Guy & Hannah just finished a quick drive around the coast collecting Pohutukawa flowers. Last year was an exceptional year for Pohutukawa flowering and this year is not far behind. They stopped in at Lyle Woolley’s of Woolley’s Bay to take a photo of a small tree he planted some years ago which as you Read More…
Guy Bowden Talks about The Poor Knights Islands – Introduction
The Poor Knights have always featured in my life. In the early sixties my parents bought a farm on the Tutukaka Coast where I grew up with the rest of my family and where my wife and two children live today. It just so happens that our farm is the closest point of the main Read More…
Poor Knights Islands Geology
The Poor Knights are located 20 kms off-shore midway between the Bay of Islands and Whangarei Harbor. The Islands have been isolated from the mainland NZ for longer than any other group apart from the Three Kings Islands 60kms northwest of Cape Reinga. What remains today are heavily eroded rims of a large volcano, which Read More…
History of the Poor Knights Islands
According to the descendants a population of some 3 to 4 hundred people inhabited the islands for many generations. The islands were occupied by a sub tribe or hapu of the Ngatiwai people. The first account of a European to sight the islands was Captain Cook on the 25th November 1769. As a child I, Read More…
Plants of the Poor Knights
From a distance as you approach the islands from the west they appear to be covered almost entirely with Pohutukawa, Metrosideros excelsa. As you move closer you can see the caves and pitted cliffs where in any crevice wide enough to hold the smallest amount of soil plants will take hold, coastal tussock (Chinochloa brommoides), Read More…
Birds of the Poor Knights Islands
The islands are noisy. Bird, reptile and insect life is prolific. Seabirds are the making of the islands. The under story of vegetation is riddled by the burrows of millions of seabirds and in some places it resembles low tide in a mangrove estuary. If you happen to be on the islands in late August Read More…
Reptiles, Insects and snails of the Poor Knights Islands
The Poor Knights are renowned for their diversity of reptiles, which include the northernmost population of tuatara, also many lizard species two of which are endemic. There is also a remarkable diversity of endemic or nationally scarce invertebrates. On the Poor Knights reptiles play a huge role in the ecology of the Islands forests; there Read More…
Poor Knights Islands Marine Life
Recreational diving is the biggest activity at the Poor Knights today. Jacques Cousteau rated the Islands as one of the top ten dive spots in the world. In hindsight the Poor Knights should have been a fully protected marine reserve from the start. In 1971 Parliament created the marine reserves act and in 1981 the Read More…
Weeds and Weed Programme on the Poor Knights Islands
In 1990 as Tutukaka Marina Manager I created a garden of Poor Knights plants for visitors and locals, Northland Department of Conservation were impressed by the idea and granted a permit to collect plants from the islands. A party of elders of the descendants of the Poor Knights people was visiting the islands to investigate Read More…
