Goodwin - Te Haahi Reserve

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4. Goodwin - Te Haahi Reserve

Walking tracks: None
Getting there: The reserve is located on Waiheke Island off Auckland in the Hauraki Gulf. Waiheke Island lies 35 minutes from Auckland central and there are regular ferry crossings throughout the day. Goodwin - Te Haahi Reserve is located in Te Matuku Bay in the far south-east corner of Waiheke Island. It 30 minutes drive from the main port. To arrange a visit to the reserve, contact the ranger Brian Griffiths (09) 372 7662.
The locals: There is a wide range of wild life in the reserve: koura, banded kokopu, tuna and koeke in the streams and kereru, riroriro, piwakawaka, silver eye, kingfisher, morepork and tui can be found in the trees. Kaka are becoming more common and shining cuckoos visit each year.

The forests that once covered Waiheke Island, including the area around Te Matuku Bay, were decimated during the early to mid 1800s to provide timber and firewood. Scottish settler Robert McLeod, from whom Te Matuku Bay’s other name, McLeod’s Bay, takes its name, extracted firewood, kauri spars and kauri gum for export to Australia, Chile and England. The 35-hectare forest contains a mixture of kauri-tanekaha-kanuka with regenerating manuka-kanuka shrubland, and large number of mosses, orchids and ferns. Pockets of kauri, podocarp and broadleaf species are found throughout. There are a number of locally uncommon species including miro, hinau, maire (four varieties), tawhirikaro, (perching pittisporum),tauhinu, and wheki (rough tree fern). The reserve has some of the largest kohekohe on the island, and a number of large kauri that have somehow been spared from saw and axe. Opposite the reserve lies the 690-hectare Te Matuku Marine Reserve which was established in 2005.

This reserve has recently become part of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park - a park that protects the natural wilderness areas in the greater Auckland region on both land and sea.