping a journal as he approached this coast as nurseryman to the first
New Zealand Company
The New Zealand Company, chartered in the United Kingdom, was a company that existed in the first half of the 19th century on a business model focused on the systematic colonisation of New Zealand. The company was formed to carry out the principl ...
's settlement expedition in the
''Rosanna'', accompanied by the
''Lambton'', said he 'saw two remarkable Sugar loaf Rocks in the sea near the shore about high'. A man was sent ashore and came back with a
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 ...
man called Tatawa who 'said he belonged to Otago'. Shepherd later confirmed this was the part of the coast he was talking about.
[Thomas Shepherd, ''Journal'' MS A1966, Mitchell Library, Sydney.] There is a reef south of White Island where the sea may be seen breaking. Presumably in the 1820s it too rose well above the sea. By the time of Dunedin's settlement in 1848 there was only the single island visible.
See also
*
Desert island
A desert island, deserted island, or uninhabited island, is an island, islet or atoll that is not permanently populated by humans. Uninhabited islands are often depicted in films or stories about shipwrecked people, and are also used as stereot ...
*
List of islands of New Zealand
New Zealand consists of more than six hundred islands, mainly remnants of a larger land mass now beneath the sea. New Zealand is the seventh-largest island nation on earth, and the third-largest located entirely in the Southern Hemisphere. Th ...
*
Lists of islands
This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water
A body of water or waterbody (often spelled water body) is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another plane ...
References
{{Authority control
Uninhabited islands of New Zealand
Geography of Dunedin
Islands of Otago