She’s specifically committed to establishing the island as a UNESCO biosphere reserve and “creating a learning laboratory of best practices in community resilience and sustainability for the benefit of islanders and of communities around New Zealand”.

She also believes housing should be affordable for all islanders and not for profit, and that the library and service centre development should “go back to the drawing board”.

“I don’t think the project should go ahead as designed; two stories high at the highest point of our centrepiece village.”

Ms Watkins feels her strengths lie with “experience and engaged competence” and describes herself as a team player, well practiced in fair negotiating and building consensus. She admits that she can be impatient:  “I don’t mind speaking frankly about issues which sometimes puts people off.”

Among her collaborative achievements are helping to found a secondary charter school in Santa Fe, New Mexico and starting a home school group on Waiheke.

Working with Disabled Snowsports NZ, she created the Adaptive Snowsports programme at Snow Planet in Silverdale, North Auckland from scratch and was a founding member of the steering committee of  ‘Builders Without Borders,’ supporting communities to build houses from locally available materials around the world.

She is currently secretary of Auckland Disabled Snowsports NZ, works with the ‘Toward Zero’ Waste initiative and serves on the UNESCO biosphere reserve working group.

She rejects the notion that Waiheke might have to fit into a new, corporatised model. “The Auckland City structure is plastic at the moment, and the Waiheke local board must mould it to suit the island’s needs.”

She believes for the board to show collective leadership, it will have to liaise with island groups who have various areas of expertise, and the island as a whole through different media.

She sees Waiheke in 2014 as “having UNESCO biosphere reserve status which has allowed the island to become a national leader in preparing for a post carbon future.”

Asked about her vision for the island in 2020 – ten years from now – she said she sees it as “completely car-free and ‘Zero Waste’. Water collection and water harvesting is expanded throughout the island and bore water is reserved for special community purposes.

“Waiheke is able to feed its own population without relying on off-island food sources and all reserves and public land have food production.

Every islander is involved in food production and civil services in some way and all decisions are made with regard to their effect on future island population.

Waiheke is interdependent with the isthmus and although not completely self-reliant, is able to take care of its own.”

Ms Watkins says she would support current Hauraki Gulf Islands councillor Denise Roche as chairperson of a potential local board as “she has the most experience in both island issues and working with the wider city council”

She considers the board position will be a “fulltime job.” •