Kapiti/Entry Island

 island, birds, conservation

Kapiti Island, off the coast of Raumati, was the fortress of the 19th Century Ngati Toa chief, Te Rauparaha. Kapiti Island is 10 km long and about 2 km wide, covering an area of 1,965 hectares. The highest point, Tuteremoana, is 521 metres above sea-level.

The name Entry Island was given by Cook in 1770, because it marked the entrance to Cook Strait.

Kapiti is one of New Zealand’s most valuable nature reserves, and it is the only large island sanctuary for birds between the Hauraki Gulf in the north and New Zealand’s southern outlying islands.

Nature reserves are areas set aside for the protection of native plants and animals, where human influence is kept to a minimum. Every effort is made to minimise the adverse effects of any introduced plants or animals that have managed to establish on the island. Most people never get an opportunity to visit nature reserves because access to them is so difficult.

Kapiti is one of a few relatively accessible island nature reserves. It provides an opportunity for people to observe birds that are either very rare or absent from the mainland, and to see the recovery of vegetation after intensive modification during last century.


Visitors can choose from two destinations, Rangatira or the north end. Both require a visitor access permit from DOC.

Private boats are not permitted to land or anchor at the Nature Reserve.

History:

Kapiti Island is the summit of a submerged mountain range created by earthquakes 200 million years ago.

At one time, moa and kakapo wandered the valley that lay between the mountains to the rest of the mainland. Several million years ago, most of this range was inundated by rising sea level. It was, for a time, part of a land bridge that extended across what is now Cook Strait. What remains is an island about 10 km long and 2 km wide of wind-blasted hillsides to the west and lush temperate rain forests to the sheltered east.

Maori history

Known as “motu rongonui” or “famous island” to pre-European Maori, a succession of tribes have used Kapiti. Settlements occurred on much of the eastern side, including Rangatira Point. Kapiti was the stronghold of the famous Te Rauparaha and a strategic location for Maori military activity as late as the 1830s. By this time, however, the island was shared with European whalers.

Colonial history
During the 1840s, much of the land was cleared for farming and sheep, goats, pigs, deer, cats, and dogs were introduced. Whales declined precipitously, and the island was given over to farming after about 1850. Today, DOC preserves many artefacts from the whaling period, such as the “trypots”, used for boiling down blubber, that can be seen on shore.

Conservation history
In 1870, Kapiti was identified by naturalists as a possible site for a bird sanctuary. It was reserved for this purpose in 1897, however, much of the habitat on the island had by this time been cut down and the entirety was overrun by feral animals. Despite its status, many native species did not survive. Much of the early work on using islands as bird reserves was pioneered by the visionary naturalist, Richard Henry, who arrived as a caretaker on Kapiti in 1908. The DOC whare near Rangatira was at one time his home.

By 1987, when the Department of Conservation took over the stewardship of Kapiti, many of the invasive species had been removed. Goats were eradicated from the island in 1928, followed by cats, deer, sheep, cattle, pigs, and dogs. Possums were destroyed between 1980 and 1986 in the first-ever successful operation of its kind. More than 22,500 possums were killed during this process. Kiore and Norway rats were eradicated using aerial application of brodifacoum in September-October 1996, leaving the island completely free of introduced mammals.

Conservation

The island is now one of the nation’s most important sites for bird recovery. Based on counts undertaken from April 1999 to January 2002, species such as kakariki (red-crowned parakeet), robin, bellbird and saddleback, have increased since the eradication of rats.

Stitchbird, kokako, takahe, brown teal, and saddleback have all been transferred to Kapiti since the 1980s. Earlier releases (1890s to 1910s) included two forms of brown kiwi and weka.

The little spotted kiwi thrives on Kapiti Island but is now extinct on the mainland.

Other birds you are likely to see in the bush include kereru (NZ pigeon), North Island tomtit, kaka, whitehead, tui, fantail, long-tailed cuckoo (in summer only) and silvereye.

Birds that can be seen around the coast include black-backed and red-billed gulls; white-fronted tern; variable oystercatcher; reef heron, and little, black and spotted shags. On the boat trip to and from the island you can often see gannets, fluttering shearwaters, and little blue penguins.

Kapiti Island was also the focus of a ground-breaking plan to try and save a threatened and isolated colony of short tailed bats in the Tararua Forest Park, by establishing a new population on the island.

Vegetation
The original forest cover of Kapiti was dominated by huge rata and podocarps such as matai and miro. Some of these ancient trees have survived in the deep gullies which the fires of the 1800s missed.

The main forests on the island today are kohekohe, tawa and kanuka. Many parts of the island are covered in scrub and scrub communities dominated by fivefinger, mahoe and kanuka. Some plants, such as karo, have been introduced to Kapiti because their flowers provided valuable food for nectar-eating birds.







Links:
* [www.doc.govt.nz/Explore/001~Other-Places/008~Wellington... Department of Conservation website]

www.kapitiislandalive.co.nz/kapiti%20island.html
* [ Wikipedia article]