Ulva Island transfixes

“I feel like I’m in a New Zealand tourism commercial,” Sarah Nicholson writes for Adelaide Now describing her “perfect New Zealand moment” wandering the golden sand of Ulva Island, one of the small islands sitting in Stewart Island’s Paterson Inlet. “The sky above is a cloudless blue, the hills that ring the inlet a few hundred metres across the harbour are covered with the dense bush of the Rakiura National Park, and a pair of curious Stewart Island weka are waddling up the beach to greet me. I’m an hour into an afternoon stroll around Ulva Island and, as I pause to soak in the view, I realise I must have the same look of contentment as the extras in the tourism ads.”