Matiu / Somes Island is the largest of three islands in the northern half of Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. It was the site of military and quarantine internments, as well as animal quarantine until 1995. Since 1995, it has been designated as a scientific and historic reserve. Following environmental restoration and the translocation of species, the island is now home to many native birds, invertebrates, reptiles and plants. The island is in area, and lies south of the suburb of Petone and the mouth of the Hutt River. In 2009, the ownership of the island was transferred to the iwi Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika, as part of cultural redress for Taranaki Whānui included in the settlement of their claims against the Crown for breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. The island is managed by the Department of Conservation. Toponymy Legend has it that Matiu and Mākaro islands received their original, Māori names from Kupe, the semi-legendary first navigator to reach New Zealand and return home with knowledge of the new land. He named them after his two daughters (or, in some versions of the tale, nieces) when he first entered the harbour about 1000 years ago. After European settlement, the island was known for over a century as Somes Island. In 1839 it fell under the control of the New Zealand Company along with much of the greater Wellington region. The island was renamed after Joseph Somes, the company's deputy-governor and financier at the time. In 1997, the New Zealand Geographic Board assigned the official bilingual name of Matiu / Somes Island in recognition of the island's colourful European and Māori histories. Since then the board has adopted the formatting convention of placing a space before and after the slash, so the official name is now written Mātiu / Somes Island. History Māori history During the 18th century Ngāti Ira, an East Coast iwi, settled in Petone and around the eastern shores of the harbour. They built two pā on the island but there was no permanent settlement on the island due to limited resources. Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama from Taranaki drove Ngāti Ira from their settlements in the 1820s. In November 1835 Ngāti Mutunga people, affiliated to Te Āti Awa, seized the ship Lord Rodney at Wellington and got its captain John Harewood to take them to the island. The crew were tied up