Three Kings Islands

The Three Kings Islands ( Māori: Manawa tawhi or Nga Motu Karaka, German: Three Kings Islands) are a small group of 13 islands with a total area of 4.86 km ², about 55 kilometers northwest of Cape Reinga, the most northwestern point of the North Island of New Zealand. This is where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea together.

The islands are located on a submarine plateau, the Three Kings Bank, and are separated from the North Island by an 8 km wide and 200-300 m deep trench. Therefore, and because of its distance from the mainland, they are part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands. They are therefore part of New Zealand, but not part of any region of New Zealand, but they are an Area Outside Territorial Authority ( area outside the local government ).

The islands were named on January 6, 1643 by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, three weeks after he first discovered New Zealand Europeans.

Tasman anchored in search of drinking water in the islands. Since it was the Rauhnacht of the Epiphany, the day on which the Magi visited the Christ child, he named the island after them. Tasman named the northern tip of the North Island Cape Maria van Diemen to the wife of Anthony van Diemen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies ( now Indonesia ). These are the last two geographical objects that still wear their given name of Abel Tasman.

Tasman found the islands inhabited before, but since 1840 they are uninhabited. The Māoribevölkerung probably did not exceed the number of 100 individuals.

Flora

1945 GTS Baylis discovered on the island of the last copies of the tree Pennantia baylisiana, a Kaikomako. This tree was considered rarest and most endangered species in the world. Although a propagation program led to stable stocks, the type is monitored carefully. Other endemic plants on the islands are Tecomanthe speciosa and Elingamita johnsonii. The islands are a nature reserve since 1995.

The sea surrounding the islands has a rich fish life and attracts many divers. Another attraction for divers is the wreck of Elingamite which ran aground here on 9 November 1902.

Islands of the Three King Islands

The islands are divided into two groups of four main islands and a number of smaller rocks on:

King Group

  • Great Iceland or Iceland King ( Māori: Ohau or Manawatawhi ) is 4.04 km ² is by far the largest island of the group. A peninsula in the north- east of the island of about 1 sq km area is almost divided by a 200 meter wide, but 80 feet high isthmus between the North West Bay and the South East Bay. The island rises in the west to 295 meters above sea level, while the tip of the peninsula reached near their westerly cliffs up to 184 m.

The island plays an important role in the traditional beliefs of Māori that the spirits of the dead Māori return to their homeland Hawaiki in the Pacific. At Cape Reinga on the North Island - sometimes translated as the underworld - there is a gnarled pohutukawa tree, which should be more than 800 years old. The spirits travel to the tree and its roots down to the seabed. Immerse yourself in Ohau on again to New Zealand a last farewell to say before they go to Hawaiki.

  • Maratea Shoals, three islets just off the southeast tip of King Iceland
  • Northeast Iceland, about one kilometer north-east of Iceland is Great, 0.10 square kilometers and up to 111 meters high
  • Farmers Rocks, 800 m east of Great Iceland, five meters high and only some 100 square meters.

Southwest Group

  • Southwest Iceland is 0.38 km ² the second largest of the Three Kings Islands, 207 meters high and is 4.5 kilometers southwest of Great Iceland.
  • Princes Islands, seven small islands and numerous rocks with a total area of ​​approximately 0.2 square kilometers, from 600 feet west of South West Iceland and then extend more than a mile to the east. The northeastern islets with its 106 meters the highest.
  • Lion Rock, east of the Princes Islands, with a diameter of 50 to 70 meters
  • West Iceland is 0.16 km ² is the third largest island. It is located 500 meters southwest of the westernmost island of the Princes Islands and is 177 meters high.

Swell

  • Topographic map of the island group
  • Uninhabited islands
  • Archipelago (New Zealand)
  • Island Group ( Australia and Oceania)
  • Archipelago (Pacific ocean )
  • Tasman
Motukawao Islands Māori language SS Elingamite
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