Head start on island paradise

Lonely, maybe, but a group on a 12-month tour of duty on Raoul Island will find compensations, writes Philip English.

A year-long adventure started this week for five New Zealanders heading off to subtropical Raoul Island, 1000km north-east of Auckland.

There will be highs and lows for the five, aged from 27 to 36, on the remote island they will have to themselves.

The Department of Conservation posting involves 12 months of pulling weeds but there will be some consolation - they will be among the first in the world to see the dawn on January 1.

Raoul Island is almost as far east as the Chatham Islands, meaning the sun will come up at about the same time as the celebrations begin on the Chathams.

"We'll see it first even if we have to stand on each other's shoulders," said Aaron Pickering, one of the five, who hoped their millennium party would be on the 560m summit of the Raoul Island volcano.

In conservation circles the Raoul posting is widely sought, with the present intake attracting 60 applicants.

The destruction of alien plants is the prime reason for the Department of Conservation presence. Plants taken to the island by early settlers are now weeds invading the island's forests of mainly Kermadec pohutukawa and nikau. Weather and seismic monitoring is also carried out.

"It is the chance of a lifetime. It's a once-off," said arborist Derek Winwood, of Invercargill.

The job comes with a seven-bedroom villa, a diesel generator to power fridges as well as other kitchen devices; a pool table; a wide, shady veranda, and performance targets to tackle the weeds.

"I think they would figure it out if we sat on the veranda the whole time," said Marian Rhodes, of Queenstown, a former Department of Conservation hut warden.

As well as monitoring the weather and sending up weather balloons every day, she will try to record the passage of rare humpback whales migrating to and from Tongan waters where they breed from June to November.

She wants to photograph the whales' tails or gather DNA samples from them so they can be identified as part of the South Pacific humpback whale project. The project involves Auckland and Otago Universities as well as the Department of Conservation.

Jon Mayes, of Auckland, will be the mechanic in charge of the island's generator, freezers and outboard motors.

The group has received advanced first aid and dental care training. With the island 12 hours away by helicopter, the group has also passed rigorous medical examinations but there is still a risk from accidents - from stubbed toes to shark attacks.