Motuihe Island
| Motuihe Island | ||
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| Waters | Hauraki Gulf | |
| Archipelago | Hauraki Gulf Islands | |
| Geographical location | 36 ° 48 '37 " S , 174 ° 56' 49" E | |
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| length | 2.6 km | |
| width | 1.97 km | |
| surface | 1.78 km² | |
| Highest elevation | Summit 63 m |
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| Residents | uninhabited | |
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Motuihe Island is a 1.78 km² island off the North Island of New Zealand . It lies between Motutapu and Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf . Today it is a protected area for rare and endangered bird and insect species.
In the past the island was used as a farmland, quarantine station and during the First World War as an internment camp for Germans.
The most famous prisoners from 1917 to 1919 were Felix Graf von Luckner and Carl Kircheiß as well as four seamen from the German auxiliary cruiser SMS Seeadler . Luckner and Kircheiß managed to escape from internment on December 13, 1917 with a small crew on the island commandant's hijacked motorboat Pearl . They later boarded the schooner Moa , but were captured again shortly afterwards by the steamer Iris near Macauley Island . He was transported back to Motuihe and interned again.
After the Second World War , the Royal New Zealand Navy established a training center for recruits, HMNZS TAMAKI, on the northeast end of the island. It operated until around 1978 when it was relocated to Devonport .
The island has sheltered beaches and can be reached by ferry from Auckland, 7 miles away .
Flora and fauna
The natural fauna and flora were endangered by introduced species. Therefore rats and mice were exterminated in 1996 and rabbits and feral cats in 2004. Thousands of local tree saplings have been planted by volunteers. Endangered bird species such as the North Island saddle bird , the goat parakeet (kakariki) and the Maori bell honeyeater have been reintroduced to the island. In 2009 and 2010 around 40 small spotted kiwis were released .
The ferry dock, excursion boats in the bay beyond
The bay on the north side. Another bay on the south side is only 30 m away on the other side of the isthmus
