Stewart Island

{ {\a6}Classe="mw-headline" id="History_and_naming">History und Benennung< class="mw-editsection">[=="mw-editsection-bracket">[==="/w/index.php?title=Stewart_Island&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section" : Story and Naming">edit]>>

Stewart Island/Rakiura places the initial name M?ori, Te Punga o Te Waka a Maui, at the centre of the isthology of M?ori. The Anchor Stone of Maui's Kanoe, it is a reference to the role of the Isle in the myth of Maui and its crews, captured and reared from their canoes, the South Isle, the great North Isle.

To some Rakiura is the short form of Te Rakiura a Te Rakitamau, translates as "the great reddening of Rakitamau", alluding to its awkwardness when he rejected the hands of not one but two of a chieftain's daughter. According to the M?ori story, a chieftain on the Rakitamau called Te was wed to a young lady who became incurably ill and asked him to get marrie to her female niece after her death.

Rakitamau went via Te Moana Tapokopoko a Tawhiki (Foveaux Strait) to the South Isle, where her co-worker was living, just to find that she had recently got divorced. Disconcerting he reddened; that was the name of the isle Te Ura or Te Rakitamau. Founded in 1841 as one of the three New Zealand counties, the name New Leinster was given to the city.

But it only survived on hard copy and was abandoned after only five years, and with the adoption of New Zealand's Constitutional Law in 1846, the provinces became part of New Munster, which includes the South Island. When New Munster was abandoned in 1853, Stewart Island became part of Otago County until 1861, when the Southland County separated from Otago.

The area of Stewart Island is 1,680 sqkm. 6 ] Its territory is undulating and, like most of New Zealand, Stewart Island has an Oceanian environment. From the northwest coastline, the stream runs southeast into the large inlet of Paterson Inlet. Its highest summit is Mount Anglem (980 metres), near the north shore.

It rises to a crest that extends southwards of the Rakeahua River which also joins the Paterson Inlet. This is the most southerly point of New Zealand's major isles. On the western side, Mason Bay is remarkable as a long sand strip on an islet where the shores are usually much rougher.

There are three large and many small islets around the coasts. Remarkable are Ruapuke Island in Foveaux Strait 32 kilometers north-east of Oban, Codfish Island near the North West Coastline and Big South Cape Island in front of the southwest tip. Titi/Muttonbird Island Group is located between Stewart Island/Rakiura and Ruapuke Island, around Big South Cape Island and off the southeast coastline.

Interesting archipelagoes are Bench Island, Native Island and Ulva Island, all near the estuary of Paterson Inlet, and Pearl Island, Anchorage Island and Noble Island, near Port Pegasus in the South-West. There are also the Snares Oceanian Isles, a vulcano and some smaller ones that were never linked to the bigger Stewart Island.

An earlier village, Port Pegasus, once had several shops and a postal service and was situated on the south shore of the isle. Today it is not inhabited and can only be reached by a long trek through the isle. A further place of the former village is Port William, a four-hour stroll along the northern coastline of Oban, where in the early 1870s migrants from the Shetland Islands made a stop.

They failed, and the colonists abandoned the islands within a year or two, mainly to saw in other towns on the isle. Fisheries have been the most important part of Stewart Island/Rakiura's historical economic development, and although still important, it has become the primary revenue stream for the island's inhabitants. The Stewart Iceland flights connect Ryan's Creek Aerodrome and Invercargill Airport and planes also end up on the sands of Mason Bay, Doughboy Bay and West Ruggedy Beach.

Bluff is the only vehicle connection to the South Island. Most of Southland's AM and FM radios are available on Stewart Island. Analogues from the Stewart Island Hedgehope TV station on the South Island were transmitted to Stewart Island before the analog shutdown on 28 April 2013.

Stewart Island was ruled as New Leinster Province from 1841 to 1853, then as part of New Munster Province. Today Stewart Island/Rakiura belongs to the Southland District and the Southland Region. It does, however, share some easing of trade regulations with some other isles.

As an example, any transportation services operating exclusively on Great Barrier Islands, Chatham Islands or Stewart Island/Rakiura are excluded from the 1962 transportation law. Though the loamy ground is not very fruitful, the islands are thickly wooded throughout due to the high precipitation and the hot weathers. The indigenous flora includes the most southerly thick woodland in the whole wide range with podo carp (southern conifers) and deciduous trees such as www. podo carp and www.podo carp (southern conifers) and www w. phylloxera.com in the lowlands with www.bush land in higher altitudes.

Since the last glacial period, the tree is said to have grown here from seed taken over the straits by seafowl, which would account for the lack of beeches on Stewart Island, which are so widespread in New Zealand but whose seed is distributed by the winds rather than by avians.

Many bird varieties on Stewart Island/Rakiura have continued to flourish due to the relatively absent presence of cat, rat, ermine, ferret, weasel and other beastheads. The Snares and the other smaller coastal island are home to more bird populations, among them giant soot divers and other seafowl.

Among the fowls of Stewart Island are some of the following: wraka, k?k?, albatros, the unairworthy Stewart Island kiwis, sylteyes, fantails as well as k?k? Vulnerable Yellow-eyed Penguins have a considerable number of hatcheries [12] here, while the large settlements of carbon black shearing waters on the Muttonbird Islands off shore are subjected to a sustained harvest programme administered by Rakiura M?ori

Meanwhile, a small colony of kakapos, a near extinct flying Parrots, was found on Stewart Iceland in 1977 and the bird migrated to smaller islets ( "Codfish Island") to protect itself from wildcat. There is also the South Isle saddle back. Since it has always been thinly inhabited and there has never been much timber felling, much of its pristine fauna is still untouched, even the fauna that has been ravaged on the major northern islets since they were first inhabited.

Although habitat and wild animals were not traditionally endangered by invading endangered animals, there are now a large collection of cat, rat and brush tail posums on the islands, as well as a large collection of whitetail stags used for hunting meats and sports that have been imported to the coast. Almost the entire archipelago is in New Zealand ownership and over 80% of the islands are designated as Rakiura Nature Reserve, New Zealand's newest one.

Most of the small off-shore islets, which include the Snares, are also safe. The inhabitants of Stewart Island/Rakiura have carried out a series of fund-raising campaigns to declare the island's autonomy and rename it "Rakiura". They had a printed imprint "INDEPENDENT RAKIURA" on eight different New Zealand post and healthcare stamp numbers in the 1950' or early 1960'.

The money was used to renovate the Rakiura Museum. Another fundraiser was held to collect NZ$6,000 for a new public bath for the island's schools by the sale of 50-cent passes for the new "independent" isle.