Great Barrier Island

Great Barrier Island is one of New Zealand's last great wilderness secrets - and most diverse coastal and wetland environments - in the world.

More than two thirds of the island is publicly owned and this is largely managed by the Department of Conservation (DoC).

Great Barrier is also one of the largest areas of New Zealand still free from weasels, stoats and ferrets - a key reason why many nationally and internationally endangered animal species are still found on the island.

New Zealand's indigenous Maori first named the island Aotea after the canoe which 14th Century navigator Turi traveled to NZ in from Eastern Polynesia.

Four centuries later explorer Captain James Cook gave the largest island off New Zealand's North Island coast its English name because it shields the inner Hauraki Gulf from the giant swells of the Pacific.

Although it is only 100km east of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, Great Barrier Island today retains the rugged streak its pioneers - both Maori and European - built their tough reputations on when they settled there.

From the mid-1840s, shipping, whaling, copper mining and logging of native kauri forests attracted and sustained the island's mainly European population but also exploited its forests, minerals and other natural resources.

Isolation and a tough economic environment has made it difficult for Great Barrier Island to grow it's population and infrastructure. Today, environmental groups like the Awana Catchment Trust work to protect and enhance the island's many rare and endangered species of plants, birds, other animals and marine life. This is providing a basis for sustainable coexistance between the economic needs of the population and enhancement of habitats for wildlife.