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POHUTUKAWA TRUST NEW ZEALAND
To rehabilitate the native flora and fauna of Kawau Island To promote the conservation of indigenous species in New Zealand To achieve sustainable land use on Kawau Island
Photographer Glenn Jeffrey. - 10 March 1998.
The big picture photograph shows a view from above Moores Bay, looking North across Bon Accord Harbour. The scene is a typical one of visiting small vessels in the sheltered harbour waters. Tall ships visit on occasions and cruising vessels visiting New Zealand from overseas often call at Kawau. Just 30 nautical miles north of Auckland City and in the waters of the Hauraki Gulf makes Kawau Island a popular destination or stop-over for small vessels during cruising holidays, to enjoy the scenery of this unique maritime settlement and to see some of the settlement’s early heritage in the Kawau Island Historic Reserve. Across the Bon Accord Harbour the old traditional trading scow is seen, tucked in against a backdrop of flourishing coastal pohutukawa trees. The trees were saved from certain possum destruction by the initiatives of the private landowners who own 90% of the island (the land shown in the photograph is privately owned). Along the shoreline, blending in with the trees are about 12 holiday homes, depicting a typical scene along the sheltered western coastline of Kawau. The legal access is from the sea, providing an environmentally friendly solution on an island which has no road network. On the skyline to the right is Mount Taylor, named by John Taylor from the Kawau Company during the early coppermining days of the 19th century, and on the eastern slopes can be seen the tops of emerging Kauri trees catching the late afternoon sunlight. In the valley below there is a gorge with permanent water and recovering native trees including nikau, puriri, taraire, rata, rewarewa, a large leaf tawa called tawaroa, and smaller plants such as New Zealand’s only native gloxinia the taurepo flowering again after being almost lost to browsing animal pests. The Mount Taylor stream tumbles about 35 metres down rapids and discharges into a flat valley and wetland and then on to the intertidal inlet at the right shoreline, where the rare brown teal has been seen again, most likely in response to a reduction in predator numbers as the restoration project slowly but surely progresses. In another setting to the left of Mount Taylor there is a large stony flat with low kanuka scrub and fern, where numbers of the North Island Brown Kiwi are now slowly recovering as another response to the restoration project. The largest population of threatened North Island weka in New Zealand is also at home on the island, and kaka and bellbirds are re-establishing too. There has been a huge increase in kereru numbers (the native wood pigeon) since possum and wallaby control commenced. Further north puriri trees are emerging and surviving in the absence of severe wallaby browsing, their seeds being spread by the kereru. The photograph provides a brief introduction and appreciation of the very significant ecological potential of Kawau Island and some of the lasting benefits to be gained for the Kawau Island community, the Rodney District, and the people of the greater Auckland region, from this notable private landowner restoration initiative.
Pohutukawa Trust New Zealand Registered Office 24 Umere Crescent Ellerslie Auckland
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