The Chatham Islands ( ; Moriori: , 'Misty Sun'; ) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island, administered as part of New Zealand,
In the period of European colonisation, the New Zealand Company claimed that the British Crown had never included the Chatham Islands as being under its control, and proposed selling them to the Germans to be a German colony. In 1841, a contract was drawn up for the sale of the islands for £10,000 (equivalent to approximately £860,000 in 2023), but the sale fell through and the Chatham Islands officially became part of the Colony of New Zealand in 1842.
The Chatham Islands had a resident population of Waitangi is the main port and settlement. The local economy depends largely on conservation, tourism, farming, and fishing. The Chatham Islands Council provides local administration – its powers resemble those of New Zealand's unitary authorities. The Chatham Islands have their own time zone, which is 45 minutes ahead of mainland New Zealand.
History
Moriori
thumb|[[Moriori people|Moriori tree carving, or dendroglyph, in the Chatham Islands]]
The first human inhabitants of the Chatham Islands are the Moriori. They are descended from the East Polynesians who settled New Zealand and from whom the Māori also descended. A group of New Zealand Polynesians migrated from mainland New Zealand to the Chatham Islands, probably in the 15th century. Traditions of Moriori genealogy and some features of artefacts suggest that some arrivals may have come directly to the Chathams Islands from tropical East Polynesia. The Chathams are no further from Rarotonga than the Coromandel coast is, and it is possible that they were settled separately during the Polynesian exploration of the South Pacific, with most of the immigrants coming from New Zealand later. It is clear from artefacts and linguistic evidence that the final migration was from New Zealand.
The plants cultivated on mainland New Zealand were ill-suited for the colder Chathams, so the Moriori lived as hunter-gatherers and fishermen. While the islands lacked suitable trees for building ocean-going craft for long voyages, the Moriori invented the waka kōrari, a semi-submerged craft constructed of flax and lined with air bladders from kelp. This craft was used to travel to the outer islands on 'birding' missions. After generations of warfare, bloodshed was outlawed by the chief Nunuku-whenua and Moriori society became peaceful. Disputes were resolved by consensus or by duels in which, at the first sign of bloodshed, the fight was deemed over. The population before European contact was about 2,000. Maui Solomon, chair of the Moriori Imi Settlement Trust, has no doubt that it is a "Moriori ancestral waka" that brought some of his ancestors to the islands hundreds of years ago. The question of ownership of the waka is before the Māori Land Court, with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage working with all stakeholders on "their future aspirations for the waka". The report He Waka Tipua, issued by an expert panel after visiting the site in April 2025, concluded that the waka was of pre-European construction and likely to originate in a period before there came to be significant cultural separation between New Zealand and inhabitants of the wider Pacific. However, more detailed conclusions about the exact age and size of the waka depend on the recovery of the 90–95 per cent that remains buried.
Early European arrival
thumb|Monument to Torotoro above Kaingaroa Beach on Chatham Island
The name "Chatham Islands" comes from the name for the main island, which itself gets its name from John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, who was the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1791, when reached the island. The ship, whose captain was William R. Broughton, was part of the Vancouver Expedition. The crew landed on the island on 29 November 1791 and claimed possession for Great Britain. Following a misunderstanding, Broughton's men shot and killed a Moriori resident of Kaingaroa, named Torotoro (or Tamakororo). Chatham Islands date their anniversary on 29 November, and observe it on the nearest Monday to 30 November.
Sealers and whalers soon started hunting in the surrounding ocean with the islands as their base. It is estimated that 10 to 20 per cent of the indigenous Moriori soon died from diseases introduced by foreigners. The sealing and whaling industries ceased activities about 1861, while fishing remained as a major economic activity.
The local Moriori received and initially cared for the incoming Māori. A Māori chief, Te Rakatau Katihe, said in the Native Land Court in 1870: "We took possession ... in accordance with our custom, and we caught all the people. Not one escaped. Some ran away from us, these we killed; and others also we killed – but what of that? It was in accordance with our custom. I am not aware of any of our people being killed by them."
After the killings, Moriori were forbidden to marry Moriori, or to have children with each other. Māori kept Moriori slaves until 1863, when slavery was abolished by proclamation of the resident magistrate.) the French whaling vessel Jean Bart anchored off Waitangi to trade with the Māori. The number of Māori boarding frightened the French, escalating into a confrontation in which the French crew were killed and the Jean Bart was run aground at Ocean Bay, to be ransacked and burned by Ngāti Mutunga. When word of the incident reached the French naval corvette Heroine in the Bay of Islands in September 1838, it set sail for the Chathams, accompanied by the whalers Adele and Rebecca Sims. The French arrived on 13 October and, after unsuccessfully attempting to entice some Ngāti Tama aboard, proceeded to bombard Waitangi. The next morning about a hundred armed Frenchmen went ashore, burning buildings, destroying waka, and seizing pigs and potatoes. The attacks mostly affected Ngāti Tama, weakening their position relative to Ngāti Mutunga.
In 1840, Ngāti Mutunga decided to attack Ngāti Tama at their pā. They built a high staging next to the pā so they could fire down on their former allies. Fighting was still in progress when the New Zealand Company ship Cuba arrived as part of a scheme to buy land for settlement. The Treaty of Waitangi, at that stage, did not apply to the islands. The company negotiated a truce between the two warring tribes. In 1841, the New Zealand Company had proposed to establish a German colony on the Chathams. The proposal was discussed by the directors, and the secretary of the company John Ward signed an agreement with Karl Sieveking of Hamburg on 12 September 1841. The price was set at £10,000. However, when the British Colonial Office stated that the islands were to be part of the Colony of New Zealand and any Germans settling there would be treated as aliens, Joseph Somes claimed that Ward had been acting on his own initiative. The proposed leader John Beit and the expedition went to Nelson instead.
The company was then able to acquire large areas of land at Port Hutt (which the Māori called Whangaroa) and Waitangi from Ngāti Mutunga and also large areas of land from Ngāti Tama. This did not stop Ngāti Mutunga from trying to get revenge upon Ngāti Tama for the earlier death of one of their chiefs. They were satisfied after they killed the brother of a Ngāti Tama chief. The tribes agreed to an uneasy peace, which was formally confirmed in 1842.
thumb|Moriori people in the late 19th century
Reluctant to give up slavery, Matioro and his people chartered a brig in late 1842 and sailed to Auckland Island. While Matioro was surveying the island, two of the chiefs who had accompanied him decided the island was too inhospitable for settlement, and set sail before he had returned, stranding him and his 50 followers. Pākehā settlers arrived in 1849 and Matioro and most of his people moved to Stewart Island in 1854.
An all-male group of German Moravian missionaries arrived in 1843. When a group of women were sent out to join them three years later, several marriages ensued; a few members of the present-day population can trace their ancestry back to those missionary families.
In 1865, the Māori leader Te Kooti was exiled on the Chatham Islands along with a large group of Māori rebels called the Hauhau, followers of Pai Mārire who had murdered missionaries and fought against government forces mainly on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The rebel prisoners were paid one shilling a day to work on sheep farms owned by the few European settlers. Sometimes they worked on road and track improvements. They were initially guarded by 26 guards, half of whom were Māori. They lived in whare along with their families. The prisoners helped build a redoubt of stone surrounded by a ditch and wall. Later, they built three stone prison cells. In 1868 Te Kooti and the other prisoners commandeered a schooner and escaped back to the North Island.
Almost all the Māori returned to Taranaki in the 1860s, some after a tsunami in 1868.
1880s to today
thumb|Waitangi settlement – 1907
The economy of the Chatham Islands, then dominated by the export of wool, suffered under the international depression of the 1880s, only rebounding with the building of fish freezing plants at the island villages of Ōwenga and Kaingaroa in 1910. Construction of the first wharf at Waitangi began in 1931 with completion in 1934. On 25 November 1940, during the Second World War, the German auxiliary cruisers Komet and Orion captured and then sank the Chatham Islands supply ship the Holmwood, so the wharf saw little use by ships. A flying-boat facility was built at Te Whanga Lagoon soon after; a flying boat service to and from the Chathams continued till 1966 when it was replaced with conventional aircraft.
After the Second World War, the island economy suffered again from its isolation and government subsidies became necessary. This led to many young Chatham Islanders leaving for the mainland. There was a brief crayfish boom, which helped stabilise the economy in the late 1960s and early 1970s. From the early 2000s cattle became a major component of the local economy.
Moriori community
The Moriori community is organised as the Hokotehi Moriori Trust. The Moriori have received recognition from the Crown and the New Zealand government and some of their claims against those institutions for the generations of neglect and oppression have been accepted and acted on. Moriori are recognised as the original people of Rekohu. The Crown also recognised the Ngāti Mutunga Māori as having indigenous status in the Chathams by right of around 160 years of occupation.
The total population of the islands is around 600, including members of both ethnic groups. In January 2005, the Moriori celebrated the opening of the new Kopinga Marae (meeting house).
Modern descendants of the 1835 Māori conquerors claimed a share in ancestral Māori fishing rights. This claim was granted. Now that the primordial population, the Moriori, have been recognised to be former Māori—over the objections of some of the Ngāti Mutunga—they too share in the ancestral Māori fishing rights. Both groups have been granted fishing quotas.
Geography
thumb|upright=1.75|[[Topographic map of the Chatham Islands]]
The Chatham Islands lie roughly east of Christchurch in the South Island. The nearest New Zealand mainland point to the islands is Cape Turnagain, in the North Island, distant. The islands sit on the Chatham Rise, a large, relatively shallowly submerged (no more than deep at any point) plateau that stretches east from near the South Island. The Chatham Rise is part of the now largely submerged continent of Zealandia. The islands, which emerged only within the last 4 million years, are the only part of the Chatham Rise showing above sea level.
The two largest islands, Chatham Island and Pitt Island (Rangiaotea), constitute most of the total area of , with 12 scattered islets making up the rest. The islands are hilly, with the coastal areas being a mix of cliffs, dunes, beaches, and lagoons. Pitt is more rugged than Chatham.
The highest point () is on a plateau near the southernmost tip of Chatham Island, south of Lake Te Rangatapu. The plateau is dotted with numerous lakes and lagoons, flowing mainly from the island's nearby second-highest point, Maungatere Hill, at . Notable are the large Te Whanga Lagoon, and Huro and Rangitahi. Chatham has a number of streams, including Te Awainanga and Tuku.
Chatham and Pitt are the only inhabited islands; the other islands are conservation reserves with restricted or prohibited access. The livelihoods of the inhabitants depend on agriculture – the islands export coldwater crayfish – and, increasingly, on tourism.
The main islands, in order of occupation, are:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! English name !! Moriori name !! Māori name !! Remarks
|-
| Chatham Island || Rēkohu || Wharekauri ||
|-
| Pitt Island || Rangiaotea || Rangiauria ||
|-
| South East Island || Hokorereoro || Rangatira ||
|-
| The Fort || Maung’ Rē || Māngere || The Māori name has supplanted the English name for this island.
|-
| Little Mangere || Unknown || Tapuaenuku ||
|-
| Star Keys || Motchu Hopo || Motuhope ||
|-
| The Sisters || Rakitchu || Rangitatahi || about north of Cape Pattison, a headland in the northwestern part of Chatham Island
|-
| Forty-Fours || Motchu Hara || Motuhara || the easternmost point of New Zealand, about from Chatham Island.
|}
The International Date Line lies to the east of the Chathams, even though the islands lie east of 180° longitude. The Chathams observe their own time, which is 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand time, including during periods of daylight-saving time; the Chatham Standard Time Zone is distinctive as one of very few that differ from others by a period other than a whole hour or half-hour. (New Zealand Time orients itself to 180° longitude.)
Geology
thumb|Schist rocks, Kaingaroa beach
The Chatham Islands are far from the Australian-Pacific plate boundary that dominates the geology of mainland New Zealand. The islands' stratigraphy consists of a Mesozoic schist basement, typically covered by marine sedimentary rocks. Both these sequences are intruded by a series of basalt eruptions. Volcanic activity has occurred multiple times since the Cretaceous, but currently there is no active volcanism near any part of the Chatham Rise. Prominent columnar basalt can be seen at Ohira Bay (one of the indentations in the north coast of Petre Bay) between Te Roto and Port Hutt.
Climate
The Chatham Islands have an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfb) characterised by a narrow temperature range and relatively frequent rainfall. Their isolated position far from any sizeable landmass renders the record high temperature for the main settlement (Waitangi) just . The climate is cool, wet and windy, with average high temperatures between in summer, and typically around 11°C in July (in the Southern Hemisphere winter). Snowfall is extremely rare, the fall recorded near sea level in July 2015 marking the first such reading for several decades. Under the Trewartha climate classification, the Chatham Islands have a humid subtropical climate (Cf) for the lack of cold weather during the winter and a daily mean temperature above for 8 months or more.
Biodiversity
thumb|right|Chatham Islands forget-me-not ([[Myosotidium|Myosotidium hortensia)]]
thumb|A [[Chatham pigeon foraging in farmland in Awatotara Parea Reserve]]
thumb|Massive [[phytoplankton bloom around the islands]]
Plants
The natural vegetation of the islands was a mixture of forest, scrubby heath, and swamp, but today most of the land is fern or pasture-covered, although there are some areas of dense forest and areas of peat bogs and other habitats. Of interest are the akeake trees, with branches trailing almost horizontally in the lee of the wind. The ferns in the forest understory include Blechnum discolor.
The islands are home to a rich bio-diversity including about 50 endemic plants adapted to the cold and the wind, such as the Chatham Islands forget-me-not (Myosotidium hortensia), the Chatham Islands sow-thistle (Embergeria grandifolia), rautini (Brachyglottis huntii), the Chatham Islands kakaha (Astelia chathamica), soft speargrass (Aciphylla dieffenbachii), and the Chatham Island akeake or Chatham Island tree daisy (Olearia traversiorum).
Birds
The islands are a breeding ground for huge flocks of seabirds and are home to a number of endemic birds, some of which are seabirds and others which live on the islands. The best known species are the critically endangered magenta petrel and the vulnerable black robin, both of which came perilously close to extinction before drawing the attention of conservation efforts. Other endemic species are the Chatham oystercatcher, the Chatham gerygone, the Chatham pigeon, Forbes' parakeet, the Chatham snipe and the shore plover. The endemic Chatham shag (critically endangered), the Pitt shag (endangered) and the Chatham albatross (vulnerable) are at risk of capture by a variety of fishing gear, including fishing lines, trawls, gillnets, and pots.
A number of species have gone extinct since human settlement, including the Chatham raven, Chatham fernbird, Chatham Islands penguin, Rēkohu shelduck and the three endemic species of flightless rails, the Chatham rail, Dieffenbach's rail, and Hawkins's rail.
Mammals
Marine mammals found in the waters of the Chathams include New Zealand sea lions, New Zealand fur seals, leopard seals, and southern elephant seals. Many whale species are attracted to the rich food sources of the Chatham Rise.
Dragonflies and damselflies
Only three species of Odonata are known from the Chatham Islands, while 14 have been recorded throughout New Zealand.
- Zygoptera Selys, 1854
- Lestidae Calvert, 1901
- Austrolestes colensonis (White in White & Gardiner Butler, 1846)
- Coenagrionidae Kirby, 1890
- Xanthocnemis tuanuii Rowe, 1981
- Anisoptera Selys, 1854
- Corduliidae Kirby, 1890
- Procordulia smithii (White in White & Gardiner Butler, 1846)
According to Marinov & McHugh (2010), the poor diversity is linked to harsh environmental conditions, such as generally low annual temperatures, constant strong winds and high acidity in the habitats where their larvae develop.
Xanthocnemis tuanuii is endemic to the Chatham Islands, but close to Xanthocnemis zealandica (McLachlan, 1873) from mainland New Zealand and genetic studies suggest that the two species cohabitate on the Chatham Islands Nolan & al (2007).
According to Marinov & McHugh (2010),
In February 2025, the Department of Conservation (DOC) announced a pest eradication project on the island. The project, part of the Island-Ocean Connection Challenge (IOCC), targets three islands up to 15 times larger than any previously cleared of pests in New Zealand. The goal is to remove invasive species, restore ecosystems, and protect native wildlife, including kākāpō, seabirds, and rare plants. The total project cost is estimated at $202 million, with $54 million from the government and $11.5 million raised through philanthropy, leaving $137 million still needed.
Population
right|thumb|An agricultural scene at [[Waitangi, Chatham Islands|Waitangi ]]
Chatham Islands covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km<sup>2</sup>.