Stewart Island: where the kiwi outnumber the people

What you actually come for

1. Wild kiwi: guided evening trips find the Stewart Island tokoeka feeding on beaches and clearings with remarkable reliability by kiwi standards. This is the country’s premier answer to the wild kiwi question.
2. Ulva Island: a predator-free open sanctuary ten minutes by water taxi from Oban, where weka escort you down the tracks and saddleback, robins and kaka carry on as if the last few centuries had not happened. Half a day, guided if you want the birds named.
3. The Rakiura Track: the southernmost Great Walk, three easy-ish days of bush, beaches and mud with hut bookings far friendlier than Milford’s: see the Great Walks ranking.
4. The dark sky: Rakiura means "glowing skies", and the island holds an official dark sky sanctuary rating. On a clear night the Milky Way is indecent, and during strong solar activity this is the country’s best aurora seat: the stargazing guide covers the odds.
5. Oban itself: one pub with a famous quiz night, blue cod and chips on the wharf, and Observation Rock for sunset over Paterson Inlet. The village is the experience; adjust your pace accordingly.

Ferry or flight, and when

Summer brings the settled weather and long evenings; winter brings aurora odds and the island to yourself. Two nights is the minimum: one for kiwi, one for Ulva. Stewart Island caps the deep-south leg of a long South Island journey beyond the Catlins, and our southern itineraries that include it are consistently the ones guests describe as the trip within the trip.

Getting there, and two nights timed

The ferry from Bluff takes about an hour across Foveaux Strait, which has a reputation, and the flight from Invercargill takes twenty minutes; the sensible plan is one of each, and never the last ferry before an international flight. Two nights is the minimum: the kiwi walk on the first evening, Ulva Island on the second morning, and Observation Rock at sunset on both. Bluff is 30 minutes from Invercargill, and the Catlins is the road that brings you there from Dunedin. RealNZ runs the ferry and the island’s guided trips.

Weather and what to pack

The island sits at 47 degrees south in the Roaring Forties, and the weather does what that suggests: four seasons in an afternoon, rain on more days than not, and a summer high in the high teens. Pack a real rain jacket, boots for the mud on the Ulva and Rakiura tracks, insect repellent for the sandflies, and a warm layer for the kiwi walk, which is at night on a beach. The rewards for the kit are the empty tracks, the birdsong and, on a clear winter night, the aurora that gives the island its Maori name. Come dressed for the West Coast, and the island gives you the sky.