Matiu / Somes Island is the largest of three islands in the northern half of Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. The island is 24.9 hectares (62 acres) in area, and lies 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of the suburb of Petone and the mouth of the Hutt River. Matiu / Somes Island was used as a place of refuge by pre-colonial Māori. Middens and other remnants of habitation have been found on the island. There is also a long and varied European history. The island was used for human quarantine from 1840 until the 1920s. Ships arriving in Wellington Harbour with infectious passengers or crew would disembark them at Matiu / Somes Island for care and treatment before berthing in the city. During both World War I and World War II, "enemy aliens", including long-term residents of New Zealand who originated from enemy countries, were interned on the island. Anti-aircraft gun emplacements were also built on the island during World War II and their remains can be seen today. The island was used for animal quarantine from 1864 until 1995. A maximum security animal quarantine station was built in 1968. The island's environment had become degraded during its long period of use for quarantine and defence purposes. However, in 1981 work began to restore the forest cover. Following more than 30 years of environmental restoration and the translocation of species, the island is now home to many native birds, invertebrates, reptiles and plants. Since 1995, Matiu / Somes Island has been designated as a scientific and historic reserve. For many years the public was banned from visiting the island due to its role as a human and animal quarantine station, but visitors are now welcome and may stay overnight on the island. In 2009, ownership of the island was transferred to the Māori collective Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika, as part of the settlement of claims against the Crown for breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. The island is managed by the Department of Conservation.
Toponymy
Legend has it that Matiu and the nearby Mākaro island received their original Māori names from Kupe, the semi-legendary first navigator to reach New Zealand and return home with knowledge of the new land. He named them after his two daughters (or, in some versions of the tale, nieces) when he first entered the harbour around 1,000 CE. After European settlement, the island was known for over a century as Somes Island. In 1839 it fell under the control of the New Zealand Company along with much of the greater Wellington Region. The island was renamed after Joseph Somes, the company's deputy-governor and financier at the time. In 1997, after 10 months of investigation and consideration of submissions by the public, the New Zealand Geographic Board assigned the official bilingual name of "Matiu/Somes Island" in recognition of the island's European and Māori histories. Ward Island was renamed as Mākaro/Ward Island at the same time. Since then the board has adopted the formatting convention of placing a space before and after the slash, so the official name is now written as "Matiu / Somes Island".
Geography The island is 24.9 hectares (62 acres) in area, and lies 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of the suburb of Petone and the mouth of the Hutt River. Just off the northern tip of Matiu / Somes Island lies tiny Mokopuna Island, also known as Leper Island. The much smaller Mākaro / Ward Island is about 5 kilometres (3 mi) southeast of Matiu / Somes Island.
A distinct gully runs from the south of the former quarantine station and terminates at the sea on the southern end of the island between two largely forested ridges on either side to the east and west. The gully floor forms a swamp, but an ephemeral watercourse flows through it during periods of heavy rain. A 1942 map shows a small dam across the creek. Despite being surrounded by sea water, Matiu / Somes Island has access to fresh water from the Waiwhetu artesian aquifer. Water from the Hutt River infiltrates into porous gravels in the vicinity of Taita Gorge, with between 3.8 and 5.7 million litres per hour flowing from the bed of the river into the underlying gravels between Taita Gorge and Melling. South of Melling, a layer of clay forms an impervious cap (or aquiclude) that holds the artesian water underground and causes it to build up pressure as it flows through the gravel layer southwards towards Wellington Harbour. The pressurised water can rise to the surface if the fresh water layer is penetrated with a bore hole. There are also artesian gravels beneath much of Wellington Harbour, in some places hundreds of metres deep, and they extend out to the present harbour entrance. The water level in the harbour was much lower 20,000 years ago, and the ancient Hutt River used to flow down a paleochannel to the east of the Matiu / Somes Island ridge as far as present-day Kilbirnie. The Waiwhetu aquifer flows under the sea bed from the direction of the Hutt River to the harbour mouth via the paleochannel. Matiu / Somes Island gets its fresh water from a bore sunk into the aquifer just offshore at the main wharf. In February 2016, the Department of Conservation temporarily restricted access to the island because a long dry summer had lowered the volume and pressure of water from the aquifer, requiring strict water conservation.
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