Stewart Island (Rakiura)

Stewart Island, or Rakiura in the language of the Māori people, is the smallest of New Zealand’s three main islands. Located about 30 kilometres south of the South Island, the remote Stewart Island mainly consists of a national park and is noted for its numerous hiking trials and wildlife species. The island is accessible only by boat or plane, which makes it one of New Zealand’s most overlooked tourist destinations. Despite its isolated location, Stewart Island does have about four hundred local residents who mostly live in the island’s only village.

Background

New Zealand is a South Pacific nation that consists of three main islands and several hundred surrounding smaller islands. Of the three main islands, the South Island is the largest at about 152,229 square kilometres, while the North Island has a land area of 113,729 square kilometres. The majority of New Zealand’s 2020 population of 4.9 million lived on the North Island, which was home to its largest city, Auckland, and its 1.6 million residents. The Māori call the North Island Te Ika-a-Māui, or ‘Māui’s Fish’, because legend has it the island was fished from the sea by the great hero Māui. The South Island is called Te Waipounamu, or ‘waters of the greenstone’. The Māori also call the South Island Te Waka a Māui, or ‘Māui’s Canoe’.

The islands of New Zealand are the last-remaining landmasses of a now sunken microcontinent called Zealandia. Only about 6 per cent of the 4.9-million-square-kilometre microcontinent remains above water. The rest of Zealandia sank below the ocean about 23 million years ago. Scientists believe the landmass separated from Antarctica about 100 million years ago and from Australia about 80 million years ago.

Overview

While often considered the third main island of New Zealand, Stewart Island is considerably smaller than its two larger counterparts, with a land area of 1,680 square kilometres. The Māori call the island Rakiura, or ‘land of glowing skies’, for the atmospheric phenomenon known as the southern lights that can be seen there. According to Māori legend, as Māui fished up the North Island in his canoe, he pulled up a large stone to hold his boat in place. For that reason, the Māori also refer to Stewart Island as Te Punga a Māui, or the ‘anchor stone of Māui’.

Evidence suggests that Polynesian explorers were the first people to land on the island, but due to its remote location, they did not stay. The Māori are believed to have arrived in the thirteenth century, drawn to the island for its fishing and the presence of tītī, a seabird they considered a delicacy. Europeans later called the tītī ‘muttonbirds’ because they were said to taste like sheep meat.

The first European to sight Stewart Island was British explorer James Cook in 1770. Cook believed the island was part of the South Island and originally named it South Cape. The island received its English name from William Stewart, the first mate on the sealing vessel Pegasus. The Pegasus charted the southern reaches of Stewart Island in 1809.

Sealers and whalers established bases and supply stations on Stewart Island in the early nineteenth century. Over time, some sailors began to marry the local Māori women and settle on the island to raise families. Additional settlers and missionaries arrived on Stewart Island over the course of the nineteenth century. Attempts were made to establish farms and sawmills on the island, but its climate was not well-suited to these pursuits and they were eventually abandoned. Fishing has always been the main industry on the island with blue cod, crayfish and oysters among the primary harvests.

Stewart Island is bookended by mountainous regions on its north and south coasts, with a lowland region cutting through its centre. The island has two main harbours, the largest, Paterson Inlet, is on the eastern coast, while Port Pegasus/Pikihatiti is on the south-east coast. While Stewart Island has a cool subantarctic climate, its location on the edge of the Southern Ocean keeps it from experiencing temperature extremes. The average yearly temperature in Halfmoon Bay in Paterson Inlet in about 9.9 degrees Celsius, with January averages of 13.5 Celsius and July averages of 6.2 Celsius. Stewart Island receives a good deal of rain, averaging about 210 days or rain per year. While parts of the island can see up to 5,000 millimetres of rain a year, Halfmoon Bay receives about 1,600 millimetres.

The island’s lone village, a tiny hamlet named Oban, is located on Halfmoon Bay. Almost all of the island’s 2018 population of 408 people lived in Oban. Since the early twentieth century, the majority of Stewart Island’s land has been set aside as a nature reserve. Rakiura National Park, which was officially established in 2002, takes up about 85 per cent of the island. The 157,000-hectare reserve provides a habitat for numerous birds and wildlife, including the elusive Kiwi, a nocturnal bird species often considered the informal symbol of New Zealand. Another nature reserve, Ulva Island, or Te Wharawhara, is located in Paterson Inlet and was established as a predator-free habitat for the island’s bird species.

Stewart Island can only be reached by boat or plane, with the island’s only airstrip located at Oban. The island has only 28 kilometres of roadways, but features an extensive hiking trial that stretches for about 280 kilometres. Most tourists travel to the island to observe the local wildlife and hike its many trials. While some trails can be traversed in less than a day, others, such as the 36-kilometre Rakiura Track, can take longer to complete. To aid those on longer hikes, the New Zealand Department of Conservation maintains huts along the route to accommodate overnight stays. During the 2010s, about thirty thousand tourists a year visited Stewart Island.

Bibliography

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Peat, Neville. Stewart Island: Rakiura National Park. Otago UP, 2019.

Plummer, Todd. “On This Remote New Zealand Island, Kiwi Birds Roam and the Ferns Predate Dinosaurs.” Vogue, 21 Feb. 2018, www.vogue.com/article/how-to-visit-stewart-island-new-zealand. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.

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Walrond, Carl. “Stewart Island/Rakiura.” Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 1 May 2015, teara.govt.nz/en/stewart-islandrakiura. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.