Rurima Island is a small island in 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...

, off 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...

. The island is the largest of the Rurima Rocks, with the smaller Moutoki and Tokata Islands lying about 1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) east and west respectively.

Located approximately 9 km (5.6 mi) west of Moutohora Island

Whale Island, New Zealand

Moutohora Island or Whale Island is a small uninhabited island located off the Bay of Plenty coast of New Zealand's North Island, about north of the town of Whakatane. The island is a remnant of a complex volcano which has eroded, leaving two peaks...

 and 10 km (6.2 mi) northwest from the mouth of the Rangitaiki River

Rangitaiki River

The Rangitaiki River is the longest river in the Bay of Plenty region in New Zealand's North Island. It is 155 kilometres in length, and rises inland from northern Hawke Bay to the east of the Kaingaroa Forest....

, the Rurima Rocks are an uninhabited nature reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

 owned by the Ngāti Awa

Ngati Awa

Ngāti Awa is a Māori iwi centred in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand.Ngāti Awa comprises 22 hapu , with 15,258 people claiming affiliation to the iwi in 2006. The Ngāti Awa people are primarily located in towns on the Rangitaiki Plain, including Whakatane, Kawerau, Edgecumbe, Te...

 iwi

Iwi

In New Zealand society, iwi form the largest everyday social units in Māori culture. The word iwi means "'peoples' or 'nations'. In "the work of European writers which treat iwi and hapū as parts of a hierarchical structure", it has been used to mean "tribe" , or confederation of tribes,...

. Kiore

Polynesian Rat

The Polynesian Rat, or Pacific Rat , known to the Māori as kiore, is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the Brown Rat and Black Rat. The Polynesian Rat originates in Southeast Asia but, like its cousins, has become well travelled – infiltrating Fiji and most Polynesian...

 (Polynesian Rat) were eradicated in the 1980s, and Moutoki Island has long been an outpost for tuatara

Tuatara

The tuatara is a reptile endemic to New Zealand which, though it resembles most lizards, is actually part of a distinct lineage, order Sphenodontia. The two species of tuatara are the only surviving members of its order, which flourished around 200 million years ago. Their most recent common...

. The closest settlement is Thornton, about 1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) upstream from the mouth of the Rangitaiki.

Rurima Island is about 500 m (546.8 yd) long, with two bays and sandy beaches on the northwest side. A wide shallow reef, almost a lagoon, stretches north from the pohutukawa-covered island. Snorkelling, diving and kayaking are popular activities here. The wreck of the SS Tasman, holed on the southwest reef in 1912, lies nearby. There is some geothermal

Geothermal gradient

Geothermal gradient is the rate of increasing temperature with respect to increasing depth in the Earth's interior. Away from tectonic plate boundaries, it is 25–30°C per km of depth in most of the world. Strictly speaking, geo-thermal necessarily refers to the Earth but the concept may be applied...

activity on and near the islands.