Rākino Island is one of the many islands in the

Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

to the northeast of

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Rākino is a small island north-east of

Motutapu Island Motutapu Island is a island in the Hauraki Gulf to the northeast of the city of Auckland, New Zealand. The island is part of the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park. The island can be accessed via regular ferry services departing from Auckland City. ...

. The island is long and about wide, and has an area of 1.5 km² (0.58 sq mi / 371 acres). The two most popular bays have public access, but three others also have access from the sea. There are smaller bays and beaches without public access. The public wharf is at the south end of Sandy Bay, and a barge access ramp is at the western end of Sanford Way in Home Bay. The hilly

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

comprises a fertile layer of

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

topsoil Topsoil is the upper layer of soil. It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs. Description Topsoil is composed of mineral particles and organic mat ...

from

Rangitoto Island Rangitoto Island is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, New Zealand. The wide island is a symmetrical shield volcano cone capped by central scoria cones, reaching a height of . Rangitoto is the youngest and largest of the appr ...

that overlays a thick mantle of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

soil which in turn overlays

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke ( ) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness (6–7 on Mohs scale), dark color, and Sorting (sediment), poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or sand-size Lith ...

rock. The island is mostly in pasture with pockets of coastal

pōhutukawa Pōhutukawa (''Metrosideros excelsa''), also known as the New Zealand Christmas tree, or iron tree, is a coastal evergreen tree in the Myrtus, myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that produces a brilliant display of red (or occasionally orange, yellow o ...

. There are around 76 dwellings on Rākino Island though the permanent population is only 21 as of 2019. Rākino, with its few permanent residents and its small size, and with a limited public ferry service, has little attraction for commuters. Residents welcome its isolation and privacy.

History

Sir George Grey Sir George Grey, KCB (14 April 1812 – 19 September 1898) was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Gov ...

governor of New Zealand A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

, bought Rākino in 1862. He ordered trees and started building a house in Home Bay but he lost interest when

Kawau Island Kawau Island is in the Hauraki Gulf, close to the north-eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the Māori word for the shag.At its closest point it lies off the coast of the Northland Peninsula, just south of Tā ...

became available. During the 1860s the prisoners from the

Invasion of the Waikato The invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federation ...

phase of the

New Zealand Wars The New Zealand Wars () took place from 1845 to 1872 between the Colony of New Zealand, New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori people, Māori on one side, and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. Though the wars were initi ...

were brought to Auckland, some were housed in the hulks ''Marion'' and ''Manukau'' at anchor in the harbour and a small party was settled at Rākino, where a house and gardening supplies were provided. The experiment was a failure and soon abandoned. There is an entry in the Appendices to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

Journal which says "Ihaka did not thrive much on the island and died there, it is presumed of homesickness and a broken heart." In 1874 Albert Sanford leased the island from Sir George Grey before his wife, Elizabeth Sanford, bought it in 1904. He and his family lived there for nearly 80 years. He was one of the founders of the Auckland commercial fishing fleet. His company started on Rākino Island in 1881, and he sold fish on the wharves at the bottom of Queen St. “Sanford Limited” was incorporated in 1904. The family home he built still stands in Home Bay. It was built of

kauri ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees, native to Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is one of three extant genera in the family Araucariaceae, alongside '' Wollemia'' and ''Araucaria'' (being ...

logs rafted from

Mercury Bay Mercury Bay is a large V-shaped bay on the eastern coast of the Coromandel Peninsula on the North Island of New Zealand. It was named by the English navigator Captain James Cook during his exploratory expeditions. It was first named ''Te-Whan ...

on the

Coromandel Peninsula The Coromandel Peninsula () on the North Island of New Zealand extends north from the western end of the Bay of Plenty, forming a natural barrier protecting the Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames in the west from the Pacific Ocean ...

. In 1963, the island was bought by Dr Maxwell Rickard, president of the UPO (United Peoples' Organisation (Worldwide) Incorporated), with the aim of setting up a philanthropic community. Rickard was a

clinical psychologist Clinical psychology is an integration of human science, behavioral science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well ...

and

hypnotherapist Hypnotherapy, also known as hypnotic medicine, is the use of hypnosis in psychotherapy. Hypnotherapy is generally not considered to be based on scientific evidence, and is rarely recommended in clinical practice guidelines. However, several p ...

and also owned an Auckland nightclub and toured as a professional hypnotherapist under the name "The Great Ricardo". Plans for the island included a clinic for disturbed and nervous patients, an international

orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...

, a refuge for unmarried mothers and homes for the elderly. However, these plans did not eventuate and the island was subdivided in 1965 into 25 blocks of and 125 smaller pieces of land which sold for between £2500 and £6000. Communication on the island was a problem, so the world's first

solar-power Solar power, also known as solar electricity, is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Solar panels use the photovoltaic effect to conve ...

ed telephone was installed. While widespread use of mobile phones has reduced reliance on landlines, the phone is still in use and local calling to Auckland is free.

Biodiversity

In 2002 the invasive

Norwegian rat The brown rat (''Rattus norvegicus''), also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat and Norwegian rat, is a widespread species of common rat. One of the largest muroids, it is a brown or grey rodent wi ...

was eradicated from Rākino Island.

References

{{Reflist

External links

rakinoisland.org
Islands of the Hauraki Gulf Islands of the Auckland Region Populated places in the Auckland Region Populated places around the Hauraki Gulf

History

Biodiversity

See also

References

External links