Taken a few kms up the road, in a better place to park. This island was settled by Maori in the 1700s to 1800s; Te Ruaparaha of the Ngati Toa tribe formed a base here, and launched raiding parties both down to Marlborough, and up the Whanganui river! A whale nursery used to be near the island, although when whaling started, up to 2000 people lived on the island, extracting oil for use in machinery in the US (prior to the petroleum industry taking off). By the time they left, whales were rare, and even now are very rare in this area. The island is now a nature reserve.