Description
“In the midst of a prodigious ocean”, as one European explorer described them, the Kermadec Islands lie 1000 kilometres north of New Zealand and form our northern bastion. They are the result of the collision between two of the earth’s major tectonic plates, being the tip of volcanoes thrust up from the ocean floor by these massive geological forces.
This is the story of the islands: their unique flora and fauna; the attempts at settlement (both Polynesian and European); their uses both in war and peace; and the restoration of their ecosystem which is proceeding today.
It is a dramatic story of storms, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and other events that have beset efforts to make use of the islands, but through all of these the human spirit has shone through. It includes the following topics:
- the island’s evolutionary heritage and unique flora and fauna
- early Polynesian voyaging and occupation
- the adventurous whalers and the consequent courageous attempts at European settlement
- eruptions, cyclones, earthquakes and an epidemic that beset aspiring settlers and scientists
- annexation by New Zealand and the consequences
- the island’s dramatic use by the Germans in World War I
- the founding of the Met Station in the shadow of World War II
- the ‘near run thing’ of nuclear testing
- current ecological restoration and the role of the Department of Conservation
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