Auckland’s Great Barrier Island (not the Great Barrier Reef)
18 January 2018 / Updated 4 November 2022
Some of the material in this post is now in my book The Neglected North Island: New Zealand’s Other Half. Follow the link to find out more and to get to saleslinks. My blog post follows after the cover image!
THE largest of Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf Islands is Great Barrier Island, also known as Aotea, the island of the white cloud or the shining sky.
When I get telemarketing calls selling holidays on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, I tell them, ‘We have our own Great Barrier Island.’
I don’t tell them it’s not so big! Although, at 43 km or 27 miles long, Aotea/Great Barrier Island is still fairly sizable as isolated islands go.
Auckland at bottom left, Great Barrier Island at top right (north at top). Source: NZTopomaps.com (2017), Crown Copyright Reserved
Though smaller than the reef that bears the same name, Aotea comes near the top of a list of coastal destinations rated by National Geographic in 2010:
“Only 55 miles of ocean separate Great Barrier Island from cosmopolitan Auckland, but given how little the two places have in common, the distance seems much greater. With less than 1,000 permanent residents, more than half of its land area administered by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, and fewer introduced species than elsewhere in the country, the island is in good shape ecologically and will likely remain so for a while.”
As of the time of my update, you can see the article here.
On the edge of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, New Zealand’s ‘National Park of the Sea’, the island can be reached by a 4-hour ferry ride or a scenic half-hour flight.
Some time back, I bought shares in a bach (cabin) there along with a few other people. Over the years, I’ve loved going over to the island and tramping the 621-metre-high Hirakimata, also known as Mount Hobson, as well as visiting other parts of the island.
There are no possums, stoats, or ferrets on the island, which means that despite the few remaining rats the forest is largely untouched.
My most recent visit was in October 2022, a trip that I made with a friend named Esther Hinton. As you can see from Esther’s photos, the island is a real South Seas getaway, even though it is only 90 km from Auckland.
Kaitoke Beach. Photo © Esther Hinton, October 2022
Photo © Esther Hinton, October 2022
Photo © Esther Hinton, October 2022
And so, to my own humble photographic efforts! This October, we caught a ferry out to the island, with dolphins dashing alongside.
Heading out from Auckland
An information map, including the sites of numerous shipwrecks, as the island lies athwart the main approaches to Auckland Harbour
The author beside a sign identifying the Kaitoke Wetland, a huge swamp behind Kaitoke Beach
There are many places where you can look down on the beach from a craggy headland
Mulberry Grove Beach
Inside a café at Tryphena, the most urbanised part of the island
Tryphena
Tryphena
Several of the most popular destinations on the island are on a scenic trail known as the Aotea Track. I walked a part of the Aotea Track in January 2015 with my friend Rose and her partner, Daniel. We hiked along it to the top of Hirakimata, where there are amazing 360-degree views of the island.
My friends Rose and Daniel
Esther and I hiked part of the track again, this October.
Crags on the way up to Hirakimata. Black petrels nest in these cliffs, apparently.
Looking northward over Whangapoua Beach and the small peak of Whangapoua at right, from a section of the Aotea Track
The spectacular Windy Canyon is also on the Aotea Track.
Windy Canyon
Another highlight of the Aotea Track is Mount Heale Hut, which is a back-country hut with all kitchen implements, pots, pans, and even a dish brush supplied, and a view to die for.
View from Mt Heale Hut showing Little Barrier Island
Looking westward toward Port Fitzroy and Little Barrier Island from the vicinity of Mount Heale Hut
A beautiful sunset from Mount Heale Hut
Not all the huts on the Aotea Track have such spectacular views. But they all have gas and a full range of utensils, and only cost NZ $15 a night.
Amazing crags. The yellow light is that of sunset or sunrise.
This October (2022), I hiked to Mount Heale Hut from Windy Canyon and then took the South Fork Track to Port Fitzroy. I came back via the Kaiaraara Track. In all, this amounted to ten hours of walking in one day.
I climbed to the top of Hirakimata (Mt Hobson) twice, first in the mist and then in fine weather.
I walked to the Kaitoke Hot Springs, of which more below, and then to the bach (holiday hut) that I part-own in Okupu. I have had shares for years.
Sunset at Okupu / Blind Bay
One New Year, I was even lucky enough to swim with dolphins there.
This time I decided to stay another week, as it’s paradise here.
Although Esther and I came by ferry, after staying a bit longer, I came back by plane. It took off from the Great Barrier Aerodrome (a curiously old-fashioned name) near the township of Claris and rose up over the fabulous Kaitoke Beach, taking off to the southeast over the Pacific before turning westward for Auckland.
The blue Pacific
Turning westward for Auckland
I’ve captured many of these scenes in a video, here.
Aotea Great Barrier Island senes, October 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVvHezDn07k
This video shows scenes from my tour of Aotea/Great Barrier Island, east of Auckland, New Zealand, in October 2022:
1. Dolphins in the water beside the ferry from Auckland.
2. The Great Barrier Sports and Social Club
3. Kaitoke Beach
4. Mulberry Grove Beach
5. Small dashing birds that prefer to run rather than fly
6. Hiking through the rainforest, Port Fitzroy, and views from the peaks and from Mount Heale Hut (several scenes)
7. Flying out from Great Barrier Aerodrome at Claris.
Tourism Websites
For more, including upcoming events, see greatbarrier.co.nz and greatbarrierislandtourism.co.nz.
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