Goat Island / Rakiriri facts for kids
Goat Island/Rakiriri is visible in the centre of this view across Port Chalmers and Otago Harbour. The larger Quarantine Island/Kamau Taurua is to its left in this view.
|
|
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Otago region |
| Coordinates | 45°49′28″S 170°37′32″E / 45.824463°S 170.625594°E |
| Area | 4.5 ha (11 acres) |
| Administration | |
|
New Zealand
|
|
| Demographics | |
| Population | 0 |
Goat Island/Rakiriri is an island in Otago Harbour in Otago, in the southern South Island of New Zealand. It is located between Port Chalmers and Portobello, to the northeast of Dunedin's city centre. It has one of New Zealand's dual placenames. The Māori language portion "Rakiriri" was a significant name brought by the original settlers from their Pacific homelands, a simple translation being "Angry Sky (or Sky-father Rakinui)". The name is also sometimes used to refer to the extinct Dunedin Volcano, of which Otago Harbour is the crater.
The second-largest island in the harbour, Goat Island/Rakiriri covers 4.5 hectares (11 acres), and is located to the northwest of the larger Quarantine Island/Kamau Taurua. When the quarantine station was running, single men were quartered in a two storied barrack similar to those on Quarantine Island/Kamau Taurua. Unlike its neighbour, Goat Island/Rakiriri today is uninhabited, and is designated as a scenic reserve and Historic Area. It has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area because it has a breeding colony of bronze shags.
The two islands, along with the Portobello Peninsula, are all part of a ridge (anticline) lying across the centre of the harbour, which was the crater of the long-extinct Dunedin volcano - running from Portobello to Port Chalmers.
