Matapia Island
Matapia Island is the official name of a small island off Te-Oneroa-a-Tōhē / Ninety Mile Beach. The name translates as 'like a face, with a hole in it'. Until 1936 it was known as Motupia. It is off the beach and about south of Te Paki Stream mouth.
Geology
A sea arch is eroded into steeply dipping conglomerate and sandstone of Matapia Formation, which is a poor to moderately bedded conglomerate with a pebbly and bouldery sandstone, about 18 million years old, which originated with the Houhora Volcanic Group and other volcanic rocks. A solid rocky platform surrounds the island.Wildlife
Matapia Island is an ecologically significant island. It is one of only two Northland west coast islands and has unique terrestrial and marine habitats, including the most fur seals in Northland, which probably also make it an important area for white sharks, seals being their main prey. The waters surrounding the island are relatively shallow, about 10- deep, shelving to, offshore. Wave energy is very high and a major influence on the shallow and deeper reef communities and intertidal organisms, together with the north-flowing Westland Current and, occasionally in summer, the south-flowing West Auckland Current. Sea surface temperatures range between 15 and and waves average 1.5 –. Hawksbill turtles also reach the island. 35 species of marine mammals are known in Northland waters, also including Bryde's whales, bottlenose dolphins, orca and common dolphins.Matapia Island gecko is the smallest of the Pacific geckos. It also lives on the Aupōuri and Karikari Peninsulas, but was first identified on Matapia. Its sides have a broad brown band above cream ventral surfaces. They are nocturnal, omnivorous and first recognised on Matapia. They are similar to Pacific, Poor Knights and Mokohinau geckos. The island also has robust skink, ornate skink, Pacific gecko and shore skink.
Giant umbrella sedge is in dense swards with occasional taupata and Parietaria debilis seedlings underneath. On steep slopes iceplant and knobby clubrush dominate, with Chenopodium album in patches above the coastal banks. Glasswort and Mercury Bay weed grow in the splash zone. Lepidium oleraceum is an endangered species, replanted in the 1980s, which is in patches on coastal banks.
Birds include white-fronted tern, common diving petrel, blue penguin, pipit, swamp harrier, paradise duck, red-billed gull and welcome swallow. A breeding population of black-winged petrels is also on the island.