The Mercury Islands are a group of seven

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

s off the northeast coast of

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 ...

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

. They are located off the coast of 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 ...

, and northeast of the town of

Whitianga Whitianga is a town on the Coromandel Peninsula, in the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. The town is located on Mercury Bay, on the northeastern coast of the peninsula. The town has a permanent population of as of making it the ...

History

Great Mercury Island (Ahuahu) was occupied by both early Māori and Pākehā. A settler claimed to have bought Great Mercury Island in 1839. Great Mercury (Ahuahu), Kawhitu or Stanley Island and Double Island (Moturehu) were purchased and taken as crown land in 1858–65. These included Whakakapua (7³ acres) and Kowhaka (21 acres) being purchased in January 1865. Despite inhabiting Ahuahu, the Ngati Hei were not consulted about this purchase. A 2017 settlement recognized the

Ngāti Hei Ngāti Hei is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. Ngāti Hei is generally recognised as the dominant tribe of the Mercury Bay area. There has always been much speculation as to the origins of Māori people. Historians agree that Māori arrived in Aot ...

as having a legitimate claim to Great Mercury Island.

Description

The main chain of the Mercury Islands consists of the large Great Mercury Island (also known as ) to the west, Red Mercury Island () to the east, and five much smaller islands between the two (Korapuki, Green, Atiu/Middle, Kawhitu/Stanley and Moturehu/Double Islands). All the islands, except Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island, have statutory protection and are managed by the

Department of Conservation Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

as highly valuable Nature Reserves where public access prohibited. Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island is privately owned and public access is allowed (excluding residential sites and the planted pine forest). One lone island, Repanga/Cuvier Island, also a protected Nature Reserve, lies to the north of Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island, although this island is not normally considered part of the Mercury Island group. Mercury Islands dive map

Approximately 18,000 years ago during the

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Last Glacial Coldest Period, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period where ice sheets were at their greatest extent between 26,000 and 20,000 years ago. Ice sheets covered m ...

when sea levels were over 100 metres lower than present day levels, the islands were hilly features surrounded by a vast coastal plain. Sea levels began to rise 7,000 years ago, after which the islands separated from the rest of New Zealand. When sea levels were lower, the

Opitonui River The Opitonui River is a river of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand's North Island. It flows north to reach the peninsula's east coast at Whangapoua Harbour, close to the small settlement of Te Rerenga. The river provides a water supply fo ...

flowed east to the Pacific Ocean between Cuvier Island and Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island.

Ahuahu / Great Mercury Island

Ahuahu / Great Mercury Island, 1872 ha, is the largest of Mercury Islands and the only one with permanent residents or public access. It is the remnants of a

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58rhyolitic Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals ( phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The miner ...

volcano 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 oft ...

. In pre- colonial times, the island was the location of at least 20

pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori people, Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive :wikt:terrace, terraces – and also to fo ...

, including Matakawau, a pā on the western side of the island where extensive archaeological excavations were undertaken in the 1950s. During the latter 19th century, the island was a location for

kauri gum Kauri gum is resin from kauri trees (''Agathis australis''), which historically had several important industrial uses. It can also be used to make crafts such as jewellery. Kauri forests once covered much of the North Island of New Zealand, bef ...

digging. The island is owned by Michael Fay and David Richwhite, two prominent New Zealand businessmen. The private island, which features two luxurious residences, can be hired for around $20,000 NZD per day. U2's lead singer

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by the nickname Bono ( ), is an Irish singer-songwriter and activist. He is a founding member, the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Bono is known for his impassioned voca ...

and guitarist

The Edge David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), better known as the Edge or simply Edge,McCormick (2006), pp. 21, 23–24 is a British-Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist, and backing vocalist o ...

stayed on the island during U2's

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition in which a person has the sensation that they are moving, or that objects around them are moving, when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. It may be associated with nausea, vomiting, perspira ...

concerts in

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 ...

in November 2006. On 30 November 2009, Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island hosted the first successful launch of

Rocket Lab Rocket Lab Corporation is a Public company, publicly traded aerospace manufacturer and List of launch service providers, launch service provider. Its Rocket Lab Electron, Electron orbital rocket launches Small satellite, small satellites, and ha ...

suborbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital revolution, will no ...

Atea-1

sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are often ...

. In 2014, Fay and Richwhite, in partnership with the

, successfully undertook an eradication program to remove

kiore The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), or , is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. Contrary to its vernacular name, the Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asia ...

ship rats The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus '' Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is ...

and cats from the island. In 2016, it was declared pest free, making the entire Mercury Island Group free from introduced

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

ian pests. The island remains open to the public to showcase conservation and provide an accessible pest-free island in the Mercury Island Group.

Whakau / Red Mercury Island

Whakau is the easternmost of the Mercury Islands, and at across is also the second-largest. The entire island is surrounded by reddish cliffs up to high, prompting Captain

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

to give the island its European name on his exploration of the area in 1769. The island was briefly used by Count

Felix von Luckner Felix Nikolaus Alexander Georg Graf von Luckner (9 June 1881, Dresden – 13 April 1966, Malmö), sometimes called Count Luckner in English, was a German nobleman, naval officer, author, and sailor who earned the epithet ''Der Seeteufel'' (the ...

as a hiding spot during World War One during his attempted escape from New Zealand en route to the

Kermadec Islands The Kermadec Islands ( ; ) are a subtropical island arc in the South Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand's North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga. The islands are part of New Zealand. They are in total area and uninhabit ...

, with a cove on the island's northern coast bearing his name to commemorate this. As with the rest of the Mercury Islands, Whakau is volcanic, with evidence of this history evident around the island's coast.

Other islands

The smaller islands in the group have been identified as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because they provide nesting sites for up to 3000 breeding pairs of

Pycroft's petrel Pycroft's petrel (''Pterodroma pycrofti'') is a species of seabird in the petrel and shearwater family Procellariidae. Origin The Pycroft's petrel is a species of gadfly petrel (genus ''Pterodroma''), and is thought to be closely related to the ...

s.BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Small Mercury Islands. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-02-02. Moturehu/Double Island and Whakau/Red Mercury are home to the critically endangered

Mercury Islands tusked wētā The Mercury Islands tusked wētā, (''Motuweta isolata''), also known as the Middle Island tusked wētā, is a large flightless insect in the family (biology), family Anostostomatidae, discovered in 1970 living on a single small island in New Ze ...

References

External links

Geology – New Zealand's Geological History
, from ''An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand'', edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966. Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 2006-09-26. Retrieved 2007-04-15. * {{coord, 36, 35, S, 175, 55, E, region:NZ_type:isle, display=title Volcanoes of Waikato Thames-Coromandel District Important Bird Areas of New Zealand Islands of Waikato Volcanic islands of New Zealand Private islands of New Zealand Miocene volcanoes Pliocene volcanoes Pleistocene volcanoes Islands of the Mercury Islands