Mercury Islands

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Mercury Islands
Iles d'Haussez
Mercury Islands.jpg
View of the Mercury Islands
Map of the Mercury Islands
Dive map of the Mercury Islands
Map showing location of the Mercury Islands
Map showing location of the Mercury Islands
Mercury Islands
Location of the Mercury Islands in New Zealand
Geography
Coordinates36°35′S 175°55′E / 36.583°S 175.917°E / -36.583; 175.917
Adjacent bodies of waterSouth Pacific Ocean
Total islands16
Major islands, , , , ,
Administration

The Mercury Islands are a group of seven islands off the northeast coast of New Zealand's North Island. They are located 8 kilometres (5 mi) off the coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, and 35 kilometres (22 mi) northeast of the town of Whitianga.

Description[]

A true-colour image acquired by NASA's Terra satellite, on 23 October 2002. The Mercury Islands are just visible at top right, to the northeast of the Coromandel Peninsula.

The main chain of the Mercury Islands consists of the large Great Mercury Island (also known as Ahuahu) to the west, Red Mercury Island (Whakau) to the east, and five much smaller islands between the two (Korapuki, Green, Atiu/Middle, Kawhitu/Stanley and Moturehu/Double Islands). All the islands, except Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island, have statutory protection and are managed by the Department of Conservation as highly valuable Nature Reserves where public access prohibited. Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island is privately owned and public access is allowed (excluding residential sites and the planted pine forest). One lone island, Repanga/Cuvier Island, also a protected Nature Reserve, lies 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) to the north of Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island, although this island is not normally considered part of the Mercury Island group.

Ahuahu / Great Mercury Island[]

Ahuahu / Great Mercury Island, 1872 ha, is the largest of Mercury Islands and the only one with permanent residents or public access. It is owned by Michael Fay and David Richwhite, prominent New Zealand businessmen. The private island, which features two luxurious residences, can be hired for around $20,000 NZD per day.[1] U2's lead singer Bono and guitarist The Edge stayed on the island during U2's Vertigo concerts in Auckland in November 2006. On 30 November 2009, Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island hosted the first successful launch of Rocket Lab's suborbital Atea-1 sounding rocket.[2]

In 2014, Fay and Richwhite, in partnership with the Department of Conservation, successfully undertook an eradication program to remove kiore, ship rats and cats from the island.[3] In 2016, it was declared pest free, making the entire Mercury Island Group free from introduced mammalian pests.[4] The island remains open to the public to showcase conservation and provide an accessible pest-free island in the Mercury Island Group.

In pre-colonial times, the island was the location of at least 20 pā, including Matakawau, a pā on the western side of the island where extensive archaeological excavations were undertaken in the 1950s.[5] Ahuahu / Great Mercury Island is what remains of a Pliocene rhyolitic volcano.

Whakau / Red Mercury Island[]

Whakau is the easternmost of the Mercury Islands, and at 2.3 kilometres (1.4 mi) across is also the second-largest.[6] The entire island is surrounded by reddish cliffs up to 100 metres (330 ft) high, prompting Captain James Cook to give the island its European name on his exploration of the area in 1769.[6] The island was briefly used by Count Felix von Luckner as a hiding spot during World War One during his attempted escape from New Zealand en route to the Kermadec Islands, with a cove on the island's northern coast bearing his name to commemorate this.[7] As with the rest of the Mercury Islands, Whakau is volcanic, with evidence of this history evident around the island's coast.[8]

Other islands[]

The smaller islands in the group have been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because they provide nesting sites for up to 3000 breeding pairs of Pycroft's petrels.[9] Moturehu/Double Island and Whakau/Red Mercury are home to the critically endangered Mercury Islands tusked wētā.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Review: Great Mercury Island". Condé Nast Traveler. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  2. ^ "NZ's First Space Launch Saved By $6 Replacement Part". The New Zealand Herald. 30 November 2009.
  3. ^ Michael Fox, "Private Funding Sways Conservation Decisions", The Dominion Post, 9 June 2014, p. 2.
  4. ^ "Pest-free islands jewel in Coromandel crown". Stuff (company). Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  5. ^ Furey, Louise; Emmitt, Joshua; Wallace, Rod (2017). "Matakawau Stingray Point Pa excavation, Ahuahu Great Mercury Island 1955-56". Records of the Auckland Museum. 52: 39–57. doi:10.32912/ram.2018.52.3.
  6. ^ a b Monin, Paul. "Red Mercury Island (Whakau)". Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Te Manatu Taonga Ministry of Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  7. ^ "Island of daydreams on Auckland's doorstep". NZ Herald. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  8. ^ Hayward, B.W.; Moore, P.R. "Geology of Red Mercury Island (Whakau)" (PDF). Auckland University. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  9. ^ BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Small Mercury Islands. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-02-02.

External links[]

Coordinates: 36°35′S 175°55′E / 36.583°S 175.917°E / -36.583; 175.917

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