Rakiura National Park

The Rakiura National Park is New Zealand’s southernmost national park.  It is on the sparsely populated Stewart Island, which is upstream of the South Island.

Founded in 2002, the Rakiura National Park is the youngest of the 14 parks of New Zealand, and also its location outside the two main islands of the country, is a unique feature.

Rakiura Track
The park is located just 30km off the coast of New Zealand’s “mainland” and is characterized by its very nature. This is partly because the Foveaux Strait, which separates the island from the rest of the country adn often has stormy, cold weather and turbulent water.  The island witnessed many cases from the Southern Ocean of bad weather and is therefore only suitable for species adapted to climatic conditions such as living space.

The Rakiura National Park is of high conservation value, not only because the island is spared by its peripheral location of major human intervention, but also by the wide variety of landscapes in a relatively small area.  On the west coast, the rocky cliffs are interrupted by sandy beaches.  Also the north and south of the island are very different and are separated by the Freshwater Valley.

In the interior of the national park there are extensive wetlands, as well as forest areas in addition to mountains, which give rise to almost 1,000 meters of altitude.

Rakiura is the habitat of many native bird species, including endemics and those that are extinct on New Zealand’s main islands, or depleted, such as the kakapo (Strigops habroptilus), a nocturnal, flightless parrot.

“Rakiura” means in the language of the Maori “glowing skies”, which refers to the aurora and the spectacular sunsets.  In Oban / Halfmoon Bay, the only inhabited place on the island, a visitor center with information about the park and its nature is established.