Islands of the Gulf - Waiheke Island

People at that time were used to a constant diet of overseas programmes. Suddenly they saw places on TV they knew — it was their own country.

– Presenter Shirley Maddock looks back on the show, The NZ Women’s Weekly, 14 March 1983, page 28

Home go the weekenders back to the mainland with bundles and baskets and babies, and sticky bunches of wild belladonna lilies, pushing their tired sandy feet up the gangway.

– Writer/presenter Shirley Maddock, near the end of this episode

Being single and the youngest of a close and loving family meant I that could be as devoted to my work as any religious to her vocation. Time after time, with not a backward glance, I went darting off to one island or another, owing responsibility to nothing but the job in hand.

– Shirley Maddock in her Islands of the Gulf book (1983 revised edition), page 14

Television news, interviews and documentaries were skills nobody knew anything about when the medium arrived here. Shirley's background in radio and theatre, combined with her extreme intelligence, helped put together groundwork which has remained a benchmark lasting to this day as the industry has flourished.

– Max Cryer remembers Shirley Maddock, The Sunday Star-Times, 14 October 2001

Beyond the rocks there's Little Oneroa, pohutukawa sprawling down the low cliffs. There wasn’t a soul to be seen on its small crescent, not even a footprint in the sand.

– Presenter Shirley Maddock, late in part two

...you’ve got the sense of peace, the tranquility, the beaches, the fishing, the country life, and yet you're within spitting distance of the centre of the biggest city in New Zealand. It's the best of both worlds virtually.

– Waiheke resident Bob Burns, in part one

... the only thing that's held Waiheke back has been the absence of fast sea transport . . . the boats have increased in numbers, but not necessarily in speed. And they're still taking the same time as they did 20 years ago.

– Longtime Waiheke resident Bob Burns, in part one

In the last decade or so, a wave of younger settlers have brought with them new ideas and less conventional ways. ‘Hippies’ or ‘drop-outs’ are epithets some resort to. Their various methods of sustaining themselves include goats, organic horticulture, beekeeping and crafts of all kinds . . . It has also become a favoured retreat for the wealthy, and, while many have expressed concern . . .  you can detect a hint of local pride that a relatively small chunk of New Zealand can point to a sizable muster of resident millionaires.

– Shirley Maddock, in her foreword to the 1983 edition of her book Islands of the Gulf

It was the first production of its kind to be made by what was then called the NZBC . . . and what's more, it was made by a woman — a woman who not only presented the show, she also wrote, produced and directed it. But she had to fight quite hard to be acknowledged as a producer, because in the 1960s women weren't allowed to have such lofty aspirations . . . after some pushing and shoving she became the first woman in the country to be officially acknowledged as a Television Producer.

– Maddock's daughter Elizabeth Easther, in her foreword to the 2017 edition of Islands of the Gulf