Mana Island - City of Fiji

Mana Island Resort is the largest of the Mamanuca Island resorts located in the heart of the island group. Mana Island is a long thin island surrounded by white sand and the resort encompasses the western half straddling the main southern beach and the quieter northern beach. There's lots of water activities, good snorkelling and great walks around the island with stunning views from its gentle hilltops.

The steep-sided and seemingly flat-topped Mana Island is a distinctive feature of Wellington’s west coast.

Mana Island’s name is an abbreviation of Te Mana o Kupe ki Aotearoa, which acknowledges the achievements of Kupe, the legendary 12th Century Polynesian navigator, who discovered this land — Aotearoa.

Artefacts, like fish hooks, spears, and animal remains, found in middens provide evidence of human occupation of Mana back to the 14th century.

The island is within view of pa sites at Whitireia Park and Plimmerton that belonged to the Porirua tribes Ngati Tara and Ngati Ira.

In the early 1820s, Ngati Toa people from Waikato and Ngati Awa from Taranaki swept into the region. The Ngati Toa leader, Te Rauparaha and his nephew, Te Rangihaeata, both built whare (houses) and developed kumara gardens on Mana.

Mana Island passed into Crown ownership in 1865 and grazing continued until 1986 when the last cattle were removed. Sheep had been removed earlier after a outbreak of the disease scrapie.

The Department of Conservation took over management of the island in 1987 and began to restore Mana to its natural state.