Motutapu Island Recreation Reserve

Motutapu Island is a 1,509 hectare island in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. It is a recreation reserve administered by the Department of Conservation.

This island bears the footprint of our ancestors dating back over 600 years - from the Maori who arrived on the Tainui canoe to British settlers hundreds of years later.

Ash from volcanic activity on Rangitoto created fertile soils and archaeologists have uncovered numerous sites of kainga (villages), pa (earthwork fortifications), kumara storage pits, former gardens, and middens (food refuse deposits) - all evidence of intensive Maori settlement before and after the Rangitoto eruption.

An early farmhouse is preserved from the European farming settlements that grew up after the 1840s.

During World War II the island was a fortified military base to protect Auckland harbour against enemy invasion.

See the website for details about access and what to do on the island.