Most kayakers regard Kawau as a destination for a picnic or as an overnight stopover if having island hopped all the way from Orewa or Sullivan‘s Bay on the Mahurangi peninsula. But it’s more than the island at the end of the Motu‘s chain. To me it is home. Where my heart is, where I plant trees, clean the gutters, pay my share of rates, jetty fees.. These days, five days a week Kawau Island is a dawn silhouette on the horizon that I wistfully gaze upon, whilst walking the dog before getting togged up to go to work. However most weekends we manage to go home and for two blissful years we practised being retired, whilst between businesses, and simply lived - at Kawau. Mainlanders questioned our sanity and asked, ”What do you do all day?“ We were the ones with the bemused expression, because at Kawau, just living can be a full time occupation. Or you can do a little work. Whatever you elect to do, just getting there, or from there
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to here, or getting ‘things’ like building materials or firewood from here to there is pivotal and a major part of the plan, any plan and a grand consumer of time. Kawau is unique because it does not have a road network. This really sets it apart from other Hauraki Gulf islands. Islanders still chuckle over the story of a group of Councillors who on planning a visit asked if they could book a minibus. Access to the island is by sea. Unlike Herald Island there is no causeway. It lies 8.4 kilometres east from Sandspit and 1.5 kilometres south of the Tawharanui peninsula. In real estate lingo the majority of the habitable land is best described as hilly to steep although there are some flat to gently sloping areas at the end of the inlets and harbours on the western side. There are few sandy bays. Either side of Kawaiti Pt. in the north, there is the popular Vivian Bay and the isolated Sandy Bay, and in the south, Bostaquet Bay. Between
these points, on the western side or “Out the back” in island-speak, high cliffs and bouldery beaches offer few practical or safe landing places, even for a kayak. The usual access onto the foreshore is by dinghy or jetty. Of the Island’s 2000 hectares, approximately 90% are privately owned, so access via jetty (apart from the three public jetties at South Cove, Mansion House and Schoolhouse Bay) can lead directly into people’s front yards and in some cases directly to their living rooms. Most islanders have a bevy of watercraft and surprise even themselves when they do a count up. Yacht, launch, or runabout (occasionally all three), sailing dingy, tinny or two or three, inflatable, kayak or situpon. Much like a mainland family might use a car, van, Ute, pushbike, and skateboard. And there is still a need for commercial vessels. Barges laden with building materials, furniture, and even petrol tankers are a common sight. Helicopters at the height of summer are the buzzy bees carting in concrete, timber and water tanks to the more inaccessible places. For the tourist, a summer time mail run ferry trip can be a real eye-opener to island life. Cats in cages, dogs on leads, stacks of bread bins, pellet lots of potting mix, fresh fruit and veg, live plants, mattress’s and then out on the fore-deck bags of cement, planks of wood, chainsaws. Oh, and don’t forget the mail and newspapers. The older ferry, the “Matata” (tickets available on board) delivers less bulky items but has the more personal touch of the ferryman and his wife nonchalantly feeding named seagulls off their hands as they give a chatty commentary and dolphins often come to play alongside this vessel’s bow wave. As a “permanent” resident my preferred personal watercraft quickly became my kayak. It gave me independence and easy access to just about everywhere, anytime. Although small with a permanent population hovering on the
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