Aotea – Great Barrier Island
Great Barrier Island is called Aotea in Maori. It lies in the outer Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, 100km north-east of central Auckland. With an area of 285km^2 it is the sixth-largest island of New Zealand and fourth-largest in the main chain. Its highest point, Mount Hobson, is 621m. The local Iwi is Ngāti Wai.
The local authority is the Auckland Council and the Island has its own Local Board. This is probably a good measure of how different the Island is from the other parts of Auckland.
The people are nice….well, most of them.
The Island is fantastic. In summer it is a paradise for surfers and fisherman but when the winter comes and you find yourself reading in front of the fire while the rain roars down. Well, that is my favourite time.
It is a good idea to start this from the top at Station Rock end. Unless you really like steep hills. 🙂 Station Rock track is a fairly new track. Originally it only went up to Station Rock but now it has been extended. It follows along the ridge-line to meet Kowhai Valley Track. This […]
Kaitoke Hot Springs track is probably the most walked piece of track on Great Barrier Island. It is also the easiest. Being almost flat helps. If there was a track to take someone in a wheelchair on, this would be it. Do a test run first, but it should be fine. The track starts on […]
Te Ahumata Track is a nice walk to the top of Te Ahumata (Whitecliffs). Roughly an hour and a half up and down again. Parking is right across the road at the Forest Road track entrance. It is a fairly gentle walk to begin with. Following the ridge and curving around until getting to the turnoff […]
It was cold and clear when I woke up at Mt Heale Hut. I probably should have been more proactive and gone to the summit for sunrise but instead I cleaned the hut. There had been a rat the night before. Probably because of the food people had left behind. Really, on the bench there […]
One end of Forest Road starts at Port Fitzroy and the other at Whangaparapara Road. I started at the Whangaparapara end. It was closer. Forest Road The entire track is supposed to be 13km and it can feel that long. It follows the ridge line at either end but there are three deep valleys and, […]
Off The Grid Great Barrier Island is a website run by the Aoteaora Trust to promote and inform people on the issues surrounding off the grid living on Great Barrier Island. There is a huge amount of information to process when deciding to go off the grid. Not only on Great Barrier Island but for […]
Aotea FM has come a long way in a relatively short time. From an initial small set of batteries and a couple of solar panels up a hill it now has three transmitting stations to cover as much of the Island as possible and a new broadcasting hut near the Claris shops. That’s not a […]
