Kapiti Island (), sometimes written as Kāpiti Island, is an island nature reserve located off the west coast of the lower North Island of New Zealand and within the Kāpiti Coast District. Parts of the island were previously farmed, but it is now a predator-free sanctuary for endemic birds, including many endangered birds. The island is long, running southwest/northeast, and roughly wide, being more or less rectangular in shape, and has an area of .

The island is separated from the North Island by the Rauoterangi Channel. The highest point on the island is Tūteremoana, . The seaward (west) side of the island is particularly rocky and has high cliffs, some hundreds of metres high, that drop straight into the sea. The word kapiti (meaning 'to be joined') is spelt without a macron, and is unrelated to the word kāpiti (cabbage). The island does not have an official name, but is recorded on topographical maps and hence in the New Zealand Gazetteer as Kapiti Island. In 2010 the Māori Language Commission acknowledged that, while the ordinary word kapiti does not have a macron, iwi of the Kāpiti region have evidence from history and local pronunciation that the place name is a variant form of āpiti, and that Kāpiti (with a macron) is correct.

The island also became known by Māori as Motu Rongonui, or the "famous island". When James Cook visited New Zealand during his 1770 survey, he called it Entry Island or Entry Isle, Around the year 1150, Māori navigator Whātonga of the waka Kurahaupō divided the country into two sections: land from the southern tip of Kapiti Island north was given to his son Tautoki and his ancestors, who became Rangitāne iwi, and from the southern tip south was given to his son Tara and ancestors (Ngāi Tara, now known as Muaūpoko). The traditional name for the island refers to this division between Ngāi Tara and Rangitāne. In the early 1800s, the island was in the rohe of Muaūpoko.

Te Rauparaha encouraged European ships to visit Kapiti, which by 1830 became a centre for the New Zealand flax trade.

Whaling

thumb|View of Jillett's Whaling Station on Waiorua Beach in 1844. Drawn by [[Walter Armiger Bowring in 1907, based on an original sketch by John Alexander Gilfillan]]

In the 1830s and 1840s, the island became one of the most developed areas in the country for whaling,

After the collapse of the whaling industry in the 1840s, whalers and their families left the island.

Deforestation and farming

thumb|Hunters on Kapiti Island in the 1890s

The island was originally forested with rātā, kahikatea and rimu. By 1895, the government had begun considering making Kapiti Island into a wildlife reserve, due to the losses in native flora and fauna caused by introduced predators and deforestation across mainland New Zealand.

In 1893 a pair of the now-extinct huia were going to be sent to Kapiti Island, but were instead taken to England as a present for Lord Rothschild. Suggestions were also made to move now-extinct South Island piopio to Kapiti Island, or another island, but this did not happen due to difficulty capturing the birds.

In 1924, the New Zealand Native Birds Protection Society (predecessor of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society), reported that there had been a significant improvement in the condition of the island, following a reduction in the number of animals. In 1928, goats were eradicated, which was followed by the eradication or eviction of cats, deer, sheep, cattle, pigs, and dogs. The island was declared free of mammalian predators in 1999. In 2003 the anonymous Biodiversity Action Group claimed to have released 11 possums on the island, but no evidence of such were found.

Ngāti Toa Rangatira and Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai work with the Department of Conservation to guide conservation efforts on the island.

Birds

The island is home to a number of native bird species, mostly re-introduced. These include the takahē, North Island kōkako, brown teal (pāteke), stitchbird (hihi), North Island saddleback (tīeke), tomtit (miromiro), fantail (piwakawaka), morepork (ruru), North Island robin (toutouwai) and a hybrid population of North Island and western weka. Five little spotted kiwi were translocated from the South Island to Kapiti Island in 1912. There are currently 1,200 little spotted kiwi on Kapiti Island, which until recently were thought extinct on the mainland. On 12 October 1912, three kākāpō were released on Kapiti Island. Other birds that use the island for breeding include the spotted shag.

Kapiti Island is home to a small population of hybrid brown kiwi. In 1908, Richard Henry released a pair of tokoeka onto the island. Later in 1923, 7 kiwi were released from the Whanganui region, with a further two North Island brown kiwi being released. The brown kiwi have subsequently hybridized and have formed a small population between 50-100 birds.

Kapiti Island is one of Wellington region's "coastal habitats of significance for indigenous birds". It provides predator-free nesting habitat to little blue penguins, red-billed gulls, white-fronted terns and reef herons. A further four Nationally Threatened or At Risk species occur on the coast of Kapiti Island – the black shag, Caspian tern, pied shag and variable oystercatcher.

thumb|[[Takahē on Kapiti Island]]

North Island saddlebacks have been translocated from the Hauraki Gulf to Kapiti Island since 1981. The mean annual population growth rate for saddlebacks on Kapiti Island since 1998 has been 33%.

Between 1991 and 1997, 32 North Island kōkako were translocated to Kapiti Island. Between December 1991 and April 1994, 12 adults came from Te Rauamoa (four), Hauturu (one), Manawahe (five), and Makino (two). Between June 1995 and March 1996, seven kōkako came from Little Barrier Island. Five came from Mapara Wildlife Reserve in 1996, and eight came from the breeding programme of Pukaha / Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre between 1994 and 1997. All the birds were banded. Five years later, the population of kōkako on the island was 39, and 10 of 32 translocated kōkako had survived. Between 2021 and 2023, a further 35 kōkako were translocated to the island, in an attempt to increase the population's genetic diversity.

Lizards

The island is home to a number of lizard species, including the Oligosoma polychroma, brown skink, copper skink, common gecko, ornate skink, forest gecko, and Wellington green gecko.

Bats

New Zealand long-tailed bats live on Kapiti. but they suffered health problems and the translocation was unsuccessful. , bats have only been observed in the eastern side of the island. In February 1969 an attempt was made to locate the long-tailed bat colony. For four nights, mist nets were placed in the Te Rere burial caves, and hollow trees were examined along with more burial caves. These efforts went unsuccessful, and the colony was not found, despite sightings of bats in this time period.

Invertebrates

Invertebrates on the island include cave wētā, Kapiti ground wētā, cicada, Lycaena salustius, pūriri moth, tunnel web spider, stick insect, ngāokeoke and the giraffe weevil.

A stoat, an introduced mustelid responsible for decimating the bird life in New Zealand, was seen on the island in December 2010, and by August the next year the Department of Conservation had removed three of them. It is believed that they reached Kapiti Island by a combination of drifting and swimming from the mainland.

Marine reserve

The Kapiti Marine Reserve was established in 1992. No fishing is allowed in this reserve, but swimming, diving and snorkelling are permitted. Kapiti's tawa forest is often covered by a cloud cap which causes increased precipitation and soil moisture in the area, and decreased temperature and sunlight.

Geology and geography

thumb|Aerial view of Kapiti Island, with [[Paraparaumu in the background]]

Kapiti Island is long and wide, with an area of . It is 30 kilometres north of Wellington, Several islets are located in the channel close to island, including Tokomāpuna Island / Aeroplane Island, Tahoramaurea Island / Browns Island and Motungārara Island / Fishermans Island.

There are multiple active fault lines around both sides of Kapiti Island. On the north of the island is a freshwater lake called Ōkupe Lagoon.

Most of the island in owned by the Crown, with a small part owned by Māori. The islets surrounding Kapiti are also Māori-owned.

Another heritage site is Te Kahuoterangi Whaling Station, a whaling station built between the 1830s and 1840s. In 1910, twenty stone hearths had been found. The 2005 film King Kong was filmed partly on Kapiti Island. The island was used as a filming location alongside other parts of the Kāpiti Coast in a film called Poppy (2021), about a girl with Down syndrome.

See also

  • List of islands of New Zealand

References

Further reading

  • Kapiti Island Nature Reserve, Department of Conservation
  • Island of Spirits (1973) film for television about Kapiti Island at NZ On Screen
  • Kāpiti Hono Tātati Hono – My Island, My Home (2007) film for television about Waiorua Bay, Kapiti Island at NZ On Screen