Stewart Island

The Maori call Stewart Island at the far southern tip of New Zealand, Rakiura – land of the glowing skies. Stewart was recently designated as a national park, all but the small town of Oban. Small islands surround Stewart and an intensive program to rid the islands of predators has been successful. There are rat traps all over the islands. Native birds flourish on Ulva Island, which we explored in the morning on Christmas Eve. I was dive bombed and nearly decapitated by a kaka – a giant native parrot that lives in the forest. In the afternoon we had our first taste of civilization for a while and poked around Oban. The bird being held in the photo here is a Broad Billed Prion that took shelter on the ship, obviously exhausted. We got permission from the Dept of Conservation in Oban to release it from the ship, but had to wait until dark so that it wouldn’t get picked off by larger birds right away. Evening also brought the first of many huge Christmas feast.