Islands of the Gulf - Waiheke

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

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

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

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

...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

. I love the way she is with people. I love that we’d always lose track of her as a family and she’d be somewhere talking to strangers and questioning people. She’d come back and she’d know their life story. Everything would come out, and she just had a marvelous way with people. People spoke freely because she made them comfortable. My friends would come around to play and would say “Oh my god, your mother, I just told her everything!”

– Elisabeth Easther on her mother, presenter Shirley Maddock, The Spinoff, 23 February 2023