Story: Stewart Island/Rakiura
Stewart Island/Rakiura is New Zealand’s third-largest island and southern-most settlement. With sheltered inlets, forested hills, rugged coasts, dunes, swamps, scattered islets and bizarre granite outcrops, it is remarkable for its variety of landscapes. It has a long history of Māori habitation, and sealers and whalers also lived there from around 1800. In the 2010s it had a small permanent population, but was visited by around 30,000 tourists each year.