Adrift on Lush Rakiura

“It’s from the air that Stewart Island reveals itself,” describes The Independent’s Ben Ross on a trip to Rakiura, or ‘Glowing Skies’. “All but one-sixth of the land is protected by national park statues, with lush hills and valleys forming a point at Mount Anglem in the north. So densely packed is the crush of vegetation that for the most part it feels as if man has scarcely intruded here. It’s like visiting Conan Doyle’s Lost World, except that instead of being attacked by pterodactyls, hikers who choose to follow the three-day 29km Rakiura Track along the coast are likely to see birdlife that is either rare or extinct on mainland New Zealand: a kiwi, perhaps, or yellow-eyed penguins, or the predatory, flightless weka. Beside a broad scoop of beach at Lee Bay stood a rather literal sculpture constructed to mark the inauguration of the national park in 2002. Huge links in a chain disappeared into the sea, to signify Stewart Island’s role as an anchor for the rest of New Zealand. Being cast adrift rather than chained to the mainland is part of what makes Stewart Island so appealing.”