Experience the best of Stewart Island / Rakiura

Stewart Island, called Rakiura in Māori, meaning glowing skies, lies across Foveaux Strait from the bottom of the South Island, with a population of a few hundred in the single village of Oban, on Halfmoon Bay. About 85 per cent of the island is Rakiura National Park, a wilderness of forest, inlets and empty beaches.

Southern brown kiwi, called tokoeka here, can be seen even in daylight on quiet beaches, and Ulva Island, a short boat ride from Oban, is a predator-free sanctuary where saddlebacks, kākā and robins are easy to see. The Rakiura Track is a 32 km Great Walk, and longer routes cross the island to the empty beach at Mason Bay. Seabirds, penguins and seals line the coast.

Blue cod, crayfish and salmon from the island's waters are the local food, and oysters from Foveaux Strait are a regional speciality. The weather is changeable and often wet, mild but windy. December to March is the warmest and longest-lit stretch, and on clear winter nights the southern lights sometimes glow low on the horizon.