Pakatoa Island

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Pakatoa Island
Waters Hauraki Gulf
Geographical location 36 ° 47 '47 "  S , 175 ° 11' 40"  O Coordinates: 36 ° 47 '47 "  S , 175 ° 11' 40"  O
Pakatoa Island (New Zealand)
Pakatoa Island
length 960 m
width 490 m
surface 24 ha
Highest elevation 50  m
Residents uninhabited

Pakatoa Island is a privately owned island in the Hauraki Gulf , part of the North Island of New Zealand .

geography

The approximately 960 m long and up to 490 m wide island is 38 km east-northeast of downtown Auckland and is surrounded on two sides by Waiheke Island , the much larger island 1.6 km to the north and 1.6 km to the west can be reached after 3 km. The island of Rotoroa Island borders around 750 m to the south and Tarahiki Island is at a distance of around 2.5 km to the east . At its highest point, the island protrudes 50 m from the Hauraki Gulf .

The island, which administratively belongs to the Auckland Council , can only be reached by boat and has a boat dock in the northwest.

At the 2013 census, the island was considered uninhabited.

history

When the New Zealand Parliament passed the Habitual Drunkards Act in 1906 , there was initially no institution that could care for and treat the country's drunkards. Finally, was Salvation Army (Salvation Army) won for the task in December 2007 Pakatoa Iceland a drinker hospital built. In February 1911, the men at the facility were relocated to the southern island of Rotoroa Island and the house on Pakatoa Island was made available to women with alcoholism, but sailors kept coming to the islands and supplying the inmates of the homes with alcohol.

The facility on Pakatoa Island operated until 1942 and was used as a retirement home for older men a year later. In 1949 the facility was sold. In 1964, the former cinema owner Robert Kerridge bought the island and built a holiday complex on it in 1965, which was closed again after a fire in the 1980s.

In 1994, the owner of a meat processing company, John Ramsey, took over the island for NZ $ 4.25 million and lived there with his family. There he ran a hotel and resort with 24 small huts and 38 two- or three-bed rooms and offered the facilities for seminars or festive occasions. Since 2006 Ramsey tried to sell the island. It was last listed in the prospectuses of the real estate agent Bayley since 2017 at a price of NZ $ 40 million .

Flora and fauna

In August 1996, 31 of the threatened Wekarallus (Gallirallus australis greyi) were released on the island. Previously, the brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) living on the island were eliminated, which could have been dangerous to the birds because they would otherwise have eaten their eggs. The Wekarallen population fluctuated over the years depending on climatic conditions, but was able to develop as a whole, so that in 2002 a total of 140 individuals could be counted.

literature

  • Life at Pakatoa Island . In: Wairarapa Daily Times . Volume LX, Issue 9361 , May 5, 1909 (English, online [accessed May 13, 2018]).
  • Cyril R. Bradwell : An Outline History of the Salvatory Army in New Zealand . Ed .: University of Canterbury . 1950 (English, online [PDF; 13.9 MB ; accessed on May 13, 2018] thesis to obtain a Masters in History).
  • AJ Beauchamp, J. Hanbury : Changes in the population size of North Island weka (Gallirallus australis grayi) during establishment on Pakatoa Island , Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand . In: Notoris . Volume 56 , 2009, pp. 124–133 (English, online [PDF; 618 kB ; accessed on May 14, 2018]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Topo250 maps . Land Information New Zealand , accessed May 13, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c Coordinates and longitudes were determined using Goggle Earth Pro Version 7.3.1.4507 on May 13, 2018
  3. ↑ Mash block 0517200 . Statistics New Zealand , accessed May 14, 2018 .
  4. ^ Bradwell : An Outline History of the Salvatory Army in New Zealand . 1950, p.  68 .
  5. ↑ a b Island Retreats for Inebriates . The Salvation Army , accessed May 13, 2018 .
  6. ^ A b c Anne Gibson : Pakatoa Island in New Zealand - an unusual "gate" - Properties . In: International Herald Tribune . New York Times , May 25, 2006, accessed May 13, 2018 .
  7. ^ LR Shelton : Kerridge, Robert James . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Volume IV . Bridget Williams Books , Wellington 1998 ( online [accessed May 13, 2018]).
  8. ^ Anne Gibson : Meet the man who owns a Hauraki Gulf island . In: New Zealand Herald . NZME. Publishing , January 13, 2018, accessed May 13, 2018 .
  9. ^ Gallirallus australis, Weka . (PDF 2.06 MB) In: Red List . IUCN , 2016, accessed May 14, 2018 .
  10. ↑ a b Beauchamp, Hanbury : Changes in the population size of North Island weka ... 2009, p.  124 .
  11. ↑ Beauchamp, Hanbury : Changes in the population size of North Island weka ... 2009, p.  128 .