Waiheke Island

An image of Waiheke Island using satellite data.

Location of Waiheke Island in relation to the rest of the North Island, New Zealand.

Waiheke Island is in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand and is located about 17.7 km (about 35 minutes by ferry) from Auckland. The second-largest (after Great Barrier Island) of all the gulf islands, is also the most populated and the most accessible due to regular ferry and air services. Waiheke is the third most populated island in New Zealand, after the North and South Islands.

Geography

The island is 19.3 km long from west to east and varies in width from 0.64 km to 9.65 km, with an area of 92 km². The coastline is 133.5 km including 40 km of beaches. The port of Matiatia at the western end of the island is 17.7 km from Auckland and the eastern end is 21.4 km from Coromandel. It is very hilly with few flat areas, the highest point being Maunganui at 231 m. The climate is slightly warmer than Auckland with less humidity and rain and more sunshine hours.

Demographics

Population

Waiheke had a usually resident population of 7,689 people (according to the 2006 Census) with most of the population living close to the western end of the island, or near the isthmus between Huruhi Bay and Oneroa Bay which, at its narrowest, is only 600 metres wide. The settlements of Oneroa and Blackpool are the furthest west, followed by Palm Beach, Surfdale, and Ostend. Further east lies Onetangi, which is located on the northern coast on the wide Onetangi Bay. To the south of this on the opposing coast is Omiha, or Rocky Bay. Much of the eastern half of the island is privately owned farmland and vineyards.

Waiheke Island is a popular holiday spot, and during the main Summer season, especially around Christmas and Easter, the population on the island increases substantially due to the number of holiday homes being rented out, corporate functions and dance parties at vineyards and restaurants, the Wine Festival and the Jazz Festival and weekend trippers from around the country and the world. It is safe to say the population increases significantly, rents go up, almost all homes and baches are full and a festive atmosphere exists.

Social composition

Waiheke Island has a higher proportion of 'Europeans' (92.8%) compared to 65.7% for Auckland City and 80.1% for New Zealand as a whole (2001 Census data). The proportion of Pacific Islanders and Asians is much lower than in the rest of the city.

Socially the island is highly diverse, with the creative sector, such as artists, musicians, scientists, writers and poets, actors and eccentrics strongly represented. Around 1,000 people commute daily to Auckland for work as the career opportunities are limited on the island. The main employment sectors are horticulture (wine, olives and some livestock), tourism, construction, food services, retail and real estate. Gentrification and land speculation is however is having an impact, with high rates and mortgage interest rates forcing some people on fixed incomes to relocate off the island. New Zealand council rates are based on land and building valuations, which take into account potential value for redevelopment even if the owners live on the property and have no intention to sell or redevelop.

The income distribution at the time of the 2001 Census was found to show a higher proportion of lower income groups and a lower proportion of higher income groups, compared to the whole of Auckland City. This is partially due to a higher number of pensioners and single parent families who are usually on fixed incomes and poorer. In 2001, the median income for those older than 15 was $15,600 compared to $23,500 in 2006. Waiheke is now edging towards the national median of $24,400, with the median income having increased 51 per cent over five years. The increase in wealth on Waiheke is also reflected in the number of families earning more than $100,000 per year, which has more than doubled since 2001.

Māori relations

Race relations are unusually supportive, even for New Zealand standards. The local marae was not ancestral Māori land held in Māori title but belonged to the Waiheke County Council. Its citizens, both Pākehā and Māori, got together, arranged for a long-term lease of council owned land, and built the marae. Also one of the earliest Māori land claims was driven by Waiheke citizens, who at the time did not know who the Tangata Whenua Māori were for the island. A detailed narrative of this history is available on the Waitangi Tribunal website in PDF form.

Government and infrastructure

Onera Beach showing some of the settlements.

Waiheke Island is part of the territorial authority of Auckland City. From 1970 until its amalgamation with Auckland City in 1989, it was administered by the Waiheke County Council. It now has a locally elected community board with limited, mainly representational powers, in line with other neighbourhoods in Auckland City. There is one member on the City Council representing all the inhabited Hauraki Gulf Islands, i.e. Waiheke, Great Barrier and Rakino.

The island has less infrastructure than mainland Auckland City. The roads are mainly narrow and in many places unsealed and unlit, especially on the eastern half of the island. The Waiheke Bus Company (owned by Fullers / Stagecoach / Infratil) services most inhabited parts of the island, linking to the ferry sailings from Matiatia.

Each house must maintain its own water supply, most collecting rainwater in cisterns, and must install a septic tank and septic field to handle sewerage. This is a requirement in every building consent.

The community established a charitable trust which bid on the City's contract for solid waste disposal. After winning the bid, it was implemented with such success that the recycling centre soon had to be expanded to handle the volumes.

The island has a lively press, with three weekly newspapers vying for attention: the long-established Gulf News, the Waiheke Week and the Waiheke Marketplace. It also has its own radio station, Beach FM, broadcasting on 99.4 FM and 107 FM.

There is a privately operated airport, Waiheke Island Aerodrome, near Onetangi Bay.

Significant events

Vineyards near Stony Batter. Unlike the settled western part of the island, the eastern half is mostly agricultural.

Stony Batter WWII fortifications

Main article: Stony Batter

During World War II, three gun emplacements were built on the eastern edge of Waiheke to protect Allied shipping in Waitemata Harbour, in the fear that Japanese ships might reach all the way to New Zealand. This mirrored developments at North Head and Rangitoto Island. The guns were never fired in anger. The empty emplacements and the extensive tunnels below them can now be visited (on those days when a volunteer organisation opens them to public access).

Amalgamation with Auckland City

In 1989, the former Waiheke County Council was forcibly amalgamated with Auckland City Council as part of Local Government restructuring of that year. Pundits predicted a stormy relationship.

In 1990 the Waiheke Community Board formally requested the right to deamalgamate from the City. A 'Deamalgamation Committee' was established by Council to facilitate the Board's wish. However, this proved not to be to the liking of most of the new Auckland citizenry. In 1991, the city responded to a campaign run by a pro-union group, the Waiheke Island Residents & Ratepayers Association (Inc) by holding a democratic referendum. The deamalgamation proposal sponsored by the Community Board was defeated.

Nuclear and GE free zone

Waiheke Island was the first community in New Zealand to vote for a nuclear free zone and this action is said to have contributed to the national decision to become nuclear-free under David Lange's government. This assertion was made by a prior community board member, and requires further confirmation.

More recently, Waiheke's community board voted Waiheke as a 'genetical engineering free zone', but this is a matter of principle rather than fact, as only national government controls exist over genetically engineered foods and grains.

Matiatia redevelopment

The ferry terminal at Matiatia

The Gateway to Waiheke Island where the primary pedestrian ferry lands over 1 million passengers per year is a valley and harbour called Matiatia. In 2000 it was purchased by three investors in a company called Waitemata Infrastructure Ltd (WIL). In 2002 WIL proposed to change the Operative District Plan rules for their land to build a major shopping and hotel complex with 29,000 m² of gross floor area on buildable land of approximately 3 hectares. This united the residents of the island in opposition. Over 1,500 adult residents of the island (out of perhaps 3,000) joined together in an incorporated society, the Community and People of Waiheke Island (CAPOW), to oppose the private plan change in court. In 2004, they won an interlocutory judgement in which the environment court ruled that Auckland City Council had erred in the rules, and the current rules limited controlled development to 5,000 m² in what was called the Visitor Facility Precinct. In 2005, CAPOW won an interim judgement by the court which reduced the proposed redevelopment to about 1/3rd of what the investors had originally sought. This set the stage for confidential negotiations between Auckland's mayor Dick Hubbard and the investors, who on 31 August 2005 (now known as Matiatia Day) sold 100% of the stock in WIL to the city for $12.5 million. The unanimous vote on 30 June 2005 of the City Council to approve the purchase was said to have come about because of the unity of the people of Waiheke Island.

The Council organised a design competition in 2006 to find a suitable development plan and project for the Matiatia gateway. The competition winner's design (scheme 201) is available for comment on the Council website. It has already attracted much criticism for the lack of car parking close to the ferry terminal, the transport hub function used by all islanders regularly and almost daily by around 850 commuters to Auckland.

Foot and mouth disease

In May 2005, in a suspected capping stunt, a letter was sent to the New Zealand Prime Minister claiming that foot and mouth disease had been released on Waiheke Island and would be released elsewhere unless money was paid and tax reforms made. A full agricultural exotic disease response was initiated. No livestock were allowed to enter or leave the island. Stock on Waiheke Island was tested every 48 hours for symptoms of the virus, which would devastate New Zealand's agricultural exports. After three weeks of testing, no infected animals were detected and the response staff were stood down.

Wine

Waiheke's climate has proven to be well suited to growing Bordeaux blend grapes. Stonyridge and Goldwater Estate in particular have made a name for Waiheke wines, and there has been a great increase in plantings in the last 20 years.

External links

• The Community and People of Waiheke, Inc (a community particaption website)
• Whakanewha Regional Park (a nature reserve, from the DOC website)
• Waihekepedia (Community wiki for Waiheke)

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