Rurima Island is a small island in the

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty () is a large bight (geography), bight along the northern coast of New Zealand's North Island. It stretches from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway in the east. Called ''Te Moana-a-Toitehuatahi'' (the Ocean ...

, off

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

. The island is the largest of the Rurima Rocks, with the smaller Moutoki and Tokata Islands lying about east and west respectively. Located approximately west of

Moutohora Island Moutohora Island (previously known as Whale Island) () is a small uninhabited island located off the Bay of Plenty coast of New Zealand's North Island, about north of the town of Whakatāne. The island is a remnant of a complex volcano which ...

and northwest from the mouth of the

Rangitaiki River The Rangitaiki River is the longest river in the Bay of Plenty region in New Zealand's North Island. It is long, and rises inland to the east of the Kaingaroa Forest in the Taupō District. The Rangitaiki catchment covers an area of . It flo ...

, the Rurima Rocks are an uninhabited

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

owned by the

Ngāti Awa Ngāti Awa is a Māori iwi (tribe) centred in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand. It is made of 22 hapū (subtribes), with 15,258 people claiming affiliation to the iwi in 2006. The Ngāti Awa people are primarily located in towns ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

Kiore The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), or , is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. Contrary to its vernacular name, the Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asia ...

(Polynesian Rat) were eradicated in the 1980s, and Moutoki Island has long been an outpost for

tuatara The tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') is a species of reptile endemic to New Zealand. Despite its close resemblance to lizards, it is actually the only extant member of a distinct lineage, the previously highly diverse order Rhynchocephal ...

. The closest settlement is Thornton, about upstream from the mouth of the Rangitaiki. Rurima Island is about long, with two bays and sandy beaches on the northwest side. A wide shallow reef, almost a lagoon, stretches north from the pohutukawa-covered island. Snorkelling, diving and kayaking are popular activities here. The wreck of the '' SS Tasman'', holed on the southwest reef in 1921, lies nearby. There is some

geothermal Geothermal is related to energy and may refer to: * Geothermal energy, useful energy generated and stored in the Earth * Geothermal activity, the range of natural phenomena at or near the surface, associated with release of the Earth's internal he ...

activity on and near the islands.A. R. Duncan and H. M. Pantin (1969
Evidence for submarine geothermal activity in the Bay of Plenty
''New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research'', 3, 602-606.

References

Uninhabited islands of New Zealand Landforms of the Bay of Plenty Region {{BayofPlenty-geo-stub

See also

References