The Poor Knights Islands Flora

  The Poor Knights Lilly   

It is doubtful whether much original vegetation survived the Maori occupation except perhaps on the steepest slopes.   Timber was needed for stockade posts, habitations and cooking fires, although some, for example totara which was used in the making of canoes came from the main land.   Clearing and burning for cultivation made the greatest impact. The present vegetation is largely secondary forest that has regenerated: pohutukawa on the seaward slopes, pohutukawa and kanuka on the inland plateau's and kohekohe, tawapou and karaka in gullies. Ngaio, taupata, karo, mahoe, coastal karamu, Poor Knight's mapou and Poor Knight's kawakawa form a tight scrub where the exposure to salt winds is the greatest. 

 On rock outcrops and inland cliffs, astelias, flax, toetoe and Poor Knight lily are dominant.     Plant life which exists only on the group includes the Poor Knight's mapou and Poor Knight's houhere which differ from their mainland relatives. The beautiful Poor Knight Lily is abundant and occurs no where else except one, a rarity on the Hen Island of the Hen and Chicken Islands. On Aorangi forest growth was retarded for many years by pigs taken to the islands sometime after 1880.  These were exterminated in 1936, perhaps the first example of active management on any outer island.   Since that time the islands have never been inhabited, nor were they ever claimed as native land.  The Poor Knights were first purchased by a European, Mr. J.S. Pollock, in 1845. The crown bought them in 1882, a year later designating them a lighthouse reserve.   Forty years later they became a scenic reserve and have been fully protected since becoming a fauna and flora reserve in 1975, the strictest form of preservation.  A permit is needed to land.

The Poor Knights and Poor Squires Islands Fauna

         Tuatara. " The World only Living Dinosaur".            

The island group is  noted for its abundance of animal life. Millions of seabirds, including nine species of petrel, flock to the islands to breed.  Between October and May they return to the islands slopes particularly at night, re-inhabiting their old nest burrows.  About 2.5 million Buller shearwaters (rako) have made the Poor Knights their home, the only place in the world where they breed.     When first seen by W.M. Fraser he said "The known feeding grounds of this sea bird range over the Pacific between the coasts of New Zealand, Chatham Islands and California, etc., and from the fact that they return each year to their birthplace for nesting must surely be an outstanding example of the homing instinct of birds.    I first observed these birds nesting in burrows on the north island of the Poor Knights in December 1911 and was surprised to find that they showed little concern when closely approached, and concluded that man being unknown to them, they had no reason to fear man.   The Maori name of this bird is Rako, and its young was regarded as a great delicacy by the Ngatiwai tribe who occupied the islands off the coast before the Pakeha came". Gannets (takapu) nest on the Poor Squires Islands (Sugarloaf and the Pinnacles).    The main resident land birds on the main islands are bellbirds (korimako) and red- crowned parakeets (karaiki)    Fantails (piwakawaka) are found in small numbers while kingfishers [kotare], pipits (pihoihoi) and harriers [kahu] are often seen.   The elegant, dark-slated spotless crake (putoto) is well established on Aorangi with fewer on Tawhiti Rahi.   On both islands it forages on the forest floor rather than its normal swamp habitat.    The branded rail (mohopereru) is present on Tawhiti Rahi. The welcome swallow also breeds on the islands and the long-tailed (koekoea) and shining (pipiwharauroa) cuckoos are summer visitors.  

The islands have a wide variety of insect and reptile life.   Tuatara are found on the larger islands, along with two species of gecko and five species of skink. Duvacel's gecko, New Zealand's largest gecko is well established and can reach 30 cm in length.  During the day it hides in the caves and crevices or under bark and stones, venturing forth at night time in search of berries, nectar and insects.  A giant centipede is found on Aorangi Island. (see photo above).   Also found on the Poor Knights is the flax snail with a long spiral shell and several weevils which enjoy nibbling away at the juicy edges of the native flaxes.   Probably the most frightening of the inhabitants of the islands are the giant tree weta, growing up to 8cm and the giant cave weta.   This latter insect has a body about 6cm long but measures 30 cm from the top of its antennae to the claws on its hind legs and can weight about 40gm.

Poor Knights Marine Fauna

The Poor Knights are probably known best for their phenomenal marine life swimming in the lee of there coasts. Myriads of fish teem in the warm water created by the East Auckland current which originates off the north coast of Australia and flows across the Tasman Sea and down the continental shelf of Northland bringing with it tropical fish larvae some which settle and live at the Poor Knights.  The wealth of underwater life, which is protected through being declared a Marine Reserve in 1980, includes a variety of fishes, molluscs, corals , anemones, sea urchins, starfish and sea cucumbers and feather stars. 

References: NZ Scientific Journal ; The story of Northland, A..H. Reed; Hauraki Park Handbook.

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