Oaia Island

Home to an Australasian gannet colony, the island was traditionally used as a seasonal food resource for Tāmaki Māori iwi, including Te Kawerau ā Maki.

[2][3] It is likely an early Miocene eroded remnant of pillow lava flow from the Waitākere volcano.

The population increased by more than five times between 1940 and 1970 to a total of 892 breeding pairs, which had a negative effect on vascular plant life on the island.

[8] In 1902, politician and later Mayor of Auckland City, Edwin Mitchelson, constructed a wooden mansion at Muriwai which he named Oaia, after the island.

[9] Oaia Island is the subject of Colin McCahon's acrylic landscape Moby Dick Is Sighted Off Muriwai Beach (1972), which was featured in a New Zealand Post stamp campaign in 1997.

Oaia Island, with Motutara Island in the foreground. As gannet populations increased on Oaia Island, the birds colonised Motutara Island and the surrounding mainland areas at Muriwai .