On the anchor stone

“There’s a flock of noisy kakas on my front lawn, quarrelling over some croissants left over from breakfast,” describes The Independent’s Kathy Marks, holidaying on Stewart Island, “a place so remote that few people have even heard of it, let alone visited.” “A few hours ago, I saw baby carpet sharks bobbing offshore, and a blue penguin gliding through the emerald waters. Tonight, who knows, I might spot a kiwi. Maori call it Rakiura and, according to their creation myth, it was the anchor stone that held the canoe belonging to the ancestral god Maui secure while he hauled a great fish — the North Island — out of the ocean. Modern-day fishermen return to Rakiura in boats laden with blue cod, crayfish and internationally renowned Bluff oysters, harvested in Foveaux Strait.”