Stewart Island is home to a variety of avifauna, such as the ocean-going mollymawk, the flightless weka, the bushland kaka, the honey-eating tui.
But it is the bird New Zealand is closely identified with, the kiwi, which gives the appellation Home of the Kiwi to Stewart Island.
In an island of just about 1735 square kilometres, more than 20,000 brown kiwi are estimated to be living there.
One of New Zealand's largest birds
The Stewart Island kiwi is one of the largest of New Zealand’s six varieties and is known to be active in the daytime as well as nighttime. The mainland varieties are mainly nocturnal.
Because of their being active during daylight hours, the kiwi can be more easily spotted -- some of them foraging for food on the beaches -- by visitors to the island.
Original Maori name
The original Maori name of the island is Te Punga o Te Waka a Maui (the Anchor of Maui’s Canoe) which harks back to the Maori story of how New Zealand came to be.
As the mythic anchorstone, the island provided the leverage for the god Maui and his crew to catch and raise the great fish which became the North Island. The canoe formed the South Island.
Rakiura
Today Stewart Island’s more commonly known Maori name is Rakiura (Land of the Glowing Skies), perhaps an allusion to its golden red sunrises and sunsets or to the aurora australis.
The island’s English name comes from the name of the first officer of the sealing ship Pegasus, William Stewart, who began charting the southern coasts of New Zealand in 1809.
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- Photo courtesy of Tourism Southland, New Zealand
