Talk:List of islands of New Zealand

Chathams
I have to wonder whether the Chathams count as part of the Main New Zealand chain - the fact that they are populated is, to my mind, the only difference between them and the likes of the Campbells and Snares, geographically speaking. Perhaps they'd be better off in the Outlying islands group? Grutness 11:08, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Agree. Done. Nurg 04:55, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Stewart Island
Confused by the first sentence which does not even mention Stewart Island, & treats it as one of "many very small islands". It is not "very small", it is 1,746 square kilometres. The second confusion is the fact that it is not even mentioned in the list of "very small islands". You can't have it both ways - either it is mentioned as one of the 3 major islands, or it is listed as a small island. --GrahamBould 11:06, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Stewart Island is clearly mentioned as the largest of the remaining islands at the beginning of the fourth sentence in the first paragraph. Mind you, you're right - it wasn't mentioned as a main chain island - even more oddly, neither were the North and South Islands - that's now been fixed. Grutness...wha?  11:12, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Splitting the list?
The Open sea and harbour section of the list is getting pretty unwieldy - is it worth splitting it into "North Island and surrounding islands" and "South Island and surrounding islands"? Grutness...wha?  23:11, 26 December 2009 (UTC)


 * That sounds good to me, although I'd be tempted to split out "Rakiura/Stewart Island and surrounding islands" as well. -- Avenue (talk) 12:22, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Te Waka o Aoraki (another Māori name of the South Island)
Source for name: http://www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz/About-Ngai-Tahu/Settlement/Settlement-Offer/Aoraki.php Koro Neil (talk) 02:20, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Solander and Three Kings "outlying"?
I note that the Solander and Three Kings islands are in the "Outlying" section of the list. Is this really appropriate? I'd say that the Solander group in particular would be part of the main chain of the NZ archipelago - they're no further from the South island than much of Stewart Island. the three Kings are a similar distance from the North Island. Would they be better in the main part of the list? Grutness...wha?  06:35, 8 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Our articles on the Solander Islands and the Three Kings Islands both explicitly argue that they should be considered outlying islands, because they are separated from the continental shelf by channels over 200m deep. This fact has some biogeographic significance, as it means they are not land bridge islands that would have been part of the single New Zealand landmass created by falling sea levels during the last ice age (such as Great Barrier and Stewart Islands, for instance). I think the same is true of White Island, however, which we do not call an outlying island, so we haven't consistently followed that argument.
 * I'm not aware of any official list of outlying islands. The term has been used for a long time (at least as far back as 1868), sometimes even excluding the Snares. --Avenue (talk) 13:49, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

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Sourcing for the size of islands
The table of islands by size has been tagged for a year as needing sources for the sizes. Without reliable sourcing, not only the sizes but also the ranking is in question. It would be a shame if the list by size was deleted because it lacked sources. Can anyone find a source? Nurg (talk) 03:10, 17 February 2021 (UTC)