Medlands - Great Barrier Island - New Zealand
New Zealand facts & history in brief
New Zealand Map
Great Barrier Island (often colloquially
just The Barrier) is a large island off New Zealand,
situated 100 km to the north-east
of central Auckland in the outer Hauraki Gulf.
With an area of 285 km² it is the
fourth-largest island of New Zealand's
main chain of islands, with its highest
point, Mount Hobson, rising 621 m.
With a maximum length (north-south) of some 43 km,
it (and the Coromandel Peninsula directly to its
south) protect the gulf from the storms of the
Pacific Ocean to the east with highly contrasting
coastal environments.
The eastern coast comprises long, clear beaches,
windswept sand-dunes, and heavy surf.
While the western coast, sheltered and calm, is home
to hundreds of tiny, secluded bays which offer
some of the best diving and boating
in the country.
The inland holds several large and biologically
diverse wetlands as well as rugged and
hillcountry (bush or heath in the more exposed
heights) as well as various second and
old-growth kauri forests.
Settlements
Great Barrier Island in 2006 had a permanent
population of around 850, primarily in coastal
settlements such as Tryphena, the largest
settlement in Tryphena Harbour at the southern
end of the island.
Other communities are Okupu, Whangaparapara,
Port Fitzroy, Claris and Kaitoke.
There is no central power on the island, and
houses require their own generators.
There is also extensive use of solar water
heating, solar panels for electricity and
wind-powered generators on the island.
From the end of February 2007, the island was
seen around the world as the setting for the
BBC One reality show, Castaway, which was
filmed there for three months.
For more information about
Great Barrier Island see Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This page was retrieved and condensed from
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrier_Island)
see Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, December 2008.
All text is available under the terms of the
GNU Free Documentation License
(see
Copyrights for details).
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
This information was correct in December 2008. E. & O.E.
Hui Chin and I spent a few days on Great Barrier Island a
few weeks before Christmas in 2008, driving around exploring
the beauty of the place and getting to know some of it's
very friendly residents.
The whole island is very much a conservationist paradise,
bar a couple of very noticeable problems, the natural kauri
forest was almost all got chopped down and shipped to the
mainland, the other one is the many abandoned car wrecks
littering the otherwise beautiful natural scenery.
Hui Chin and I have really enjoyed the island's natural
beauty and the local people's friendliness
and hospitality.
Thank you very much, you nice people,
God Bless you all.
2008
You can click on these photos for an enlargement.
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