Stewart Island is New Zealand’s third main island, situated 30 kilometres south of the South Island, across the Foveaux Strait.  This small island paradise offers a special experience – a glimpse into a simpler, slower lifestyle, in rhythm with the sea and the tides, attuned to the natural world of bush and beach.

In the language of our native New Zealand people, Māori it’s known as Rakiura which means ‘The land of glowing skies’. A name that refers to both the beautiful night-sky phenomenon called the Aurora Australis (the Southern Lights) and the breath-taking sunsets that burn on the western horizon.

Birdlife is prolific – Along with Tui, bellbirds, tomtits, grey warblers and fantails, you’ll hear red-crowned parakeets, bush parrots and Stewart Island robins. The coastal fringes of the island are home to three species of penguin, fern birds, banded rails, Weka and many kinds of seabird.

A warm current from the Australian Great Barrier Reef flows around Stewart Island bringing a greater diversity of marine creatures than would normally be found in waters of this latitude.

Stewart Island is one of those places you can never get enough of. It is wild, rugged, raw, invigorating.

The unique and beautiful Paua also thrive in these rugged conditions and I am told that their shells have even more depth of colour due to the fact they have a constant struggle to survive such extreme conditions in the Foveaux Strait which is a rough and often treacherous stretch of water

So that brings me to the end of my tale of the special and unique Island Nation we here at Ariki New Zealand Jewellery call home.

I hope you have enjoyed your “trip” and maybe you can come see us some time?

Take a visit to New Zealand and see some of these places for yourself.