Stewart Island History

History

According to myth, NZ was hauled up from the ocean by Maui, who said, ‘Let us go out of sight of land, far out in the open sea, and when we have quite lost sight of land, then let the anchor be dropped.’ The North Island was the fish that Maui caught, the South Island his canoe and Rakiura was the anchor – Te Punga o te Waka o Maui.

There is evidence that parts of Rakiura were occupied by moa hunters as early as the 13th century. The titi (mutton bird or sooty shearwater) on adjacent islands were an important seasonal food source for the southern Maori.

The first European visitor was Captain Cook, who sailed around the eastern, southern and western coasts in 1770 but couldn’t figure out if it was an island or a peninsula. Deciding it was attached to the South Island, he called it South Cape. In 1809 the sealing vessel Pegasus circumnavigated Rakiura and named it after its first officer, William Stewart.

In June 1864 Stewart and the adjacent islets were bought from the Maori for £6000. Early industries were sealing, timber-milling, fish-curing and shipbuilding, with a short-lived gold rush towards the end of the 19th century. Today the island’s economy is dependent on tourism and fishing, including crayfish (lobster), paua (abalone), salmon, mussels and cod.