Ruapuke Island is one of the southernmost islands 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 ...

's main chain of islands. It lies to the southeast of

Bluff Bluff or The Bluff may refer to: Places Australia * Bluff, Queensland, Australia, a town * The Bluff, Queensland (Ipswich), a rural locality in the city of Ipswich * The Bluff, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a rural locality * Bluff River (New ...

and northeast of

Oban Oban ( ; ' in Scottish Gaelic meaning ''The Little Bay'') is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William. During the tourist season, th ...

Stewart Island/Rakiura Stewart Island ( mi, Rakiura, ' glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across the Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island with a total land ar ...

. It was named "Bench Island" upon its discovery by Captain

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

in 1770, but has rarely been known by any other name than its

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 ...

name, which means "two hills".Ruapuke Island shipping disasters before 1900
/ref> Ruapuke Island was called Goulburn Island by Captain John Kent, named after

Frederick Goulburn Frederick Goulburn (1788 – 10 February 1837) was a British army officer and the first Colonial Secretary of New South Wales (1 January 1821 to 7 January 1826). He was the third son of Munbee Goulburn of Portland Place London, and his wife Su ...

, a Government official in New South Wales, but the whalers generally called it Long Island, or Robuck. The island covers an area of about . It guards the eastern end of

Foveaux Strait The Foveaux Strait, (, or , ) separates Stewart Island, New Zealand's third largest island, from the South Island. The strait is about 130 km long (from Ruapuke Island to Little Solander Island), and it widens (from 14 km at Ruapuk ...

History

The island formerly had a

population of 200. Notable Māori inhabitants included Kāi Tahu chief

Tūhawaiki Tūhawaiki ( – 10 October 1844) — often known as ''Hone Tūhawaiki'', ''John Tūhawaiki'' or ''Jack Tūhawaiki'', or by his nickname of "Bloody Jack" — became a paramount chief of the Ngāi Tahu Māori iwi in the southern part of the So ...

and John Topi Patuki, MLC. A mission station was established on the island in 1843 by the Rev

Johan Wohlers John (or Johan) Frederick Henry Wohlers (originally Johann Friedrich Heinrich Wohlers, 1 October 1811 – 7 May 1885) was a Lutheranism, Lutheran missionary from Germany who lived for 41 years on Ruapuke Island, a small island in New Zealand's far ...

, but it too is long gone. The island was the site of several shipwrecks during the latter half of the 19th century, though most were without the loss of life. One exception was the collision of the cutters "Annie" and "Deveron" during a storm in April 1894, which resulted in the loss of two lives. The island and its surrounding rocks and reefs are still a hazard to the fishing vessels which ply Foveaux Strait, itself a notoriously dangerous stretch of water. Sheep were farmed on the island for some time, though it is now uninhabited, and privately owned by descendants of Tūhawaiki. The island is notable for its bird life, and it is a breeding site for the endangered

yellow-eyed penguin The yellow-eyed penguin (''Megadyptes antipodes''), known also as hoiho or tarakaka, is a species of penguin endemic to New Zealand. Previously thought closely related to the little penguin (''Eudyptula minor''), molecular research has shown it ...

. Cetaceans such as

southern right whale The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20 ...

s may be spotted around the island during migration seasons.

Geography

The centre of the island is flat with a height of , and there are

hummock In geology, a hummock is a small knoll or mound above ground.Bates, Robert L. and Julia A. Jackson, ed. (1984). “hummock.” Dictionary of Geological Terms, 3rd Ed. New York: Anchor Books. p. 241. They are typically less than in height and ...

s on its north, south and west ends. The island is covered mainly with stunted trees, but also has open scrub land and some low-lying marshland. The island's major geographic features include three large bays, the largest of which is Henrietta Bay, in the southwest, named for the brig ''Elizabeth Henrietta'' which ran aground there in February 1824.Hunting henriettas on Ruapuke Island – on the tail of New Zealand’s first mice
, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand. The other bays are Lagoon Bay (in the west) and Caroline Bay (in the north west). The small Waitokariro Lagoon lies immediately inland from Henrietta Bay. The three bays are separated by two large peninsulas, and two more peninsulas extend at the northern and southern ends of the island, culminating in North Head and South Head respectively. One of these peninsulas, that between Lagoon and Caroline Bays, is a

tombolo A tombolo is a sandy or shingle isthmus. A tombolo, from the Italian ', meaning 'pillow' or 'cushion', and sometimes translated incorrectly as ''ayre'' (an ayre is a shingle beach of any kind), is a deposition landform by which an island become ...

. North Head is a cliffy promontory rising to a hummock, high. Close to the westernmost point, on the peninsula separating Lagoon Bay and Henrietta Bay, the island reaches its highest point, above sea level.Dowling, P. (ed.) (2004). ''Reed New Zealand Atlas''. Auckland: Reed Books. map 115. . It is these two hummocks which give the island its name. The eastern coast is dominated by two long, generally straight beaches to the north, and a series of smaller coves to the south. Between the longer beaches and smaller coves lies an inlet, the mouth of the only river system on the island. A smaller island, Green Island, some in extent, lies off the central east coast, and another small island, Bird Island, which is about a third the size of Green Island, lies west of Ruapuke's westernmost point. Other small islets and groups of islets can be found off the coast of Ruapuke. One group of small islets, the South Islets, none of them larger than in size, lie immediately to the south of South Head, and beyond these to the southwest is the similarly sized Hazelburgh Islet group. Between Green Island and South Head is a further small group, the Breaksea Islands. Numerous other smaller rocks and reefs surround the island.

References

{{Authority control Uninhabited islands of New Zealand Islands of Southland, New Zealand Foveaux Strait Private islands of New Zealand

History

Geography

See also

References