He Wahi Taoka: A Special Place

He Wahi Taoka is Maori language for “A Special Place”, which aptly describes Stewart Island. Located at the southern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, it offers “a glimpse into a simpler, slower lifestyle, in rhythm with the sea and the tides, attuned to the natural world of bush and beach.”

While there, we hiked for 4 hours along the coast, glimpsing views of beautiful bays as we walked.

And stayed in Oban, the only town on Stewart Island, named by the Scots and meaning “The Little Bay” in Gaelic. With less than 400 permanent residents, the birds definitely outnumber the humans on the island.

But nearby Ulva Island, the southernmost bird sanctuary in the world, is the true birders paradise.

Where we saw many indigenous birds, such as this Weka, many of whom wandered fairly close to us since they don’t have to worry about predators.

Ulva Island was declared rat-free in 1997 and they have kept it that way since. This, along with Ulva being free of other carnivorous mammals, is the reason they don’t have to worry about predators.

While driving south along the eastern coast towards Stewart Island, we passed by lots of interesting sights.

These included Curio Bay, whose claim to fame is a tidal shelf featuring 170 million-year old petrified stumps. At low tide, it’s kind of like a Jurassic petrified forest.

And in the quaint little town of Owaka, we saw this vegetable stand which operates on the honor system.

We saw many such stands along the way, where you just take what you want and leave the money in the box.

And we visited two interesting points: Stirling and Slope. Stirling Point, in the town of Bluff, marks the official end of Highway 1, which starts at the top of North Island and goes all the way down to the bottom of South Island.

Bluff is also known for it’s oysters, but we missed the start of oyster season by just one week. (Think I should fire my master planner now?!!)

Slope Point is out on a very windy peninsula and is the Southern most point of mainland New Zealand.

New Zealand is generally a pretty windy place because it is in a belt called the ‘roaring forties’ (between latitudes 40 and 50) which bring strong westerly winds.