Motiti Island is located off the Bay of Plenty

Bay of Plenty

The Bay of Plenty , often abbreviated to BOP, is a region in the North Island of New Zealand situated around the body of water of the same name...

 coast of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

's North Island

North Island

The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

. It is 21 kilometres (13 mi) north-east of Tauranga

Tauranga

Tauranga is the most populous city in the Bay of Plenty region, in the North Island of New Zealand.It was settled by Europeans in the early 19th century and was constituted as a city in 1963...

 and 9.4 kilometres (5.8 mi) north-east of Papamoa

Papamoa

Papamoa is the largest suburb of Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty region on the northeastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand....

. There were 18 homes occupied by 27 people on the island in the 2006 Census.
A relatively flat island covering some 10 km² (3.9 sq mi), it is composed mainly of Miocene volcanic rocks, overlaid with more recent sediments in the south. The principal activity on the island is agriculture, with a developing avocado

Avocado

The avocado is a tree native to Central Mexico, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel...

 plantation. Most residents and visitors travel to the island by air.

On 9 October, 2011, the 45' launch M/V Excalibur ran aground offshore in bad weather. The crew of six was resuced, but the ship was considered a total loss.

In 2011 the MV Rena

MV Rena

MV Rena is a container ship owned by the Greek shipping company Costamare Inc. through one of its subsidiaries, Daina Shipping Co. The ship was built in 1990 as ZIM America for the Israeli shipping company Zim by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG in Kiel, Germany...

 ran aground on Astrolabe Reef

Astrolabe Reef

Astrolabe Reef is near Motiti Island, off the Bay of Plenty coast in New Zealand. The reef, which breaks the water surface at low tide, is a renowned scuba diving spot that drops off to in different parts...

. Oil from the resulting spill, as well as shipping containers and their contents, reached the shoreline of the island.