The Star Quality of New Zealand's Great Barrier Island
I was glad I had such terrible jetlag. Wide awake at 3:30 am with our nine-year-old daughter on our lodge balcony, I stared for hours at the most incredible night sky I've ever seen before the dawn slowly started to rub out the stars on the horizon and the multiple shooting stars faded away.
We were going to my wife's big family reunion in Auckland, New Zealand, but when we found out that Great Barrier Island, just off the coast, had been recently awarded Dark Sky Sanctuary status—a typically remote area that has an "exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights"—we thought it would be the perfect place to relax before our busy schedule. It's the first island and only the fourth location in the world to achieve this status.
After a 28-hour flight with two travel-sick children, our hearts sank when we saw the tiny twin engine 10-seater that was to take us the 90km across the Hauraki Gulf to Great Barrier Island. But we needn't have worried. Whether it was the gravity force of the plane climbing or the noise of the engine, it put our three-year-old daughter instantly to sleep until we bumped down on the grass at Claris Airport. Our first empty sick bag against all the odds…Things were looking up.
Great Barrier Island has no public facilities and the 950 people living there (though only about half permanently) rely on solar and wind energy, and bottled gas for cooking. There are no streetlights. There are no cash machines or banks. The police force comprises a husband and wife, and there's one postman. It's not just the lack of light but the lack of noise that's so delightful on this unique and gorgeous scene. It was first discovered by East Polynesians about 700 years ago and the Maori name for the island is Aotea. Captain Cook gave the island its European name, because it acts as a barrier between the Pacific and the Hauraki Gulf.
The climate here is subtropical(亚热带的) like Auckland's. The island boasts a beautiful wilderness with dense forests, glorious, unspoilt sandy beaches and plenty of bays and a few mountainous areas where there are good walking tracks among the wetlands and valleys. You can birdwatch, dive, surf and boat. The best beaches are on the eastern side of the island where the surf is better, too. The sheltered western side is where you'll find the best diving and boating. Lots of people come here for the fantastic fishing spots around the island. Like a lot of spots in New Zealand, there are whale-watching trips and you might just catch sight of sharks.
It's rare to find an island that really does feel undiscovered—but this is it. When one of my wife's relations, who comes here regularly, found out that we'd been there, he whispered to us, only half-joking: "Shh—don't tell anyone!" The locals are a relaxed and friendly bunch—a lot of them told us that it's like what Waiheke Island (now in effect a suburb of Auckland) was in the 1970s when it was a commune of artists and people wanting to escape the city.
Our guide for some of our stay was the inestimable Hilde Hoven, a Dark Sky ambassador who runs Good Heavens with Deborah Kilgallon and Orla Cumisky. They bring their Dobsonian telescope and beanbags (it's hard work staring up wide-eyed in wonder without neck support) and, our elder daughter was glad to hear, hot chocolate to wherever you are on the island. "It's odd but when the light readings were done," said Hilde, explaining how the island was awarded its special status, "they found there was more light pollution on the northern side coming from Fiji, which is about 3,000km away, than Auckland to the south. It's pretty dark!"
Beginning their astronomical PowerPoint demonstration using a green laser pointer, Hilde and Orla showed us the Messier 4 spherical cluster(星团) with white dwarf stars(白矮星), Saturn and its rings, the Southern Cross and the Milky Way, which stretched across the sky. Our daughter was especially taken with Hilde's narrating of the Maori myth of Māui's fish hook to explain the shape of Scorpius. In the fable, Māui hauled the North Island of New Zealand from the bottom of the ocean with his hook.
We stayed at Mount St Paul's Estate, a luxurious lodge run by the friendly Chris and Teara, both from Canada. Teara used to be a chef at the Langham in Auckland and so dinner, eaten around a huge circular table (made of one of the most ancient trees in the world), was every bit as mouth-watering as you'd expect. Eating pancakes on the balcony overlooking the unspoilt white sandy beach was a great way to start the day.
Another highlight was an hour-long walk to Kaitoke hot pools in the centre of the island, through wetlands and a forest, where we whiled away a good hour sitting in the pools shaded from the heat by layers of delicate umbrella-like plants.
We also loved visiting the potter(陶艺家) Sarah Harrison, who showed us round her studio at Shoal Bay harbour, and her many pots and jugs, plates and bowls and colourful mosaics(马赛克). In her work, she also uses a lot of materials found on the beach. Our elder daughter loved the gorgeous hidden pool at Medlands beach where the water is separated from the sea in a private rock pool. Other high points were the ancient pōhutukawa trees and the incredible views of Okiwi Basin and Whangapoua beach from the top of Windy Canyon, just a 10-minute hike through a narrow valley up some steep wooden steps on the eastern side of the island.
Apparently the island council turned down famous musician Paul McCartney's application to buy a property at Great Barrier Island because of the unwelcome attention he would have brought. You can see why he wanted to come here; equally, the island knows exactly what kind of star watching it prefers.