Chatham Islands#Geography

{{See also|Chatham Rise}}

File:Chatham-Islands map topo en.svg of the Chatham Islands]]

The Chatham Islands lie roughly {{cvt|840|km|nmi|round=5}} east of Christchurch in the South Island. The nearest New Zealand mainland point to the islands is Cape Turnagain, in the North Island, {{cvt|650|km|nmi|round=5}} distant. The islands sit on the Chatham Rise, a large, relatively shallowly submerged (no more than {{cvt|1000|m|ft|0|disp=or}} deep at any point) plateau that stretches east from near the South Island. The Chatham Rise is part of the now largely submerged continent of Zealandia. The islands, which emerged only within the last 4 million years, are the only part of the Chatham Rise showing above sea level.{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/TheBush/UnderstandingTheNaturalWorld/Ecoregions/9/en |title=Ecoregions: The Chatham Islands |access-date=2009-02-08 |last=McGlone |first=Matt |date=21 September 2007 |encyclopedia=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand |archive-date=10 March 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090310120506/http://www.teara.govt.nz/TheBush/UnderstandingTheNaturalWorld/Ecoregions/9/en |url-status=live }}

The two largest islands, Chatham Island and Pitt Island (Rangiaotea), constitute most of the total area of {{cvt|793.87|km2|sqmi|0}}, with 12 scattered islets making up the rest.{{cn|date=March 2023}} The islands are hilly, with the coastal areas being a mix of cliffs, dunes, beaches, and lagoons. Pitt is more rugged than Chatham.

The highest point ({{cvt|299|m|ft}}) is on a plateau near the southernmost tip of Chatham Island, {{cvt|1.5|km|mi|frac=8}} south of Lake Te Rangatapu.{{Cite web |url=https://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/ci54/Lake-Te-Rangatapu/ |title=New Zealand topographic map of Lake Te Rangatapu area |access-date=12 September 2018 |archive-date=12 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180912054649/https://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/ci54/Lake-Te-Rangatapu/ |url-status=live }} The plateau is dotted with numerous lakes and lagoons, flowing mainly from the island's nearby second-highest point, Maungatere Hill, at {{cvt|294|m|ft}}.{{cite web |title=Chatham Islands Conservation Management Strategy |url=http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/about-doc/role/policies-and-plans/chatham-islands-cms.pdf |publisher=Department of Conservation |access-date=17 October 2017 |page=32 |archive-date=5 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205181333/http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/about-doc/role/policies-and-plans/chatham-islands-cms.pdf |url-status=live }} Notable are the large Te Whanga Lagoon, and Huro and Rangitahi. Chatham has a number of streams, including Te Awainanga and Tuku.

Chatham and Pitt are the only inhabited islands; the other islands are conservation reserves with restricted or prohibited access. The livelihoods of the inhabitants depend on agriculture – the islands export coldwater crayfish – and, increasingly, on tourism.

The main islands, in order of occupation, are:

The International Date Line lies to the east of the Chathams, even though the islands lie east of 180° longitude. The Chathams observe their own time, which is 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand time, including during periods of daylight-saving time; the Chatham Standard Time Zone is distinctive as one of very few that differ from others by a period other than a whole hour or half-hour. (New Zealand Time orients itself to 180° longitude.){{cite web |title=Chatham Island Time |url=http://discoverthechathamislands.co.nz/chatham-islands-time/ |website=Discover the Chatham Islands |access-date=31 December 2019 |archive-date=31 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231110533/http://discoverthechathamislands.co.nz/chatham-islands-time/ |url-status=dead}}

File:Schist formations, Kaingaroa, Chatham Islands.jpg

The Chatham Islands are far from the Australian-Pacific plate boundary that dominates the geology of mainland New Zealand. The islands' stratigraphy consists of a Mesozoic schist basement, typically covered by marine sedimentary rocks.{{Cite journal |title=Age and correlation of volcanic rocks of Campbell Island and Metamorphic basement of the Campbell Plateau, South-west Pacific |journal=New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics |volume=22 |issue=6 |pages=679–691 |last=Adams |display-authors=et al |first=C. J. |doi=10.1080/00288306.1979.10424176 |year=1979 |doi-access=|bibcode=1979NZJGG..22..679A }} Both these sequences are intruded by a series of basalt eruptions. Volcanic activity has occurred multiple times since the Cretaceous,{{Cite journal |date=2006-08-15 |title=Cenozoic intraplate volcanism on New Zealand: Upwelling induced by lithospheric removal |journal=Earth and Planetary Science Letters |language=en |volume=248 |issue=1–2 |pages=350–367 |doi=10.1016/j.epsl.2006.06.001 |issn=0012-821X |last1=Hoernle |first1=K. |last2=White |first2=J.D.L. |last3=Van Den Bogaard |first3=P. |last4=Hauff |first4=F. |last5=Coombs |first5=D.S. |last6=Werner |first6=R. |last7=Timm |first7=C. |last8=Garbe-Schönberg |first8=D. |last9=Reay |first9=A.|last10=Cooper|first10=A.F.|bibcode=2006E&PSL.248..350H }} but currently there is no active volcanism near any part of the Chatham Rise. Prominent columnar basalt can be seen at Ohira Bay (one of the indentations in the north coast of Petre Bay) between Te Roto and Port Hutt.{{cite web |title=Basalt columns |url=https://chathamislands.co.nz/see-do/attractions/basalt-columns/ |website=chathamislands.co.nz |publisher=Tourism Chatham Islands |access-date=11 February 2024}}

The Chatham Islands have an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfb){{cite web |url=http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather-summary.php3?s=939870&cityname=Waitangi%2C+Northland%2C+New+Zealand&units= |title=Waitangi, New Zealand Climate Summary |publisher=Weatherbase |access-date=11 January 2015 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924164325/http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather-summary.php3?s=939870&cityname=Waitangi%2C+Northland%2C+New+Zealand&units= |url-status=live }} characterised by a narrow temperature range and relatively frequent rainfall. Their isolated position far from any sizeable landmass renders the record high temperature for the main settlement (Waitangi) just {{cvt|23.8|C|F}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weatherall.php3?s=939870&cityname=Waitangi%2C+Northland%2C+New+Zealand&units= |title=Waitangi, New Zealand Temperature Averages |publisher=Weatherbase |access-date=11 January 2015 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924112715/http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weatherall.php3?s=939870&cityname=Waitangi%2C+Northland%2C+New+Zealand&units= |url-status=live }} The climate is cool, wet and windy, with average high temperatures between {{cvt|15|and|20|°C|°F}} in summer, and between {{cvt|5|and|10|°C|°F}} in July (in the Southern Hemisphere winter). Snowfall is extremely rare, the fall recorded near sea level in July 2015 marking the first such reading for several decades.{{Cite web |title=Drought, cyclone then snow for Chathams farms |url= http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/rural/282430/drought,-cyclone-then-snow-for-chathams-farms |website=RNZ |date=26 August 2015 |access-date=17 February 2017 |archive-date=18 February 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170218065256/http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/rural/282430/drought,-cyclone-then-snow-for-chathams-farms |url-status=live }} Under the Trewartha climate classification, the Chatham Islands have a humid subtropical climate (Cf) for the lack of cold weather during the winter and a daily mean temperature above {{cvt|10|C|F}} for 8 months or more.

{{Weather box

|location = Chatham Islands (1991–2020)

|metric first = Y

|single line = Y

|Jan high C = 19.2

|Feb high C = 19.4

|Mar high C = 18.2

|Apr high C = 16.1

|May high C = 14.0

|Jun high C = 12.0

|Jul high C = 11.3

|Aug high C = 12.0

|Sep high C = 13.2

|Oct high C = 14.5

|Nov high C = 16.0

|Dec high C = 17.8

| year high C = 15.3

|Jan mean C = 15.7

|Feb mean C = 16.1

|Mar mean C = 15.0

|Apr mean C = 13.1

|May mean C = 11.1

|Jun mean C = 9.3

|Jul mean C = 8.4

|Aug mean C = 9.0

|Sep mean C = 10.1

|Oct mean C = 11.1

|Nov mean C = 12.5

|Dec mean C = 14.4

| year mean C = 12.2

|Jan low C = 12.1

|Feb low C = 12.7

|Mar low C = 11.8

|Apr low C = 10.1

|May low C = 8.1

|Jun low C = 6.5

|Jul low C = 5.6

|Aug low C = 6.1

|Sep low C = 6.9

|Oct low C = 7.7

|Nov low C = 8.9

|Dec low C = 11.0

| year low C = 9.0

|rain colour = green

|Jan rain mm = 49.2

|Feb rain mm = 64.0

|Mar rain mm = 75.7

|Apr rain mm = 79.0

|May rain mm = 88.3

|Jun rain mm = 93.7

|Jul rain mm = 72.3

|Aug rain mm = 71.0

|Sep rain mm = 71.3

|Oct rain mm = 56.2

|Nov rain mm = 53.5

|Dec rain mm = 62.9

|year rain mm =

| Jan rain days = 6.8

| Feb rain days = 7.0

| Mar rain days = 8.6

| Apr rain days = 11.7

| May rain days = 14.4

| Jun rain days = 15.4

| Jul rain days = 15.3

| Aug rain days = 12.8

| Sep rain days = 12.0

| Oct rain days = 10.7

| Nov rain days = 8.4

| Dec rain days = 10.1

| unit rain days = 1.0 mm

| Jan humidity = 75.5

| Feb humidity = 77.9

| Mar humidity = 80.6

| Apr humidity = 81.4

| May humidity = 84.6

| Jun humidity = 86.1

| Jul humidity = 86.0

| Aug humidity = 82.9

| Sep humidity = 79.6

| Oct humidity = 77.3

| Nov humidity = 76.0

| Dec humidity = 76.2

|Jan sun = 191.3

|Feb sun = 145.5

|Mar sun = 124.2

|Apr sun = 106.3

|May sun = 81.2

|Jun sun = 61.8

|Jul sun = 74.4

|Aug sun = 101.0

|Sep sun = 109.1

|Oct sun = 129.7

|Nov sun = 148.9

|Dec sun = 164.0

|year sun = 1437.3

|source 1 = NIWA (for 1991–2020){{cite web |title= Climate data and activities |url= https://niwa.co.nz/climate-and-weather/climate-data-and-activities |publisher= NIWA |access-date = 20 May 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240520001949/https://niwa.co.nz/climate-and-weather/climate-data-and-activities |archive-date = 20 May 2024}}

|source 2 = NIWA (for sunshine hours, which are for 1981–2010){{cite web |title=Mean monthly sunshine (hours) |url=https://www.niwa.co.nz/education-and-training/schools/resources/climate/sunshine |publisher=NIWA |access-date=15 October 2013 |url-status=deviated |archive-date=29 January 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190129150644/https://www.niwa.co.nz/education-and-training/schools/resources/climate/sunshine}}

|date= November 2011}}

File:Chatham islands forgetmenot.jpg)]]

File:20180930 Chathams 153.jpg foraging in farmland in Awatotara Parea Reserve]]

File:Bloom around the Chatham Islands, New Zealand.jpg bloom around the islands]]

{{Main articles|Flora of the Chatham Islands|Endemic flora of the Chatham Islands}}

The natural vegetation of the islands was a mixture of forest, scrubby heath, and swamp, but today most of the land is fern or pasture-covered, although there are some areas of dense forest and areas of peat bogs and other habitats. Of interest are the akeake trees, with branches trailing almost horizontally in the lee of the wind.{{cite encyclopedia |first=Rhys |last=Richards |title=Chatham Islands – Overview – Wind-blown akeake |encyclopedia=Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand |url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/37780/wind-blown-akeake |access-date=29 December 2016 |archive-date=28 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228195456/http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/37780/wind-blown-akeake |url-status=live }} The ferns in the forest understory include Blechnum discolor.

The islands are home to a rich bio-diversity including about 50 endemic plants adapted to the cold and the wind, such as the Chatham Islands forget-me-not (Myosotidium hortensia),{{cite web |title=Myosotidium hortensium |url=https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/myosotidium-hortensium/ |website=New Zealand Plant Conservation Network |language=en |access-date=14 April 2020 |archive-date=8 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808095345/https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/myosotidium-hortensium/ |url-status=live }} the Chatham Islands sow-thistle (Embergeria grandifolia), rautini (Brachyglottis huntii), the Chatham Islands kakaha (Astelia chathamica), soft speargrass (Aciphylla dieffenbachii), and the Chatham Island akeake or Chatham Island tree daisy (Olearia traversiorum).

The islands are a breeding ground for huge flocks of seabirds and are home to a number of endemic birds, some of which are seabirds and others which live on the islands. The best known species are the magenta petrel (IUCN classification CR) and the black robin (IUCN classification EN), both of which came perilously close to extinction before drawing the attention of conservation efforts. Other endemic species are the Chatham oystercatcher, the Chatham gerygone, the Chatham pigeon, Forbes' parakeet, the Chatham snipe and the shore plover. The endemic Chatham shag{{cite web |url=http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3691 |title=Chatham Shag (Phalacrocorax onslowi) – BirdLife species factsheet |publisher=Birdlife.org |access-date=2015-08-27 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051943/http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3691 |url-status=dead }} (IUCN classification CR), the Pitt shag{{cite web |url=http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3700 |title=Pitt Shag (Phalacrocorax featherstoni) – BirdLife species factsheet |publisher=Birdlife.org |access-date=2015-08-27 |archive-date=22 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160222125102/http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3700 |url-status=live }} (IUCN classification EN) and the Chatham albatross{{cite web |url=http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3963 |title=Chatham Albatross (Thalassarche eremita) – BirdLife species factsheet |publisher=Birdlife.org |date=2010-12-02 |access-date=2015-08-27 |archive-date=20 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220182105/http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3963 |url-status=live }} (IUCN classification VU) are at risk of capture by a variety of fishing gear, including fishing lines, trawls, gillnets, and pots.{{cite web |url=http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/conservation/marine-and-coastal/marine-conservation-services/level1-seabird-risk-assessment.pdf |title=Level 1 Risk Assessment for Incidental Seabird Mortality Associated with New Zealand Fisheries in the NZ-EEZ |first=S |last=Rowe |date=August 2010 |access-date=20 December 2013 |archive-date=20 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220224420/http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/conservation/marine-and-coastal/marine-conservation-services/level1-seabird-risk-assessment.pdf |url-status=live }}

A number of species have gone extinct since human settlement, including the Chatham raven, Chatham fernbird, Chatham Islands penguin and the three endemic species of flightless rails, the Chatham rail, Dieffenbach's rail, and Hawkins's rail.

Marine mammals found in the waters of the Chathams include New Zealand sea lions, New Zealand fur seals, leopard seals, and southern elephant seals. Many whale species are attracted to the rich food sources of the Chatham Rise.{{cite book |last1=Jolly |first1=Dyanna |title=Cultural Impact Assessment Report |date=2014 |publisher=Chatham Rock Phosphate |page=10 |url=http://www.epa.govt.nz/eez/EEZ000006/EEZ000006_Ngai_Tahu_Marine_Mammal_Cultural_Impact_Assessment_dated_July_2014.pdf |access-date=14 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202071102/http://www.epa.govt.nz/eez/EEZ000006/EEZ000006_Ngai_Tahu_Marine_Mammal_Cultural_Impact_Assessment_dated_July_2014.pdf |archive-date=2 February 2016 |url-status=dead}}

Only three species of Odonata are known from the Chatham Islands, while 14 have been recorded throughout New Zealand.

• Zygoptera Selys, 1854
• # Lestidae Calvert, 1901
• ## Austrolestes colensonis (White in White & Gardiner Butler, 1846)
• # Coenagrionidae Kirby, 1890
• ## Xanthocnemis tuanuii Rowe, 1981
• Anisoptera Selys, 1854
• # Corduliidae Kirby, 1890
• ## Procordulia smithii (White in White & Gardiner Butler, 1846)

According to Marinov & McHugh (2010), the poor diversity is linked to harsh environmental conditions, such as generally low annual temperatures, constant strong winds and high acidity in the habitats where their larvae develop.{{Cite journal |last1=Marinov, M. |last2=McHugh, P. |date=2010 |title=Comparative study of the Chatham Islands Odonata: Morphological variability, behaviour and demography of the endemic Xanthocnemis tuanuii Rowe, 1987. |url=https://www.dragonflyfund.org/images/reports/IDF_Report_30_Marinov_McHugh_2010_small.pdf |journal=International DragonflyFund-Report 30: 1–44. |volume=30 |pages=1–44}}

Xanthocnemis tuanuii is endemic to the Chatham Islands, but close to Xanthocnemis zealandica (McLachlan, 1873) from mainland New Zealand and genetic studies suggest that the two species cohabitate on the Chatham Islands{{Cite journal |last1=Nolan, L. |last2=Hogg, I. D. |last3=Sutherland, D. L. |last4=Stevens, M. I. |last5=Schnabel, K. E. |date=2007 |title=Allozyme and mitochondrial DNA variability within the New Zealand damselfly genera Xanthocnemis, Austrolestes, and Ischnura (Odonata). |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/03014220709510097 |journal=New Zealand Journal of Zoology |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=371–380|doi=10.1080/03014220709510097 |hdl=10289/2039 |hdl-access=free }} Nolan & al (2007).

According to Marinov & McHugh (2010), the Chatham Island population of Austrolestes colensonis differs genetically from the populations on New Zealand’s main islands, but the differences seem too weak to separate them into two species.

Much of the natural forest of the islands has been cleared for farming. Introduced species that prey on the indigenous birds and reptiles are a threat. On Mangere and Rangatira Islands, which are now preserved as nature reserves to conserve some of the unique flora and fauna, livestock has been removed and native wildlife is recovering.

Most lakes have been affected by agricultural run-off, but water quality has improved and river quality is generally classed as 'A'.{{Cite web |url=https://www.cic.govt.nz/assets/CIC/Documents/Chatham-Islands-Water-Quality-Summary-2018.pdf |title=Chatham Island Water Quality Summary |date=1 June 2018 |website=Environment Canterbury |access-date=27 December 2019 |archive-date=14 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114065612/https://cic.govt.nz/assets/CIC/Documents/Chatham-Islands-Water-Quality-Summary-2018.pdf |url-status=live }}

In February 2025, the Department of Conservation (DOC) announced a pest eradication project on the island. The project, part of the Island-Ocean Connection Challenge (IOCC), targets three islands up to 15 times larger than any previously cleared of pests in New Zealand. The goal is to remove invasive species, restore ecosystems, and protect native wildlife, including kākāpō, seabirds, and rare plants. The total project cost is estimated at $202 million, with $54 million from the government and $11.5 million raised through philanthropy, leaving $137 million still needed.{{cite web |title=Three New Zealand islands to undergo 'ground-breaking' pest eradications |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/360589330/three-new-zealand-islands-undergo-ground-breaking-pest-eradications |website=Stuff |access-date=21 February 2025}}

File:Chatham Island Tree Carving.JPG tree carving, or dendroglyph, found in the Chatham Islands]]

{{main|Moriori}}

The first human inhabitants of the Chathams were Polynesians who probably settled the islands around 1500 CE (though possibly as late as 1550 CE),{{sfn|McFadgen|1994}} and in their isolation became the Moriori. It was formerly believed that the Moriori migrated directly from the more northerly Polynesian islands. However, linguistic research in the early 2000s instead concluded that the ancestral Moriori were Māori arrivals from New Zealand:{{sfn|Clark|1994|pp=123–135}}{{sfn|Davis|Solomon|2005}}{{sfn|Howe|2005}}King 2000

Scholarship over the past 40 years has radically revised the model offered a century earlier by Smith: the Moriori as a pre-Polynesian people have gone (the term Moriori is now a technical term referring to those ancestral Māori who settled the Chatham Islands).{{Cite book |last=Howe|first=Kerry R. |date=2008 |orig-date=1st ed. 2003 |title=The Quest for Origins: Who First Discovered and Settled New Zealand and the Pacific Islands? |edition=Rev. |location=Auckland |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=9780143008453 |page=182}}

The plants cultivated by Māori were ill-suited for the colder Chathams, so the Moriori lived as hunter-gatherers and fishermen. While their new environment lacked the resources for building ocean-going craft for long voyages, the Moriori invented the waka kōrari, a semi-submerged craft constructed of flax and lined with air bladders from kelp. This craft was used to travel to the outer islands on 'birding' missions. After generations of warfare, bloodshed was outlawed by the chief Nunuku-whenua and Moriori society became peaceful. Disputes were resolved by consensus or by duels in which, at the first sign of bloodshed, the fight was deemed over. The population before European contact was about 2,000.

Parts of a carved and decorated traditional ocean-going canoe (waka) were discovered in 2024 in a creek on the northern coast of the main island. Approximately 450 waka pieces, including rare examples of braided fibre lashed to timber, have been removed, catalogued and stored.{{Cite web |last=Partsch |first=Niki |date=1 April 2025 |title=Let the waka tell its story |url=https://www.heritage.org.nz/news/stories/let-the-waka-tell-its-story |access-date=9 April 2025 |website=Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga}} Maui Solomon, chair of the Moriori Imi Settlement Trust, has no doubt that it is a "Moriori ancestral waka" that brought some of his ancestors to the islands hundreds of years ago.{{Cite web |last=Meduna |first=Veronika |date=4 March 2025 |title=Remains of carved canoe may be most significant discovery of its kind, NZ archaeologist says |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/04/new-zealand-waka-carved-canoe-discovery-chatham-islands-polynesia |access-date=4 March 2025 |website=The Guardian}}

File:Torotoro Monument Kaingaroa.jpg

The name "Chatham Islands" comes from the name for the main island, which itself gets its name from John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, who was the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1791, when {{HMS|Chatham|1788|6}} reached the island.{{cite book |last1=Vancouver |first1=George |url=https://archive.org/details/cihm_41862/page/n141/mode/1up |title=A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World |publisher=G.G. & J. Robinson, and J. Edwards |year=1798 |volume=1 |location=London |pages=86 |isbn=9780665418624 |quote=Having reached the shore without any interruption, we displayed the union flag, turned a turf, and took possession of the island; which I named Chatham Island, (in honor of the Earl of Chatham,) in the name of His Majesty King George the Third; under the presumption of our being first discoverers. |author-link1=George Vancouver}}{{Cite web |title=Collections |url=https://chathamislandsmuseum.nz/collections |access-date=2024-07-29 |website=Chatham Islands Museum |language=en |quote=He claimed possession for Great Britain and named the islands after the First Lord of the Admiralty, John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham.}} The ship, whose captain was William R. Broughton, was part of the Vancouver Expedition. The crew landed on the island on 29 November 1791 and claimed possession for Great Britain. Following a misunderstanding, Broughton's men shot and killed a Moriori resident of Kaingaroa, named Torotoro (or Tamakororo). Chatham Islands date their anniversary on 29 November, and observe it on the nearest Monday to 30 November.{{cite web |last1=Richards |first1=Rhys |title=Chatham Islands – From first settlement to 1860 |url=https://teara.govt.nz/mi/chatham-islands/page-3 |publisher=Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand |access-date=6 May 2020 |date=1 May 2015 |archive-date=21 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921164622/https://teara.govt.nz/mi/chatham-islands/page-3 |url-status=live }}

Sealers and whalers soon started hunting in the surrounding ocean with the islands as their base. It is estimated that 10 to 20 per cent of the indigenous Moriori soon died from diseases introduced by foreigners. The sealing and whaling industries ceased activities about 1861, while fishing remained as a major economic activity.

On 19 November and 5 December 1835, about 900 Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama men, women and children, previously resident in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) and led by the chief Pōmare Ngātata, arrived on the brig Lord Rodney. The group brought with them 78 tonnes of seed potato, 20 pigs and seven large waka.{{cite book |last=King |first=Michael |date=2004 |orig-date=First published 1999 |title=Being Pakeha Now |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0143019562 |pages=196–197}}

The incoming Māori were received and initially cared for by the local Moriori. When it became clear that the visitors intended to stay, the Moriori withdrew to their marae at Te Awapatiki to meet and debate what to do about the Māori settlers. The Moriori decided to keep with their policy of non-aggression. Soon, Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama began to takahi, or walk the land, to lay claim to it.

Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama saw the Moriori meeting as a precursor to warfare on the part of Moriori and responded. The Māori attacked and in the ensuing action killed over 260 Moriori. A Moriori survivor recalled: "[The Māori] commenced to kill us like sheep... [We] were terrified, fled to the bush, concealed ourselves in holes underground, and in any place to escape our enemies. It was of no avail; we were discovered and killed – men, women and children – indiscriminately".{{cite book |last=King |first=Michael |title=Moriori: A People Rediscovered |date=2017 |orig-date=Rev. ed. first published 2000 |edition=Rev. |publisher=Penguin Random House New Zealand |isbn=978-0-14-377128-9 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W_acDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT72 |access-date=22 September 2020 |archive-date=19 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019053911/https://books.google.com/books?id=W_acDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT72 |url-status=live }} A Māori chief, Te Rakatau Katihe, said in the Native Land Court in 1870: "We took possession ... in accordance with our custom, and we caught all the people. Not one escaped. Some ran away from us, these we killed; and others also we killed – but what of that? It was in accordance with our custom. I am not aware of any of our people being killed by them."{{cite book |last=King |first=Michael |title=Moriori: A People Rediscovered |date=2017 |orig-date=Rev. ed. first published 2000 |edition=Rev. |publisher=Penguin Random House New Zealand |isbn=978-0-14-377128-9 |page=159 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W_acDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT159 |access-date=22 September 2020 |archive-date=19 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019053911/https://books.google.com/books?id=W_acDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT159 |url-status=live }}{{cite journal |last=Piper |first= Andrew |date=2012 |title=New Zealand colonial propaganda: The use of cannibalism, enslavement, genocide and myth to legitimise colonial conquest |url= https://journals.kvasirpublishing.com/af/article/download/413/447 |journal=Australian Folklore |issue=27 |location=Riga, Latvia |publisher=Kvasir Publishing |access-date=19 March 2022 |archive-date=21 December 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201221055853/https://journals.kvasirpublishing.com/af/article/download/413/447 |url-status=live }}{{sfn|Diamond|1997|p=53}}

After the killings, Moriori were forbidden to marry Moriori, or to have children with each other. Māori kept Moriori slaves until 1863, when slavery was abolished by proclamation of the resident magistrate. Many Moriori women had children by their Māori masters. A number of Moriori women eventually married either Māori or European men. Some were taken away from the Chathams and never returned. Ernst Dieffenbach, who visited the Chathams on a New Zealand Company ship in 1840, reported that the Moriori were the virtual slaves of Māori and were severely mistreated, with death being a blessing. By the time the slaves were released in 1863, only 160 remained, hardly 10% of the 1835 population.

In early May 1838 (some reports say 1839, but this is contradicted by ship records{{cite book |title=The Old Whaling Days |chapter-url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-McNOldW-t1-body-d1-d19-d1.html |chapter=XIX. — American Whalers and Scientists, 1838 to 1840 |via=NZETC |first=Robert |last=McNab |year=1913 |access-date=2 December 2018 |archive-date=12 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212115109/http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-McNOldW-t1-body-d1-d19-d1.html |url-status=live }}) the French whaling vessel Jean Bart anchored off Waitangi to trade with the Māori. The number of Māori boarding frightened the French, escalating into a confrontation in which the French crew were killed and the Jean Bart was run aground at Ocean Bay, to be ransacked and burned by Ngāti Mutunga. When word of the incident reached the French naval corvette Heroine in the Bay of Islands in September 1838, it set sail for the Chathams, accompanied by the whalers Adele and Rebecca Sims. The French arrived on 13 October and, after unsuccessfully attempting to entice some Ngāti Tama aboard, proceeded to bombard Waitangi. The next morning about a hundred armed Frenchmen went ashore, burning buildings, destroying waka, and seizing pigs and potatoes. The attacks mostly affected Ngāti Tama, weakening their position relative to Ngāti Mutunga.{{Cite book |chapter-url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-McNOldW-t1-body-d1-d15.html |title=The Old Whaling Days |chapter=XV. — The French Fleet, 1836 to 1838 |via=NZETC |first=Robert |last=McNab |year=1913 |access-date=3 December 2018 |archive-date=12 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212031736/http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-McNOldW-t1-body-d1-d15.html |url-status=live }}

In 1840, Ngāti Mutunga decided to attack Ngāti Tama at their pā. They built a high staging next to the pā so they could fire down on their former allies. Fighting was still in progress when the New Zealand Company ship Cuba arrived as part of a scheme to buy land for settlement. The Treaty of Waitangi, at that stage, did not apply to the islands. The company negotiated a truce between the two warring tribes. In 1841, the New Zealand Company had proposed to establish a German colony on the Chathams. The proposal was discussed by the directors, and the secretary of the company John Ward signed an agreement with Karl Sieveking of Hamburg on 12 September 1841. The price was set at £10,000. However, when the Colonial Office stated that the islands were to be part of the Colony of New Zealand and any Germans settling there would be treated as aliens, Joseph Somes claimed that Ward had been acting on his own initiative. The proposed leader John Beit and the expedition went to Nelson instead.{{cite book |author=Patricia Burns |title=Fatal Success: A History of the New Zealand Company |year=1989 |pages=243, 244 |isbn=978-0-7900-0011-4 |publisher=Heinemann Reed}}{{cite thesis |title=Germans in New Zealand 1840–1870 |first=P. L. |last=Berry |year=1964 |publisher=University of Canterbury |url=https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10092/3973/Thesis_fulltext.pdf;sequence=1 |pages=11–19 |access-date=20 September 2021 |archive-date=20 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920225220/https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10092/3973/Thesis_fulltext.pdf;sequence=1 |url-status=live }}

The company was then able to purchase large areas of land at Port Hutt (which the Māori called Whangaroa) and Waitangi from Ngāti Mutunga and also large areas of land from Ngāti Tama. This did not stop Ngāti Mutunga from trying to get revenge for the death of one of their chiefs. They were satisfied after they killed the brother of a Ngāti Tama chief. The tribes agreed to an uneasy peace, which was formally confirmed in 1842.{{cite book |last=Crosby |first=R. D. |date=1999 |title=The Musket Wars: A History of Inter-iwi Conflict 1806–45 |publisher=Reed |pages=354–356 |isbn=0790006774}}

Reluctant to give up slavery, Matioro and his people chartered a brig in late 1842 and sailed to Auckland Island. While Matioro was surveying the island, two of the chiefs who had accompanied him decided the island was too inhospitable for settlement, and set sail before he had returned, stranding him and his 50 followers. Pākehā settlers arrived in 1849 and Matioro and most of his people moved to Stewart Island in 1854.{{Cite journal |last=Rykers |first=Ellen |date=July–August 2018 |title=The lie of the land |url=https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-lie-of-the-land/ |journal=New Zealand Geographic |volume=152 |pages=92–103 |access-date=6 August 2018 |archive-date=6 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806085440/https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-lie-of-the-land/ |url-status=live }}

An all-male group of German Moravian missionaries arrived in 1843.{{cite book |url=http://www.library.otago.ac.nz/pdf/2008_Reference%20Missionary%20guide.pdf |title=Reference Guides – Missionary Sources |chapter=German Missions |page=10 |publisher=Hocken Collections |year=2008 |access-date=2008-12-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219194517/http://www.library.otago.ac.nz/pdf/2008_Reference%20Missionary%20guide.pdf |archive-date=19 December 2008}} When a group of women were sent out to join them three years later, several marriages ensued; a few members of the present-day population can trace their ancestry back to those missionary families.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

File:Moriori people.jpg

In 1865, the Māori leader Te Kooti was exiled on the Chatham Islands along with a large group of Māori rebels called the Hauhau, followers of Pai Mārire who had murdered missionaries and fought against government forces mainly on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The rebel prisoners were paid one shilling a day to work on sheep farms owned by the few European settlers. Sometimes they worked on road and track improvements. They were initially guarded by 26 guards, half of whom were Māori. They lived in whare along with their families. The prisoners helped build a redoubt of stone surrounded by a ditch and wall. Later, they built three stone prison cells. In 1868 Te Kooti and the other prisoners commandeered a schooner and escaped back to the North Island.

Almost all the Māori returned to Taranaki in the 1860s, some after a tsunami in 1868.

In 1868 Percy Smith undertook the first detailed survey of the Chatham Islands. As well as laying out block boundaries he added "paper roads".{{Citation |last= Rennie |first= Hugh |title= Getting around on the Chathams |journal= New Zealand Memories |issue= 172 |pages= 51–54 |date= February–March 2025}}

The economy of the Chatham Islands, then dominated by the export of wool, suffered under the international depression of the 1880s, only rebounding with the building of fish freezing plants at the island villages of Ōwenga and Kaingaroa in 1910. Construction of the first wharf at Waitangi began in 1931 with completion in 1934. On 25 November 1940, during the Second World War, the German auxiliary cruisers Komet and Orion captured and then sank the Chatham Islands supply ship the Holmwood, so the wharf saw little use by ships. A flying-boat facility was built at Te Whanga Lagoon soon after and a flying boat service continued till 1966 when it was replaced with conventional aircraft.{{Cite encyclopedia |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/chatham-islands/page-4 |title=Chatham Islands – Chatham Islands from the 1860s to the 1980s |encyclopedia=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand |last=Richards |first=Rhys |date=4 May 2015 |access-date=5 January 2019 |archive-date=16 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216031456/https://teara.govt.nz/en/chatham-islands/page-4 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last1=Waters |first1=Sydney David |title=The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945, Episodes & Studies Volume 1 |publisher=NZETC, New Zealand Electronic Text Collection |page=21 |edition=On line edition, 2016 |url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-1Epi-c4-WH2-1Epi-j.html |access-date=14 August 2019 |archive-date=23 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523130240/http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-1Epi-c4-WH2-1Epi-j.html |url-status=live }}

After the Second World War, the island economy suffered again from its isolation and government subsidies became necessary. This led to many young Chatham Islanders leaving for the mainland. There was a brief crayfish boom, which helped stabilise the economy in the late 1960s and early 1970s. From the early 2000s cattle became a major component of the local economy.{{Cite encyclopedia |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/chatham-islands/page-4 |title=Chatham Islands – Since the 1980s |encyclopedia=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand |last=Richards |first=Rhys |date=4 May 2015 |access-date=5 January 2019 |archive-date=16 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216031456/https://teara.govt.nz/en/chatham-islands/page-4 |url-status=live }}

The Moriori community is organised as the Hokotehi Moriori Trust.{{cite web |title=Hokotehi Moriori Trust |url= https://www.moriori.co.nz/ |website=moriori.co.nz |publisher= Hokotehi Moriori Trust |access-date=31 December 2024}} The Moriori have received recognition from the Crown and the New Zealand government and some of their claims against those institutions for the generations of neglect and oppression have been accepted and acted on. Moriori are recognised as the original people of Rekohu. The Crown also recognised the Ngāti Mutunga Māori[http://www.education-resources.co.nz/early-wharekauri.htm Early Maori settlers of Wharekauri] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323075744/http://www.education-resources.co.nz/early-wharekauri.htm |date=23 March 2016 }} as having indigenous status in the Chathams by right of around 160 years of occupation.

The population of the islands is around 600, including members of both ethnic groups. In January 2005, the Moriori celebrated the opening of the new Kopinga Marae (meeting house).

Modern descendants of the 1835 Māori conquerors claimed a share in ancestral Māori fishing rights. This claim was granted. Now that the primordial population, the Moriori, have been recognised to be former Māori—over the objections of some of the Ngāti Mutunga—they too share in the ancestral Māori fishing rights. Both groups have been granted fishing quotas.{{Cite web |url=https://www.cic.govt.nz/assets/CIC/Documents/Chatham-Islands-Sustainable-Report-2017.pdf |title=Chatham Islands – Enabling a sustainable economy |last=Martin Jenkins |date=November 2017 |access-date=13 October 2019 |archive-date=14 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114065903/https://cic.govt.nz/assets/CIC/Documents/Chatham-Islands-Sustainable-Report-2017.pdf |url-status=live }}

File:View from Chatham Islands.jpg ]]

Chatham Islands covers {{cvt|793.88|km2|}}{{Cite web |title=ArcGIS Web Application |url=https://statsnz.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6f49867abe464f86ac7526552fe19787 |access-date=26 November 2021 |website=statsnz.maps.arcgis.com |archive-date=14 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214063818/https://statsnz.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6f49867abe464f86ac7526552fe19787 |url-status=live }} and had an estimated population of {{NZ population data 2023 SA2|Chatham Islands|y}} as of {{NZ population data 2023 SA2|||y|y||,}} with a population density of {{Decimals|{{formatnum:{{NZ population data 2023 SA2|Chatham Islands|y}}|R}}/793.88|1}} people per km².

{{Historical populations

|percentages = pagr

|align = left

|source ={{NZ Quickstats2013|15197|Chatham Islands Territory}}{{dead link|date=January 2025}}{{cite web |url=http://www2.stats.govt.nz/domino/external/pasfull/pasfull.nsf/7cf46ae26dcb6800cc256a62000a2248/4c2567ef00247c6acc256aff00093231?OpenDocument |title=1996 Census of Population and Dwellings – Census Night Population |publisher=Statistics New Zealand |access-date=17 May 2016 |date=28 February 1997 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213015502/http://www2.stats.govt.nz/domino/external/pasfull/pasfull.nsf/7cf46ae26dcb6800cc256a62000a2248/4c2567ef00247c6acc256aff00093231?OpenDocument |archive-date=13 February 2016}}{{Cite web |url=http://statsnz.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=363cada2473a451d9f92ba0a4edc423a |title=Story Map Series |website=statsnz.maps.arcgis.com |access-date=2019-11-02 |archive-date=3 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003000132/http://statsnz.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=363cada2473a451d9f92ba0a4edc423a |url-status=live }}

|1986 |775

|1991 |760

|1996 |739

|2001 |717

|2006 |609

|2013 |600

|2018 |663

|2023 |612

}}

{{Bar chart|title=Ethnicities, 2023 Census|float=right|label_type=Ethnicity|data_type=Population|data_max=444|label1=New Zealand European|data1=444|label2=Māori|data2=420|label3=Pasifika|data3=24|label4=Asian|data4=12|label5=MELAA|data5=6|label6=Other|data6=9}}

Chatham and Pitt Islands are inhabited and had a population of 612 in the 2023 New Zealand census, a decrease of 51 people (−7.7%) since the 2018 census, and an increase of 12 people (2.0%) since the 2013 census. There were 390 dwellings. The median age was 44.0 years (compared with 38.1 years nationally). There were 99 people (16.2%) aged under 15 years, 96 (15.7%) aged 15 to 29, 318 (52.0%) aged 30 to 64, and 102 (16.7%) aged 65 or older.

Ethnicities were 72.5% European/Pākehā, 68.6% Māori, 3.9% Pasifika, 2.0% Asian, 1.0% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders, and 1.5% other. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.{{Cite web|url=https://www.stats.govt.nz/2023-census/|title=2023 Census national and subnational usually resident population counts and dwelling counts|format=Microsoft Excel|publisher=Stats NZ – Tatauranga Aotearoa|access-date=29 May 2024}}

The Chatham Islands had a population of 663 at the 2018 New Zealand census. There were 276 households, comprising 354 males and 312 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.13 males per female.

The percentage of people born overseas was 5.9, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 48.4% had no religion, 33.5% were Christian, 5.9% had Māori religious beliefs, 0.5% were Buddhist and 1.4% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 51 (9.2%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 147 (26.6%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $36,000, compared with $31,800 nationally. 108 people (19.6%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 318 (57.6%) people were employed full-time, 108 (19.6%) were part-time, and 9 (1.6%) were unemployed.{{NZ census 2018|Chatham Islands Territory (067)|chatham-islands-territory|Chatham Islands Territory}}

Most residents live on Chatham Island, with only a few dozen on Pitt Island. The main settlement is the town of Waitangi, centrally located on the west coast, with {{NZ population data 2018|Waitangi (Chatham Islands)|y}} residents as of {{NZ population data 2018|||y|y||.}} Its facilities include a hospital with resident doctor, bank, several stores, engineering and marine services, and the main shipping wharf. Other villages include Te One, near Waitangi, Owenga in the south-east, Kaingaroa in the north-east, and Port Hutt in the north-west.

File:Flag of Chatham Islands.svg (unofficial, but used on the islands){{Cite encyclopedia |last=Richards |first=Rhys |date=1 May 2015 |title=Chatham Islands – Since the 1980s – Kopinga marae opening |url= https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/37808/kopinga-marae-opening |encyclopedia=Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand |access-date=31 December 2024 |quote=The unofficial flag of the Chatham Islands is visible above the New Zealand flag.}}]]

{{main|Chatham Islands Council}}

For local government purposes, the Chatham Islands and the adjoining sea is known as the Chatham Islands Territory and is administered by the Chatham Islands Council, which was established by the Chatham Islands Council Act 1995 (Statute No 041, Commenced: 1 November 1995).{{cite web |url=http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1995/0041/latest/DLM367666.html |title=Chatham Islands Council Act 1995 |work=New Zealand Legislation |publisher=New Zealand Government |access-date=21 January 2020 |quote=There is hereby constituted a district, to be known as The Chatham Islands Territory, which district comprises the islands known as the Chatham Islands and the area of the territorial sea adjoining those islands. |archive-date=28 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190528061219/http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1995/0041/latest/DLM367666.html |url-status=live }} These succeeded, respectively, the Chatham Islands County, which was established in 1901,{{cite web |title=Chatham Islands County Bill 1901 (144–2) |url=http://www.nzlii.org/nz/legis/hist_bill/cicb19011442241/ |website=www.nzlii.org |access-date=31 October 2022}}{{cite web |title=THE NEW ZEALAND OFFICIAL YEAR-BOOK, 1912 |at=POPULATION ON ADJACENT ISLANDS |url=https://www3.stats.govt.nz/New_Zealand_Official_Yearbooks/1912/NZOYB_1912.html |website=www3.stats.govt.nz |access-date=31 October 2022}} and the Chatham Islands County Council, which was established in 1926.{{cite web |last1=McLintock |first1=A. H. |last2=Jobberns |first2=George |title=CHATHAM ISLANDS |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/chatham-islands |website=An encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, 1966. |publisher=An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 1966 |access-date=31 October 2022 |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Richards |first1=Rhys |title=Chatham Islands – Overview |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/chatham-islands/page-1 |website=teara.govt.nz |publisher=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand |access-date=31 October 2022 |language=en}} The Council is a territorial authority that has many of the functions, duties and powers of a district council and of a regional council, making it in effect a unitary authority with slightly fewer responsibilities than other unitary authorities. The Council comprises a directly-elected mayor and eight councillors, one of whom is also deputy mayor. Certain regional council functions are being administered by Environment Canterbury, the Canterbury Regional Council.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

In the 2010 local government elections, Chatham Islands had New Zealand's highest rate of returned votes, with 71.3 per cent voting.{{sfn|Harper|2010}}

The Chatham Islands are within a single electorate which sends one member to Parliament. Until the 1990s, the Chatham Islands were in the Lyttelton electorate, but since then they have formed part of the Rongotai general electorate, which otherwise lies in south Wellington. Julie Anne Genter is the MP for Rongotai. The Te Tai Tonga Māori electorate (currently held by Tākuta Ferris) includes the Chatham Islands; before the seats were reformed in 1996 the archipelago was part of Western Maori.{{cite web |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/chatham-islanders-vote-first-election |title=Chatham Islanders vote in first election |publisher=Ministry for Culture and Heritage |access-date=24 November 2022}}

Policing is carried out by a sole-charge constable appointed by the Wellington police district, who has often doubled as an official for many government departments, including court registrar (Department for Courts), customs officer (New Zealand Customs Service) and immigration officer (Department of Labour – New Zealand Immigration Service).

A District Court judge sent from either the North Island or the South Island presides over court sittings, but urgent sittings may take place at the Wellington District Court.

Because of the isolation and small population, some of the rules governing daily activities undergo a certain relaxation. For example, every transport service operated solely on Great Barrier Island, the Chatham Islands or Stewart Island / Rakiura need not comply with section 70C of the Transport Act 1962 (the requirements for drivers to maintain driving-hours logbooks). Drivers subject to section 70B must nevertheless keep record of their driving hours in some form.New Zealand Gazette 14 August 2003

The Canterbury District Health Board is responsible for providing publicly funded health services for the island. Prior to July 2015, this was the responsibility of the Hawke's Bay District Health Board.{{cite news |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/69641932/Ministry-of-Health-concerned-about-financial-performance-of-CDHB |work=The Press |title=Ministry of Health 'concerned about financial performance' of CDHB |first=Ashleigh |last=Stewart |date=25 July 2015 |quote=As of July 1, control of the Chatham Islands' health services will transfer to Canterbury. |access-date=8 August 2015 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924172022/http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/69641932/Ministry-of-Health-concerned-about-financial-performance-of-CDHB |url-status=live }}

Most of the Chatham Island economy is based on fishing and crayfishing, with only a fragment of the economic activity in adventure tourism. This economic mix has been stable for the past 50 years, as little infrastructure or population is present to engage in higher levels of industrial or telecommunications activity.From page 31 the economy section begins | Publisher Government of New Zealand reports on Chatham Archipelago, https://www.cic.govt.nz/assets/CIC/Documents/Chatham-Islands-Economic-Profile-Report-2017.pdf

Two 225 kW wind turbines and diesel generators provide power on Chatham Island, at costs of five to ten times that of electricity on the main islands of New Zealand.{{cite web |url=http://www.windenergy.org.nz/chatham-islands-wind-farm |title=Chatham Islands Wind Farm |publisher=New Zealand Wind Energy Association |access-date=4 January 2017 |archive-date=23 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223070301/http://www.windenergy.org.nz/chatham-islands-wind-farm |url-status=live }} During 2014, 65% of the electricity was generated from diesel generators, the balance from wind.See the 2013–14 Chatham Islands Electricity Ltd Annual Report on page 6 of this document https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1OcswQ6_z-OSmVwTDNBdGEycTA/edit {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170316115014/https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1OcswQ6_z-OSmVwTDNBdGEycTA/edit |date=16 March 2017 }} For heating, electricity comes second to wood and, in 2013, solar power contributed about a third as much as mains-generated electricity.{{Cite web |url=https://figure.nz/chart/CxnUWptZTfwKYwJz |title=Fuel types used for heating in the Chatham Islands Territory, New Zealand |website=Figure.NZ |language=en-nz |access-date=2019-12-22 |archive-date=22 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222164605/https://figure.nz/chart/CxnUWptZTfwKYwJz |url-status=live }}

File:Landing approach to Tuuta Airport, Chatham Island.jpg.]]

Visitors to the Chathams usually arrive by air from Auckland, Christchurch or Wellington (around two hours from Christchurch on an ATR 72–500) to Tuuta Airport on Chatham Island. While freight generally arrives by ship (two days sailing time), the sea journey takes too long for many passengers, and is not always available.{{cite web |url=http://www.discoverthechathamislands.co.nz/visit/Getting-around/ |title=Getting to the Chatham Island |publisher=Discoverthechathamislands.co.nz |access-date=2015-08-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925052912/http://www.discoverthechathamislands.co.nz/visit/Getting-around/ |archive-date=25 September 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://www.chathamislandsshipping.co.nz/ |title=Chatham Islands Shipping Ltd |access-date=2015-08-27 |archive-date=17 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017010226/http://www.chathamislandsshipping.co.nz/ |url-status=live }}

Tasman Empire Airways Ltd (TEAL) initially serviced the Chathams by air using flying boats. With the withdrawal of TEAL, the RNZAF maintained an infrequent service with Short Sunderland flying boats. NZ4111 was damaged on takeoff from Te Whanga Lagoon on 4 November 1959 and remains as a wreck on the island. The last flight by RNZAF flying boats was on 22 March 1967.{{cite web |last=www.seawings.co.uk |first=flying boat forum |title=Short flying boats in New Zealand |url=http://theflyingboatforum.forumlaunch.net/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=985&start=50 |access-date=3 June 2013 |archive-date=24 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224091752/http://theflyingboatforum.forumlaunch.net/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=985&start=50 |url-status=usurped }} For many years Bristol Freighter aircraft served the islands, a slow and noisy freight aircraft converted for carrying passengers by installing a removable passenger compartment equipped with airline seats and a toilet in part of the cargo hold. The air service primarily served to ship out high-value export crayfish products.

The grass landing field at Hapupu, at the northern end of the Island, proved a limiting factor, as few aircraft apart from the Bristol Freighter had both the range to fly to the islands and the ruggedness to land on the grass airstrip. Although other aircraft did use the landing field occasionally, they would often require repairs to fix damage resulting from the rough landing. Hapupu is also the site of the Hāpūpū / J M Barker Historic Reserve (one of only two national historic reserves in New Zealand), where there are momori rakau (Moriori tree carvings).

In 1981, after many years of requests by locals and the imminent demise of the ageing Bristol Freighters, the construction of a sealed runway at Karewa, Tuuta Airport, allowed more modern aircraft to land safely. The Chathams' own airline, Air Chathams, with its head office in Te One,{{cite web |url=http://www.airchathams.co.nz/contact-us.html |title=Contact Us |publisher=Airchathams.co.nz |access-date=2015-08-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909224526/http://www.airchathams.co.nz/contact-us.html |archive-date=9 September 2015}} operates services to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The timetable varies seasonally, but generally planes depart the Chathams around 09:30 am (Chathams Time) and arrive in the mainland around 11am and depart again at around 2 pm (NZ time) back to the Chathams. Air Chathams operates twin turboprop ATR 72–500 aircraft (freight and passenger) and dedicated freighter Saab 340 aircraft. The freighter is mainly used to supplement the ATR capacity during crayfish season for the transport of live export crayfish,

The ship Rangatira provided a freight service from Timaru to the Chatham Islands from March 2000 to August 2015.{{cite news |title=The good ship Rangatira |first=Fergus |last=Blakiston |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/life/71498342/The-good-ship-Rangatira |work=The Timaru Herald |date=29 August 2015 |access-date=28 October 2015 |archive-date=4 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104204645/http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/life/71498342/The-good-ship-Rangatira |url-status=live }} The MV Southern Tiare provides a freight service between Napier, Timaru and the Chathams.

Boats are used to transport people between the islands. In 1902 four people lost their lives when the whaling boat they were sailing on from Pitt Island to Owenga.

On 17 July 1931 11 people drowned when the {{convert|36|ft|m}} long cutter-rigged launch Te Aroha sunk during a storm while sailing the {{convert|24|mi|km}} from Kaingaroa to Owenga while transporting people to play in a football match. No bodies were ever found, only a severed hand. To date this has been the greatest single loss of people on the islands. Lost were Bishop Ashton, Taaka Ngata, B. Remi, H. Stone, brothers Joseph and William Paynter, brothers Edward, Michael and Waiti Thompson, James Whaitirl and Ririmu Wiki.{{cite news |title= Toll of the Sea: Eleven Lives Lost |newspaper= Dominion |location= Wellington |date= 4 September 1931 |url= https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19310904.2.104 |access-date= 22 November 2024}}

Up until the late 1960s boats were also regularly used to connect the settlements on the edges of the Te Whanga Lagoon.

By the 1920s a number of formal tracks had been created around the ports. After the end of the Second World War the Ministry of Works constructed a gravel road and bridges to Owenga. Tracks continued to be created but often didn’t conform with the "paper roads" on Smith’s survey. Most islanders continued to travel by horses. To transport a number of people or freight islanders would use a cart pulled by a single horse called a "konake" or "Chatham islands truck", which had a pair of wheels at the rear and sled-type runners at the front which assisted it in travelling over the soft soil covering the island. Another option was a “jogger” which was pulled by two horses and which used pneumatic tires.

The tracks or lack of them were so bad that Norman Kirk (who was then its electorate MP) on a visit to the islands in the late 1950s described a trip by land Rover that took four hours to cover 31 miles. The Land Rover was accompanied by a tractor those task it was to pull the other vehicle out when it became bogged.

Using funds provided by the New Zealand government a project was undertaken in 1969-70 to turn these tracks into formal roads to connect the airport at Hapapu, Kaingaroa, Manganui, Port Hutt, the Tuku and roads around Waitangi. The contract was awarded to Roger Mahon form Canterbury who shipped construction equipment to the islands. With the agreements of the islanders he and the project engineer Brian Pease choose the best route, rather than follow the paper roads laid out in the 1870s and 1880s. The islanders assisted in the work by providing quarried rock and other hardfill at little or no cost to the project. Due to the benefits they were receiving from the improvement in access to their properties landowners opted to receive no compensation for the value of the land taken for the roads. As a road was constructed the surveyor Kenneth Wynne followed behind pegging out the legal road boundaries of what in many cases were wider roads and more roads than specified in the contract.

Today there is a small section of tar sealed road between Waitangi and Te One, but the majority of the islands' roads are gravel.

A 1.5 kW wireless link{{Cite web |date=17 March 1917 |title=A Lonely Outpost |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19170317.2.67 |access-date=2019-12-21 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |archive-date=21 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221084805/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19170317.2.67 |url-status=live }} opened in 1913,{{Cite web |date=19 September 1913 |title=Wireless Station Opened at the Chathams |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19130919.2.58 |access-date=2019-12-21 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |archive-date=21 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221084802/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19130919.2.58 |url-status=live }} a public radio link to the mainland was built in 1953 and an island phone system in 1965.{{Cite web |title=Chatham Islands Radio ZLC: 1950–1969 |url=http://maritimeradio.org/chatham-islands-radio-zlc/1950-1969/ |access-date=2019-12-21 |website=Maritime Radio |language=en-US |archive-date=18 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218024557/http://maritimeradio.org/chatham-islands-radio-zlc/1950-1969/ |url-status=live }} In 2003 a digital microwave system was installed for 110 phones in Ōwenga.{{Cite web |last3=Zeal |first3=2:56 pm Press Release: Telecom New |date=June 2003 |title=Telecom upgrades Chatham Islands communications |url=https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0306/S00077/telecom-upgrades-chatham-islands-communications.htm |access-date=2019-12-21 |website=www.scoop.co.nz |archive-date=21 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221075331/https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0306/S00077/telecom-upgrades-chatham-islands-communications.htm |url-status=live }}

The islands were linked as part of the Rural Broadband Initiative in 2014, when satellite bandwidth was increased,{{Cite web |title=$2.48m to improve broadband for the Chatham Islands |url=http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/248m-improve-broadband-chatham-islands |access-date=2019-12-21 |website=The Beehive |language=en |archive-date=21 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221075348/https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/248m-improve-broadband-chatham-islands |url-status=live }} and broadband is now provided by Wireless Nation,{{Cite web |title=Chatham Islands Broadband {{!}} Wireless Nation |url=https://wirelessnation.co.nz/rural/chatham-islands/ |access-date=2019-12-21 |language=en-NZ |archive-date=21 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221075332/https://wirelessnation.co.nz/rural/chatham-islands/ |url-status=live }} though Farmside provide some coverage.{{Cite web |last=Newman |first=Ernie |date=2019-01-17 |title=One Business, Many Markets |url=https://www.wispa.nz/one-business-many-markets/ |access-date=2019-12-21 |website=WISPA NZ |language=en-NZ |archive-date=21 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221075331/https://www.wispa.nz/one-business-many-markets/ |url-status=live }}

As late as 2019 there was no mobile phone coverage on the islands, however in December 2021, five 4G cellular towers were turned on to enable mobile phone coverage on Chatham and Pitt Island and deliver faster broadband. The main tower is positioned on Target Hill, which transmits to the other four towers through a microwave radio link; it is backhauled by Eutelsat 172B to a network in Wellington. The upgraded network delivers greater bandwidth than the previous link, and provides reliable broadband.{{cite web |url=https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2201/S00006/rcg-flips-switch-on-chatham-islands-4g-network.htm |title=RCG flips switch on Chatham Islands 4G mobile network |publisher=Scoop |date=6 January 2022 |access-date=23 January 2022 |archive-date=23 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123104823/https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2201/S00006/rcg-flips-switch-on-chatham-islands-4g-network.htm |url-status=live }}

{{See also|List of schools in the Chatham Islands}}

There are three schools on the Chathams, at Kaingaroa, Te One, and Pitt Island. Pitt Island and Kaingaroa are staffed by sole charge principals, while Te One has three teachers and a principal. The schools cater for children from year 1 to 8. There is no secondary school. The majority of secondary school-aged students leave the island for boarding schools in mainland New Zealand. A small number remain on the island and obtain their secondary education by correspondence.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

• Richard Charteris (b. 1948), New Zealand musicologist
• Abe Jacobs (1928–2023), New Zealand professional wrestler
• Te Kiato Riwai (1912–1967), New Zealand nurse and Māori welfare officer
• Brendon Tuuta (b. 1965), New Zealand international rugby league player

{{Portal|New Zealand}}

• 1924 Chatham Islands expedition
• 1954 Chatham Islands expedition
• History of Chatham Islands numismatics
• List of historic places in the Chatham Islands
• List of islands of New Zealand
• List of massacres in New Zealand
• Moriori genocide

{{Reflist|colwidth=25em}}

• {{cite book |last= Clark |first= Ross |date= 1994 |chapter= Moriori and Māori: The Linguistic Evidence |editor-last= Sutton |editor-first= Douglas G. |title= The Origins of the First New Zealanders |location= Auckland |publisher= Auckland University Press}}
• {{cite encyclopedia |first1= Denise |last1= Davis |first2= Māui |last2= Solomon |date=2005 |title= Moriori – Origins of the Moriori people |url= https://teara.govt.nz/en/moriori/page-1 |encyclopedia=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand |access-date= 2 January 2025}}
• {{cite book |last= Diamond |first=Jared |author-link= Jared Diamond |year=1997 |title= Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies |location= New York |publisher=W. W. Norton |title-link=Guns, Germs, and Steel}}
• {{cite news |title=Voter turnout up in local elections |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10680766 |access-date=16 October 2010 |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=15 October 2010 |first=Paul |last=Harper}}
• {{cite encyclopedia |first=Kerry R. |last=Howe |date=2005 |title=Ideas about Māori origins |url= https://teara.govt.nz/en/ideas-about-maori-origins |encyclopedia=Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand |access-date=2 January 2025}}
• {{cite book |last=King |first=Michael |author-link=Michael King (historian) |title=Moriori: A People Rediscovered |date=2000 |orig-date=First ed. 1989 |edition=Rev. |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-14-010391-5 }}
• {{cite journal |last= McFadgen |first= B. G. |title= Archaeology and Holocene sand dune stratigraphy on Chatham Island |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand |volume= 24 |issue= 1 |pages= 17–44 |date= March 1994 |doi= 10.1080/03014223.1994.9517454|doi-access=free |bibcode= 1994JRSNZ..24...17M}}
• Waitangi Tribunal. 2001. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110514211825/http://www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz/reports/rekohu/ Rekohu: A Report on Moriori and Ngati Mutunga Claims in the Chatham Islands]. Report No. 64.

• {{cite thesis |last= Anderson |first= Rosemary Ellen |date= 2019 |title= Wind and Shifting Sands: Sensing Place and Identity on Chatham Island, 1850–1950 |degree=PhD |publisher= University of Otago |url=https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/handle/10523/8909}}
• {{cite book |editor-last= Armitage |editor-first= Don |year= 2015 |title= True Tales of the Chatham Islands |location= Chatham Islands |publisher= Chatham Heritage and Restoration Trust |type= Softcover |isbn= 978-0-473-33425-3}}
• {{Cite book |editor-last= Miskelly |editor-first= Colin |title= Chatham Islands: Heritage and Conservation |location=Christchurch, NZ |publisher= Canterbury University Press in association with the Dept. of Conservation |date=2008 |edition=Rev. and enl. |isbn=978-1-877257-78-0}}
• {{cite book |last= Rennie |first= Hugh |year= 2022 |title= Chathams Resurgent: How the Islanders Overcame 150 Years of Misrule |location= Masterton, New Zealand |publisher= Fraser Books |type= Softcover |isbn=978-1-99-116442-1}}
• {{cite journal |last= Sutton |first= Douglas G. |title= A Culture History of the Chatham Islands |journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume= 89 |issue= 1 |pages= 67–94 |publisher= University of Auckland |place=Auckland |year= 1980 |url= http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document//Volume_89_1980/Volume_89%2C_No._1/A_culture_history_of_the_Chatham_Islands%2C_by_Douglas_G._Sutton%2C_p_67-94/p1}}

{{Wikivoyage|Chatham Islands}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://www.cic.govt.nz/ Chatham Islands Council]
• [https://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/Photos/Topics/ChathamIslands/ Photographs from the Christchurch Public Library]
• [https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/chatham-islands/ Department of Conservation information]
• [https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/nz-chi.html Unofficial Flag]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080601181714/http://www.education-resources.co.nz/pitt.htm Pitt Island] Education Resources.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081014112836/http://education-resources.co.nz/rekohu.htm Rekohu: The Chatham Islands] Education Resources.

{{Chatham Islands}}

{{Territorial Authorities of New Zealand}}

{{Administrative divisions of New Zealand}}

{{Countries and territories of Oceania}}

{{authority control}}

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