Waiheke Island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Waiheke Island is in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand, 17.7 km (about 35 minutes by ferry) from Auckland. Of the Hauraki Gulf islands, it is the second-largest (after Great Barrier Island), the most populated and the most accessible by regular ferry and air services. Waiheke is the third most populated island in New Zealand, after the North and South Islands.
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[edit] Geography
The island is 19.3 km long from east to west and varies in width from 0.64 km to 9.65 km, with an area of 92 km². The coastline is 133.5 km including 40 km of beaches. The port of Matiatia at the western end of the island is 17.7 km from Auckland and the eastern end is 21.4 km from Coromandel. It is very hilly with few flat areas, the highest point being Maunganui at 231 m. The climate is generally warmer than Auckland with less humidity and rain and more sunshine hours.
[edit] Demographics
[edit] Population
There is a permanent population of around 8,000 residents. Much of the population lives close to the western end of the island, at or close to an east-west isthmus between Huruhi Bay and Oneroa Bay which, at its narrowest, is only 600 metres wide. Here are the settlements of Oneroa and Blackpool; immediately to the east of these are Palm Beach, Surfdale, and Ostend. Further east lies Onetangi, which is located on the central north coast on the wide Onetangi Bay. To the south of this on the opposing coast is Omiha. Much of the eastern half of the island is privately owned farmland.
Waiheke Island is a popular holiday spot. During the period around Christmas, it is said that the population on the island can swell to over 30,000 people, although the elected City Councillor for the island says this number is not backed up by any statistical study, and came about when a prior Community Board was asked to come up with an estimate and they did, pulling the number out of the air. It is safe to say the population increases significantly, rents go up, almost all homes and baches are full and a festive atmosphere exists.
[edit] Social composition
Socially the island is highly diverse, although gentrification is having an impact, with high rates forcing some people to relocate. The island ranges from people living on the bottom of the earnings (or public benefit) scale to some of the wealthiest people in New Zealand. Some of the people earning little are well-educated and have voluntarily chosen to live simply. Curiously, some the wealthy show a similar choice, disdaining the more ostentatious comforts of wealth and preferring not to attract attention. The creative sector is highly represented with many artists, musicians, scientists, writers & poets, actors and eccentrics. There is a high proportion of people who sailed to New Zealand on sailboats and probably more ex-Greenpeace campaigners per capita than anywhere else in the country[citation needed].
[edit] Māori relations
Race relations are unusually supportive, even for New Zealand standards. The local marae was not ancestral Māori land held in Māori title but belonged to the Waiheke County Council. Its citizens, both Pākehā and Māori, got together, arranged for a long-term lease of council owned land, and built the marae. Also one of the earliest Māori land claims was driven by Waiheke citizens, who at the time did not know who the Tangata Whenua Māori were for the island. A detailed narrative of this history is available on the Waitangi Tribunal website in PDF form [1].
[edit] Government and infrastructure
Waiheke Island is part of the territorial authority of Auckland City. From 1970 until its amalgamation with Auckland City in 1989, it was administered by the Waiheke County Council. It now has a locally elected community board with limited, mainly representational powers, in line with other neighbourhoods in Auckland City. There is one member on the City Council representing all the inhabited Hauraki Gulf Islands, i.e. Waiheke, Great Barrier and Rakino.
The island has less infrastructure than mainland Auckland City. The roads are mainly narrow and in many places unsealed, especially on the eastern half of the island.
Each house must maintain its own water supply, most collecting rainwater in cisterns, and install a septic tank and septic field to handle sewerage. The community established a charitable trust which bid on the City's contract for solid waste disposal. After winning the bid, it was implemented with such a successful recyling rate the recyling centre had to be expanded to handle the volumes.
The island has a lively press, with three weekly newspapers vying for attention: the long-established Gulf News, the Waiheke Week and the Waiheke Marketplace. It also has its own radio station, Beach FM, broadcasting on 99.4 FM and 107 FM to the Palm Beach area.
There is a private airport, Waiheke Island Aerodrome, near Onetangi Bay.
[edit] Significant Events on Waiheke Island
[edit] Stony Batter
During World War II, three gun emplacements were built on the eastern side of Waiheke to protect Allied shipping in Waitemata Harbour. The emplacements and the extensive tunnels below them are now open to the public. See Stony Batter.
[edit] Amalgamation with Auckland City Council
In 1989, the former Waiheke County Council was forcibly amalgamated with Auckland City Council as part of Local Government restructuring of that year. Pundits predicted a stormy relationship and in 1990 the Waiheke Community Board formally requested the right to deamalgamate from the City. A Deamalgamation Committee was established by the City to facilitate the Board's wish. However, this proved not to be to the liking of most of the citizenry. In 1991, the City responded to a campaign run by a pro-union group , the Waiheke Island Residents & Ratepayers Association (Inc) by holding a democratic referendum. The deamalgamation proposal sponsored by the Community Board was defeated.
[edit] Nuclear and GE free zone
Waiheke Island was the first community in New Zealand to vote for a nuclear free zone and this action is said to have contributed to the national decision to become nuclear-free under David Lange's government. This assertion was made by a prior community board member, and requires further confirmation.
More recently, Waiheke's community board voted Waiheke as a GE Free Zone, but this is a matter of principle rather than fact, as only national controls exist over genetically engineered foods and grains.
[edit] Matiatia redevelopment
The Gateway to Waiheke Island where the primary pedestrian ferry lands over 1 million passengers per year is a valley and harbour called Matiatia. In 2000 it was purchased by three investors in a company called Waitemata Infrastructure Ltd (WIL). In 2002 WIL proposed to change the Operative District Plan rules for their land to build a major shopping and hotel complex with 29,000 m² of gross floor area on buildable land of approximately 3 hectares. This united the residents of the island in opposition. Over 1,500 adult residents of the island (out of perhaps 3,000) joined together in an incorporated society, the Community and People of Waiheke Island (CAPOW), to oppose the private plan change in court. In 2004, they won an interlocutory judgement in which the environment court ruled that Auckland City Council had erred in the rules, and the current rules limited controlled development to 5,000 m² in what was called the Visitor Facility Precinct. In 2005, CAPOW won an interim judgement by the court which reduced the proposed redevelopment to about 1/3rd of what the investors had originally sought. This set the stage for confidential negotiations between Auckland's mayor Dick Hubbard and the investors, who on 31 August 2005 (now known as Matiatia Day) sold 100% of the stock in WIL to the city for $12.5 million. The unanimous vote on 30 June 2005 of the City Council to approve the purchase was said to have come about because of the unity of the people of Waiheke Island.
[edit] Foot and mouth disease
In May 2005, in a suspected capping stunt, a letter was sent to the New Zealand Prime Minister claiming that foot and mouth disease had been released on Waiheke Island and would be released elsewhere unless money was paid and tax reforms made. A full agricultural exotic disease response was initiated. No livestock were allowed to enter or leave the island. Stock on Waiheke Island was tested every 48 hours for symptoms of the virus, which would devastate New Zealand's agricultural exports. After three weeks of testing, no infected animals were detected and the response staff were stood down.
[edit] External links
- Waiheke Island tourism website
- Waiheke Island website
- Hauraki Gulf website
- The Community and People of Waiheke, Inc
- Whakanewha Regional Park
- Waiheke Island Of Wine
- Waiheke Marketplace
- Beach Radio (Waiheke)
