Nearest city Oban, New Zealand Phone +64 3-219 0002 | Area 1,570 km² Established 2002 | |
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Location Stewart Island, New Zealand Governing body Department of Conservation Address Halfmoon Bay, Stewart Island 9818, New Zealand Similar Oban Visitor Centre, Ruggedy Range™ Wilderne, Stewart Island Backpack, Ryans Creek Aerodrome, Bay Motel | ||
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Rakiura National Park is a nature reserve park located on Stewart Island / Rakiura, New Zealand. It is the newest national park of New Zealand and opened in 2002. The protected area covers about 85% of the island.
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History
Rakiura National Park is the 14th of New Zealand's national parks and was officially opened on 9 March 2002 by the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, the Minister of Conservation, Sandra Lee, and the mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary. It is New Zealand's newest national park.
It covers 1,570 square kilometres (610 sq mi), which is about 85% of Stewart Island, New Zealand's third-largest island. The park area excludes the township area around Halfmoon Bay (Oban) and some roads as well as private or Maori-owned land further inland. It is made up of a network of former nature reserves, scenic reserves, and State Forest areas.
A chain sculpture at the entrance to Rakiura National Park symbolises the Maori view that Stewart Island is anchored to South Island; the sculpture was unveiled as part of the opening of the national park. In 2008, a similar sculpture was erected in Bluff, and it represents the other end of the chain.
Natural history
The popular Rakiura Track is within the national park. Many native birds can be found within the park, and Rakiura offers perhaps the best opportunity anywhere in New Zealand for viewing kiwi in the wild. This is in part due to the absence of stoats and ferrets. Certain coastal areas of this park are breeding areas for the endangered yellow-eyed penguin. Weka, a flightless and curious bird species, can only be found on offshore islands.
In the 1970s, kakapo were found in the Tin Range at a time when it was thought that the species was nearly extinct. The kakapo have been transferred to nearby Codfish Island, which is not part of the national park.