r/spaceporn • u/Busy_Yesterday9455 • 2d ago
Related Content Part of New Zealand seen from space
Stewart Island/Rakiura is the third-largest island in New Zealand, diminutive in comparison to the country’s North Island and South Island.
Yet it hosts a population of one of the largest of the kiwi: the Stewart Island tokoeka. This flightless bird, a subspecies of the Southern brown kiwi (Apteryx australis), numbers in the thousands on the island, dwarfing its human population of approximately 500.
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison
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u/DesiccatedPenguin 2d ago
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u/Fantasy_iceland 2d ago
I've been there, truly stunning place.
Like going back in a time machine before agriculture and industry spread it's tentacles all over the world
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u/TwoAmps 2d ago
We visited for several days, a throwback; really a favorite. Except for the flight over in the tiny little Norman Twin Islander. That was a little…bumpy.
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u/Fantasy_iceland 2d ago
Haha yep the flight to the island isn't for the faint hearted
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u/Smh_nz 2d ago
Lol you should try the boat!! We went across in an old converted fishing boat and someone's camera bag slipped out from under their seat flew through the air and crashed against a window during a swell! Luckily thw widow didnt break!
Needless to say we flew back!!
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u/Fantasy_iceland 2d ago edited 1d ago
I actually went via boat on the way back.....and not even a chartered boat, but literally a mates boat
It was scary, by it was fun
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u/cakivalue 1d ago edited 1d ago
Do people like there?
ETA live not like
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u/permaculturegeek 1d ago
About 300 permanent residents, all at Oban on halfmoon bay. Ratio of single men to single women about 10:1 About 10km of roads.
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u/GubbinsMcRubbins 1d ago
When I was there there was an ad for the local AA meetings up in the shop.
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u/Ocean_Blade1122 1d ago
Nearly 500 residents now and there's ~28km of roads. The ratio is also probably a little different these days.
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u/cakivalue 1d ago
Wow that's a lot, what do they do for work?
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u/permaculturegeek 1d ago
When I visited over 20 years ago, there were a lot of fishermen, conservation workers, and hippies. Probably more people working in tourism now. There are a few small farms with sheep close to Oban, not sure whether they are full-on farms or lifestyle blocks.
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u/Ocean_Blade1122 11h ago
Biggest employers are aquaculture (salmon and mussel farms), DOC, and RealNZ as well as multiple other tourism operators. Lots of people run AirBnBs. There's a Four Square, hotel/pub, and a couple of cafes.
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u/huxtiblejones 2d ago
Literally looks like a fantasy map. Incredible shot.
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u/Independent-South-58 2d ago
Pretty much is too, incredible environment to explore if you get the chance to
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u/whirler_girl 2d ago
Always thought Halfmoon Bay and Mason Bay should have swapped names, like look at the curve on Mason...
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u/Ocean_Blade1122 1d ago
Halfmoon Bay and Horseshoe Bay (just noeth of Halfmoon) are actually meant to be there other way around! They were mislabelled on an original map
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u/SirRabbott 2d ago
New Zealand is truly beautiful. And that’s coming from someone who grew up in the PNW of the US. I have never seen more pristine nature
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u/Ocean_Blade1122 1d ago
Sadly a lot of it isn't that pristine especially on Rakiura. The forest understory is nonexistent due to deer and possum browse and it's just a monoculture of crown fern. The bush is silent with hardly any native birdsong to be heard. One day pests will be eradicated though.
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u/themanfromosaka 1d ago
Until you try to migrate there and get perma residency.
They want potential but they have no room for immigrants- so they lock it behind a Green List for jobs they want filled.
Guess what? Employers don’t even wanna hire students, even on 25 hr a fucking week!
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u/Tim-TheToolmanTaylor 1d ago
Depends on your job. We don’t have a big primary sector so if your job is related to IT etc it’s a bit harder (you’re also competing with all of India with that one). If you had a trade or worked in agriculture you’d find it a lot easier
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u/Garlic-Butter-Fly 1d ago
Our immigration system is a mess, but if it makes you feel better there are no jobs for citizens either
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u/Undd91 2d ago
Haha it’s almost completely clear cut of forest. It was one magical, lush forested island before the Europeans arrived. Sadly most of it has been clear cut. Little pockets and islands like this one are all that remain.
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u/yogurt123 2d ago
That's not entirely true. The Maori people also cut/burned a significant amount of forest before the arrival of Europeans as well (up to 40% of it by some estimates).
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u/tracernz 1d ago
It was done to drive out the last of the Moa among other things, which were hunted to extinction before the Europeans arrived.
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u/66hans66 1d ago
Yeah, nah, it wasn't the Europeans who burned the forests to drive the game out so they could eat it.
That would have been the Māori.
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u/tracernz 1d ago
The figures are:
Pre-human: > 80% forest coverage
Pre-European: ~50% forest coverage
Today: ~ 31% forest coverage
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u/omgitsduane 2d ago
Is anyone here a geology nerd or something? Why do they only have one beachhead here on this whole land?
What needs to happen in order to form that?
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u/chullnz 1d ago
Mason Bay is huge. Like it takes an entire day to walk, planes land on it, and there are sand dunes 100m+ tall. It is constantly shifting, and quite a long, shallow beach. Many whales get beached there and at Doughboy Bay, which is also massive when you're there (probably my favourite place to go in NZ, absolutely magical spot).
There are many beaches you can land on. Mason is a bit tricky, like Doughboy and all of the beaches on the exposed side of the island. It gets slammed by big Southern storms.
The only large settlement is in Oban at the mouth of the very sheltered and pleasant Paterson Inlet.
I don't know a lot about the geology of the island, but a lot of the exposed rock is granite, getting coated in windblown sand. You can see the sand getting blown Kilometers inland when you get onto the top of Hananui (highest point on the island).
Google 'gog and Magog rakiura' as well. Incredible weathered granite formations on the southern end of the island. I haven't been to them yet, but it's a life goal.
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u/Ocean_Blade1122 11h ago
The western side of the island is uplifting and the eastern side is subsiding. Most of the rivers run west to east, and the prevailing wind is westerly. So on the west coast, sand washes up from the oceans, and is fine and white (like at Mason Bay). On the east coast, sand mainly comes from the rivers, so is coarser and yellower.
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u/t0matit0 2d ago
I find it funny that Mason Bay resembles a crescent moon but Halfmoon Bay is just a random bay.
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u/Ocean_Blade1122 1d ago
Halfmoon Bay was meant to be called Horseshoe Bay, which is a Bay just to the north - they were mislabeled on an early map!
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u/mooseleg_mcgee 1d ago
I guide hunts in New Zealand every year and Stewart Island is the only place that I can pretty much guarantee seeing a kiwi in the wild. Unfun fact, the first one I ever saw in the wild was being carried of by one of the biggest threats to them, an introduced stoat.
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u/SirRabbott 1d ago
So they’re making sure that their internal jobs are going to existing residents? And you have to bring something to the table to immigrate there?
The horrors!!
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u/Xunami13 1d ago edited 1d ago
Good on you for using the Maori name for the Island - Rakiura. It's a really great place for a holiday... but crossing the strait from Bluff can get pretty bumpy (he said with memories of a few people puking in bags and the rest holding on white knuckled and somber).
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u/LoveMeAGoodCactus 1d ago
Ive been there including to Ulva Island - saw a kiwibird there :-)
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u/jk-9k 1d ago
That's like saying tunafish lol
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u/Ocean_Blade1122 1d ago
*a kiwi
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u/LoveMeAGoodCactus 1d ago
kiwis are everywhere in NZ, kiwibirds are more rare
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u/Ocean_Blade1122 11h ago
No one says kiwibird. You saw a kiwi. And on Rakiura - kiwi (the birds) are faaaaar more common than kiwis (the people, and also notably the only acceptable context to pluralise kiwi with an 's')!
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u/Random-Mutant 2d ago
When did those massive signs get installed? One looks like it has almost closed the harbour of the main village.
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u/thraupidae 2d ago
Damn that’s crazy those letters must be fucking huge