Kawau Island, New Zealand - Definition and Overview

Kawau Island is located in the Hauraki Gulf, close to the northern coast of the New Zealand North Island. It lies only two kilometres off the coast of the North Auckland Peninsula, and shelters Kawau Bay to the south of Warkworth. The island is located 50 kilometres north of the Auckland city centre.

The island is a popular holiday resort, the majority of which is covered in forest. It is eight kilometres by five kilometres at its longest axes, and is almost bisected by the long inlet of Bon Accord Harbour. Rumoured to have been the base for seaborne raiding Maori in the early 18th century, it was purchased in 1837.

Manganese and copper were mined in the first years of European ownership until the island was bought by Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand in 1862 as a private retreat. He built the Kawau Island Mansion House which still stands, and made the surrounding land into a botanical and zoological park, importing many plants and animals. The house is now owned by the New Zealand Department of Conservation and is open to the public.

The island is home to kiwi and two thirds of the entire population of North Island weka. Among the animals that Grey introduced were four species of wallabies which do considerable damage to the native vegetation, thus harming the habitat for these flightless birds. A local organisation, the Pohutukawa Trust New Zealand, aims to eradicate the wallabies by 2005.