AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY FIELD CLUB SCIENTIFIC TRIP to the MOKOHINAU ISLANDS, MAY 1979 Introduction and Acknowledgements
TANE 26, 1980 AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY FIELD CLUB SCIENTIFIC TRIP TO THE MOKOHINAU ISLANDS, MAY 1979 Introduction and Acknowledgements by A.E. Wright A.U.F.C. Vice-President 1975 - 1980 The Mokohinau Islands were chosen as the venue for Field Club's 1979 offshore island scientific trip primarily to allow a detailed study of one particular island, Fanal Island, which had received very little attention previously. A party of eleven left Auckland in the launch Westpoint early in the evening of 19 May, 1979 and arrived at the Mokohinau Islands approximately 3am next morning. At daybreak, seven people (Peter Bellingham, Elizabeth Brown, Greg Browne, David Greig, Peter Matthews, Wynne Spring-Rice and Anthony Wright) were put ashore on Fanal Island. The remainder of the party (Roger Harker, Gary Housley, John McCallum and David Riddell) were landed on Burgess Island soon after. On Fanal Island studies were carried out in the fields of archaeology, botany (bryophytes, lichens and vascular plants), entomology, geology, geomorphology and ornithology and the results in most of these fields follow. On and around Burgess Island and the adjacent Knights Group, studies were completed in the fields of benthic ecology, herpetology and ornithology. Both parties left the islands and returned to Auckland on 26 May, 1979. The Mokohinau Islands (latitude 35° 50'S, longitude 175° 10'E), the most isolated of the Hauraki Gulf Island Groups, lie 100 km north- north-east of Auckland City. The Group consists of Burgess Island, the adjacent Knights Group of smaller islands and rock stacks, and Fanal Island, lying some 5km to the south-east (Fig.
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