Motuihe Island lies between Motutapu

Motutapu Island

Motutapu Island is a island in the Hauraki Gulf to the northeast of the city of Auckland, New Zealand. The island is part of the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park....

 and Waiheke

Waiheke Island

Waiheke Island is an island in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand, located about from Auckland.The island is the second-largest in the Hauraki Gulf after Great Barrier Island. It is the most populated, with nearly 8,000 permanent residents plus another estimated 3,400 who have second or holiday homes...

 islands in the Hauraki Gulf

Hauraki Gulf

The Hauraki Gulf is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has a total area of 4000 km², and lies between the Auckland Region, the Hauraki Plains, the Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier Island...

 of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, near Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

. The island measures about 179 ha (442.3 acre), of which around 18 ha (44.5 acre) are remnants of coastal forest. The island is a recreation reserve controlled by the Department of Conservation (DOC) and administered by the Motuihe Trust. It is a popular spot for day trips, either by 30-minute ferry

Ferry

A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

 trip from Auckland or by private boat. The island is known for its beautiful beaches.

The name comes from Te Motu-a-Ihenga, meaning 'Ihenga's Island' in Māori

Maori language

Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...

.

History

The small island has had a colourful human history. Starting out as a Māori settlement place, at least two pā

Pa (Maori)

The word pā can refer to any Māori village or settlement, but in traditional use it referred to hillforts fortified with palisades and defensive terraces and also to fortified villages. They first came into being about 1450. They are located mainly in the North Island north of lake Taupo...

 fortification sites are known on the island. The locals are said to have grown gourd

Lagenaria

Lagenaria is a genus of gourd bearing vines from the family Cucurbitaceae, also known as the "Squash" family. It contains at least seven species, one of which is known as the Calabash . Its species fruit can either be harvested young and used as a vegetable or harvested mature, dried, and used as...

s and taro

Taro

Taro is a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the family Araceae . Of these, Colocasia esculenta is the most widely cultivated, and is the subject of this article. More specifically, this article describes the 'dasheen' form of taro; another variety is called eddoe.Taro is...

. Very soon after arrival of the Europeans in the area, in 1839, the island was purchased, and farming began in the 1840s. Groves of Norfolk pines and olive trees are remnants of this time.

A quarantine

Quarantine

Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....

 station was built on the western section of the island in 1873. It was first used in 1874 for scarlet fever

Scarlet fever

Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...

 arriving on an inbound ship and operated for almost 50 years, slowly growing in size. During the First World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, the station was used as an internment camp whose most famous prisoner was Count Felix von Luckner

Felix von Luckner

Felix Graf von Luckner was a German nobleman, navy officer, author and noted sailor who earned the epithet Der Seeteufel -- and his crew that of Die Piraten des Kaisers -- for his exploits in command of the sailing commerce raider SMS Seeadler in...

 and his crew of the commerce raider SMS Seeadler

SMS Seeadler

SMS Seeadler was a German cruiser, part of a new breed of warships created by the new Imperial Navy. To protect the Empire's growing overseas possessions and colonies, the navy needed ships seaworthy enough to venture out into far off oceans and have the coal supply to reach far off destinations...

. Luckner organised an escape from the island in 1917, took over a scow

Scow

A scow, in the original sense, is a flat-bottomed boat with a blunt bow, often used to haul bulk freight; cf. barge. The etymology of the word is from the Dutch schouwe, meaning such a boat.-Sailing scows:...

 and sailed to the Kermadec Islands

Kermadec Islands

The Kermadec Islands are a subtropical island arc in the South Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand's North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga...

 where he was recaptured (and escaped again), though not before becoming something of an odd type of hero in the eyes of many New Zealanders, for the fact that his numerous and daring wartime escapades had killed only a single person.

With the outbreak of World War II, the buildings became a naval training base, HMNZS Tamaki, and a number of newer buildings were added. The base remained a navy training ground until 1963, when its functions were moved to the North Shore mainland.

Conservation

The island's trust organises an active programme of pest eradication, and is slowly replanting sections of the island with native trees. Rats and mice were eradicated in 1996 and rabbits in 2004. The conservation programme has reintroduced native species like the North Island Saddleback (Tieke). The Trust maintains a small conservation presence on the island, and usually has a number of volunteers working at the local tree nursery or in other conservation programmes.

In early 2008, rat footprints were found in a tracking tunnel (a device to check for the presence of certain animals) on the island. This set off a substantial effort by the trust and DOC to catch the rodent, which was feared to be part of a larger infestation. The Norwegian rat

Brown Rat

The brown rat, common rat, sewer rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat, Brown Norway rat, Norwegian rat, or wharf rat is one of the best known and most common rats....

 was eventually trapped by a special hunting dog, allowing plans to release native Red-fronted Parakeets (Kākāriki) to continue as planned in May 2008, when 31 were brought by helicopter from Little Barrier Island, where there is a relatively large population.

In March 2009, fifteen Little Spotted Kiwi

Little Spotted Kiwi

The Little Spotted Kiwi or Little Gray Kiwi, Apteryx owenii, is a small species of kiwi originally from New Zealand's South Island that, around 1890 and 1910 was captured and later released on Kapiti Island...

 were released on the island.

In May 2009, 350 'agents' of The Nikolai Organisation

The Nikolai Organisation

The Nikolai Organisation is a New Zealand social media marketing campaign created by Hadleigh Averill. It was started in 2007 for vodka brand Smirnoff and presents itself as headed by the mysterious "Nikolai", a man that no one has either seen or met.The N.O...

planted 22,400 native trees on Motuihe Island in just one day, which was 40% of the 2009 planting programme.