Stewart Island,

Stewart Island, also called Rakiura in the language of the Maori, is the third largest island of New Zealand. It lies thirty kilometers south of South Island, New Zealand. Its area is 1746 square kilometers which, for comparison, represents about two-thirds of the surface of the Saarland.

With a population of 390, or 0.2 inhabitants per square kilometer, Stewart Island is barely inhabited; the only settlement is Oban, situated on Halfmoon Bay. (For comparison, Ruegen has 72 inhabitants per square kilometer).

The island is approximately 70 by 40 kilometers across and is heavily forested and mountainous. The highest peak on the island is Mount Anglem, at 981 meters. The southernmost point is South West Cape. The coastline is highly fragmented, particularly by Paterson Bay, which extends far into the interior.

In turn, there are several small islands in Paterson Bay, such as Ulva Island and Native Island. Stewart Island is separated from South Island by the Foveaux Strait, which is considered very rough and is where the now uninhabited island of Ruapuke is located.

The climate is fairly moderate due to warm currents that bathe the island to the south. In particular, the winters are relatively mild, and there isn’t really a fall season. Overall, the climate is unstable, wet and windy.

Fauna and flora
The Island is home to the Stewart Island brown kiwi, one of six subspecies of the kiwi, the bird on New Zealand’s coat of arms. A sought after food source by the Maori was Titi – the chick of the dark shearwater (Puffinus griseus).

A warm current connects the Great Australian Barrier Reef directly with Stewart Island. In the shallow waters off the coast, the warm water is particularly clear and is rich with underwater fauna.

Discovery and colonization
Small traces of a settlement by the Maori can be traced back to the thirteenth century. In the Maori language the island was called Rakiura (Glowing sky) and Te Punga o te Waka a Maui (Anchor of Maui’s canoe). Overall, the Maori rather preferred the small island of Ruapuke, halfway to the mainland, because they could more easily defend themselves.

James Cook was the first European to sight the island in his circumnavigation of South Island in 1770. Since he assumed Stewart Island was connected to the mainland, Cook called it South Cape, and proceeded further south.

It was not until about February 1809, on a seal-hunting trip to a group of islands off South Island, that the captain of the Pegasus found the bunker with the waterway between South Island and Stewart Island (Foveaux Strait), thereby recognizing that the alleged peninsula had to be an island. In contemporary reports, however, no name appears on the island.

In August, a ship came from the Australian Port Jackson to the south coast of the then uninhabited island, this time under Captain S. Chace. On board was the first officer William Stewart, after whom the island was later named. He charted parts of the south coast, especially Southport, today’s Port Pegasus, and gave the card to the editor of The Oriental Navigator.

In 1816, for the first time, a published map used the expression of Stewart’s Island, and the map was used by the British navy and merchants until 1840. Stewart, therefore, is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the discoverer of the island.

During the nineteenth century there were a number of European colonization attempts in the hinterland. Settlements with sawmills and fishing stations were established outside of Oban. However, due to the remoteness, they usually stayed only a few decades.

Beginning in 1890 an attempt was made at Port Pegasus (on the south coast) to establish a tin mine. Up to 200 workers were temporarily on site, and there were a few shops and a post office. Today, the ruins are accessible only by boat or by an arduous march across the island.

Transport and Tourism
Stewart Island is reachable from South Island or from Bluff, either with a one-hour ferry or by transportation via a propeller plane from Invercargill. Invercargill offers shuttle services to the ferry at Bluff.

The grass runway of Stewart Island has no terminal and the transfer to Oban is carried out by shuttle buses. In Oban and the surrounding area there are several hotels, a few shops and, now, a six-hole golf course. There are no banks.

In 2002 the founding of the 1,570 square-kilometer Rakiura National Park put about 87% of the island under protection. The island can be traversed via various described circular walks. Traces of settlement attempts are often found at the roadside.

The best known is the Rakiura Track, which one can cover in about three to four days. A large proportion of the roads are secured by the park management with boardwalks, as the roads, tending to silting, are correspondingly sensitive.

No accommodation has been cultivated outside of Oban. Lodging is available either in cabins or on the designated hiking bivouac courses. To reach the more remote part of the island, it is necessary to allow from one to ten days. Few have completely circumnavigated the island on foot.

In recent years, the shallow, warm and species-rich waters have brought an increase in dive tourism.