Whale Island

Whale Island, or Motohora in the language of the Maori, got its English name from a whaling station that was on the island in the 19th Century.  A remnant of a volcano in the Pleistocene, due to erosion of the summit, the island is one of only two left.  The area is still volcanically active.  There are thermal springs in Sulfur Valley, at the Bay McEwan and Sulfur Bay.

It is a small island, 1.43 square kilometers, off the coast of the Bay of Plenty in the same region of New Zealand’s North Island.  It lies about 12 kilometers north of the town of Whakatane.

History
On the island there are several archaeological sites of the Maori and European settlers. These include an extensive pa on Pa Hill, a number of residential patios and Kokkenmoddinger gardens (deposits of food debris), areas in which stone tools were manufactured, as well as stone walls.  After the early 19th Century, even after the island was not permanently inhabited by the Maori, members of the iwi Ngati Awa and Tuhoe visited the island in search of the dark seegetier and shearwater as well as stones for their underground ovens (Hangi).
The first European settlers tried whaling activities from the shore in the 1830s.  The company failed, without a single whale being caught.  Forty years later they tried to make money by selling sulfur to a refinery in Auckland, but the sulfur was of poor quality and operations ceased in 1895.  In the years 1915 to 1920 26,000 tons of stones were provided for the construction of the wall being built at the port of Whakatane.

Ecology
In 1965, Moutohora was declared a nature reserve and in 1984 the Crown acquired it.  After wild goats on the island had been eradicated, 12,000 plants from 45 species were planted. The island is now a mosaic of pohutukawa, maho, kanuka, bracken and grassland cover.
One hundred ninety native, and 110 introduced, plant species grow on the island.  Now that the island is free of goats, rats, cats and rabbits, the local flora and fauna are no longer decimated.  The most important fauna component of the island is a breeding colony of the long-winged storm bird (Pterodroma macroptera).  Dark shearwaters, fairy penguins, various Maori rain pipers and oystercatchers also breed on the island.

Endangered species that occasionally visit the island are predatory tern, North Island kaka and Maori falcon.  In addition there are other forest birds, goats, ausgewilderte parakeets, three lizards species and the New Zealand fur seal.
In March 1999, in cooperation with the local iwi Ngati Awa and the New Zealand Department of Conservation, two rare saddlebacks (Philesturnus carunculatus) were transferred from Cuvier Island on the Coromandel Peninsula to Moutohora.  After a short time however, they were returned to Cuvier Island.
Access to the island is only with the permission of the Office of the Department of Conservation in Whakatane and in the framework of organized tours and school trips allowed.