The Mokohinau Islands are a small group of islands located 60nm northeast from Auckland. There are three large islands and about 10-12 smaller islands that make up this island chain.
The islands are volcanic stacks sitting at the edge of the continental shelf. Scientists estimate that the Mokohinau Islands formed between 10 and 8.5 million years ago.
Most of the islands in the Mokohinau Island chain are nature preserves and wildlife sanctuaries. The only island we can visit is Burgess Island.
This island chain is free of mammalian pests and has been left to naturally regenerate.
The Mokohinau Islands are home to a number of New Zealand’s smallest endangered species, such as the Mokohinau skink, the Mokohinau gecko, the robust skink and the Mokohinau stag beetle as well as a number of endangered plant species.
They are barely a spec on the average map. You have to zoom in really far to make them show up.
There are no ferries and no planes that come to this group of islands.
The only way you can visit is by charter boat or private yacht. Lucky us!
We approached from the south (coming from Great Barrier Island).
On the way to the islands we encountered a large pod of giant dolphins. They played with us for about 20 minutes!
Atihau Island
There are not many “protected” anchorages in the Mokohinaus.
You can only come here in fairly calm conditions as there are not many places to hide from adverse weather.
Lucky for us the conditions were good enough for us to try to find a anchor spot.
Unlucky for us was that there was a boat in the main anchor spot north of Hokoromea Island. But that is ok, we found another great spot.
We pulled into the north pass of Atihau Island.
This bay is almost surrounded by beautiful rocky cliffs and rock mounds.
We anchored in 9m of good holding with strong easterly winds that wrapped into almost a southerly direction.
Our blog posts run 4-6 weeks behind actual live events.
We were in the Mokohinau Islands during the early part of April 2026.
Find the Mokohinau Islands on No Foreign Land.
In our last blog post we enjoy a private anchorage off Green Island, Great Barrier.
