Matui Island

Matui Island

A wonderful place to spend a day walking and exploring, the Matui Island Scientific and Historic Reserve lies in Wellington Harbour approximately 8 km (5 mi) from the city. Traveling here by boat is one of the most popular day trips for visitors to the city, especially those with kids; the island has lots of walking tracks, great beaches for swimming, good picnic spots, and opportunities to see whales, dolphins, penguins, and other birds (sharp eyes may also pick out skinks and other small lizards, and giant weta insects along the paths). Because the boats bring only a limited number of passengers to the island at a time, it's never crowded.

Although the 62-acre island was opened as a DOC reserve only in 1995, it has an interesting place in New Zealand's history. From the early 1880s until around 1980, it was used as a quarantine station by early European settlers for both humans and animals -- including dogs, cattle, sheep, red deer, llamas, and other livestock -- on their way into the country. During the world wars, it was also used as a place of internment for aliens considered a security threat.

In 1981 Matui became a project of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. Volunteers began planting trees that year, to replace vegetation that had previously been cleared to allow grazing for quarantined animals. Many other native plants that flourished before the arrival of European settlers have also been replanted, and native insects such as wetas have been reintroduced. The island now hosts breeding grounds for a variety of seabird species.

There is no town and no accommodation on the island; it's strictly a place to enjoy natural beauty for a few hours at a time. The few man-made structures on Matui today include the old quarantine station, and gun emplacements from World War II -- which were never used, and which remain on the southernmost summit of the island. An automated lighthouse built in 1900 to replace the original structure from 1866 also still sends out its southward beacon to ships traveling from Wellington Harbour.

The island can be reached by the Dominion Post East/West ferry service; there are nine round-trip runs made from Wellington Harbour per day.