Ponui Island
| Ponui Island | ||
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| Waters | Hauraki Gulf | |
| Geographical location | 36 ° 52 ′ 0 ″ S , 175 ° 11 ′ 0 ″ E | |
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| surface | 18 km² | |
| Residents | 9 (2001) <1 inh / km² |
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Ponui Island , also Chamberlin's Island , is an island in the Hauraki Gulf east of Auckland in New Zealand . It is located in the southeast of Waiheke Island , at the eastern end of Tamaki Strait , which separates the island from the Hunua Ranges on the mainland.
The island is almost uninhabited, in 2001 9 people lived on the 18 km² island. The island is divided into three parcels of farmland that belong to different owners. Mainly sheep are raised. The Chamberlin family has been farming on the island for 5 generations.
The island is popular for youth camps run by organizations such as the Boy Scouts . Crusader camps (organized today by the Biblical Federation) began in 1932 and celebrated their 75th anniversary in 2007.
The island is home to New Zealand's only feral breed of donkey, the "Ponui donkey", and New Zealand's national bird, the kiwi . The donkeys are descended from three specimens released in the 1880s. A breed of donkey descending from this herd is also known as the New Zealand donkey and is considered to be small, tenacious and obedient.
There is a spring on the island that is the end of an aquifer beginning on the Coromandel Peninsula .
There is a small wind farm on the northern tip of the island .