MÄkaro / Ward Island
Template: Infobox Island / Maintenance / area missing
Makaro / Ward Iceland is an island in the south of Wellington Harbour in Wellington in New Zealand. It lies in the harbor entrance between the Miramar Peninsula in the west and 2 km eastern Eastbourne on the east coast of the port. The significantly larger island Matiu / Somes Iceland is located about 5 km north.
According to the legend of the Māori islands Matiu and Makaro received their original name of Kupe, the legendary first navigator, who returned with reports of New Zealand in his homeland of Hawaiki. The islands he should after his daughters ( other versions of the legend speak of nieces ) have named, when he first drove into the Wellington Harbour about 1000 years ago.
The island received from the New Zealand Geographic Board officially bilingual names Makaro / Ward Iceland.
The main mass of the island consists of a steeply sloping block of yellowish brown Argillits ( a talc schist ) with a flattened surface. The east coast of the island consists of greywacke boulders. The rest of the coastline is rocky. Two small sandy beaches on the west coast are superimposed on the 20 -meter-high cliffs. The coast, especially the south end, is surrounded by numerous small rocky reefs.
The main shipping channel of the harbor entrance runs west of Ward Iceland. The sea area east between Ward and Eastbourne is, however, too shallow for larger vessels. Off the west coast is a beacon.
The island was used in the early 19th century by the Māori Ngati Ira as a refuge in times of war (PA), which was not occupied permanently as a retreat. Since the island with its steep cliffs already offered protection, no fortifications had to be built.
During the Second World War, a 1.8 km long submarine barrier of wooden poles between the Robinson Bay in Eastbourne and the east coast of the island was built, an anchored buoys barrier net retreated further from the west side of the island to Kau Point on the west side the harbor entrance. Of these, some concrete blocks are only preserved on the west side of the island.
The island is often approached with pleasure boats, rocky coast is used for fishing and snorkeling. Ward Iceland is classified by DOC as a scientific reserve, so camping, campfires and dogs are not allowed.
On the island lives a small population of gulls and other seabirds that nest on the steep slopes. Otherwise, the island is uninhabited. Against the south end of the island there are fields of aquatic plants, where many fish and edible clams as Paua and Green Lipped Mussel live.
To prevent the establishment of rodent, operates the DOC, since 2005 in the island bait stations containing pellet with the active ingredient brodifacoum.
The Makaro Street in Eastbourne is named after the island, which can be seen from its western end.