Ask anybody who has spent any time on Great Barrier Island and each in their way will acknowledge the special affection this land and its people have created in them. But underneath an appreciation of beauty and natural values, lie personal experiences that add lasting meaning for those that have found their way here.

For Jane Sutton, the Island experience began when she flew in with Sea Bee Air for a Lets-Visit-John adventure Labour Weekend 1982. She is still here and next week she is celebrating with son Caleb his 21^st birthday.

Looking back now at the effort and struggles that were needed to build and sustain an island livelihood brings smiles but masks the challenges that were encountered along the way. “Mainland to us means many things, starting with simple things like having enough power in winter and not struggling with boxes of shopping up the track to the house.” John and Jane will soon have a mainland address when they will move to Hawkes Bay. “But we are not ready to cut all ties with the island yet and will be back often for work and pleasure.”

This is the fifth summer that Nikki McKenzie has come to the island to offer sunset kayak trips at Pa Beach. “You know the beauty of the island can distract from why this place has been pulling me back every year, and that is the friendships and encounters one has here. I remember meeting Pete the baker shortly after I arrived the first time and thinking that that would be a fantastically inspiring summer if there is people like that to be found here.” According to Nikki there are two categories of people that linger here – those that stay a few months and those that find it hard to leave again. “Me? I love it here but after a few months I need to get off again.”

Sarah Harrison was born and raised on Great Barrier. To her, growing up on the island brought out three key aspects. Like for everybody, the first point that came to mind was the community. The friendships, the support and the sharing. “The people that live on this island need to be resourceful. When things do not go your way, then you need to be able to cope and just get on with it. I remember working at Great Barrier Airlines and see town people disintegrate when a flight would be cancelled due to the weather.”

But to the potter recognised nationally for her art, the pottery exhibited at her home and workshop at Shoal Bay is a testament to the creativity that she inherited from her surroundings. “I very consciously attribute my inspiration to growing up in a community that experiences daily the beauty and the challenges of this setting.

Opening a retail store in Tryphena and growing it into a café and beachfront centre, proved a new challenge for Frans Lodewijk after previously running a shop in north of Auckland. “Still, in the end it has left me with a real sense of accomplishment.” he explained. Living and working at the shop, collecting fresh supplies from the ferry and fixing the generator for the nth time leaves little time for leisure. “But thanks to the friends hat are working with me, I still often make it to Medlands when the surf is up.”

“I suppose what I learned here, is not to be prejudiced about people. The scruffy dress of some guys that turned up when I opened the shop 5 years ago, actually disguised some very resourceful and considerate individuals that I would now count as good friends.”

Five years on, Frans is ready to start thinking about a time beyond shop keeping, or at least Great Barrier. “After experiencing this island, I realised that there must be some real gems still waiting to be discovered out there. I am looking forward to that.”

It is a long way from Africa, or from America for that matter, but for 15-year-old Nicole returning to a GBI summer in the U.S. winter school holidays is always “just like coming home”.

Rick, her Auckland-born father comes back with partner Judy and their two teenage daughters at least once a year from Boston where they live. Running a tourism business that organises wildlife safaris to Tanzania after much professional and leisure travel to the worlds’ remote corners should make the Thompson family fussy about their choice of holidays. But the second home in Tryphena is over 10 years old and very unlikely to fall into disuse. “Why? I can’t explain it to my school friends back home. You don’t know the beauty of this place until you get here. That’s why to me it is always like coming home.”

For Tila, 13, the answer was simple: “I come here to visit Nana. And auntie and all my other relatives.” Nana is Freda Reid who opens the Burger Bar at Port Fitzroy every summer. Freda was born on the island, when her father was working at the old Whangaparapara whaling station. Seafaring is in the family blood and took her on an off-island stint that did not stop in Auckland. She spent 3 years with a shipping service in the Torres Straits, based on Thursday Island.

After a lifetime on this island, she has seen much change that “never really changes anything. I see people come and then leave again and the island will always remain the same.”

Tila left no doubt: “I’ll always come back to visit Nana, auntie and the family. We’ve been on this land for hundreds of years and I also belong here, even if I don’t live here now.”

By Rendt Gorter