Stewart Island / Rakiura
with Sails Ashore
The Island's special place in
the world has long been recognised, and as this countries foremost
botanist Leonard Cockayne's report of 1909 put it :-
The face of the world is changing so rapidly, in temperate regions at any rate, there will be little of primitive nature left. In the Old World it is practically gone forever. Here then is Stewart Island's prime advantage, and one thing that is hard to overestimate. It is an actual piece of the primeval world.
Straddling the 47th (South) parallel Stewart Island or Rakiura is some 170,000 hectares of wilderness. Rakiura National Park, New Zealand's newest, makes up some 85% of the Islands land mass, the balance being Rakiura Maori Landowners Trust land (13 %) and privately owned (2%) Rakiura translates as Land of Glowing Skies.
Halfmoon Bay or Oban is the sole village, home to around 380 "Islanders". The remainder of the Island is wilderness, accessible only by foot, boat or perhaps by aircraft onto one of the many beaches.
It is not a high Island, with Mt
Anglem/Hananui at 980 m the highest point. Comprised of mainly of
heavily weathered intrusive granite the Island is more low rolling
hills, but with remarkable exfoliated granite domes a feature in the
south. Beautiful sandy beaches, product of the weathered granite,
break up an otherwise iron bound coast. Mason Bay, the biggest, is
around 15k long. Several deep slow flowing rivers drain onto the
eastern coast.
Virgin Rata/Kamahi/Podocarp temperate rainforest covers much of the Island, with only a relatively small area having been milled between 1865 and 1931. In the south the forest succumbs to onslaught of the "roaring 40's" in all but the most sheltered corners and is replaced by fell fields covering thousands of hectares.
Although feral cats, Australian Opossum and of course rats are present, the Island's bird life is remarkable. And the pelagic birding superb, lying as the Island does on the edge of the Southern Ocean.
Jewel in the Island's crown is Ulva Island Open Sanctuary. Cleared of both introduced white-tailed deer and rats in the recent past, Ulva is a glimpse into what New Zealand once was and is as close to pristine as any part of New Zealand open to the public.
Several endangered species of birds as well as common skinks have been liberated on Ulva, to take advantage of the Islands predator free status. In addition many terrestrial orchid species are again flourishing.