Image: Tui de Roy | ©
Southern brown kiwi, Ocean Beach
Glory Cove Scenic Reserve

Located in Stewart Island/Rakiura in the Southland region

Part of Glory Cove Scenic Reserve on Stewart Island/Rakiura is a kiwi protection area. Here you have the opportunity to see kiwi in the wild. There is no camping allowed in the kiwi protection area and you must have a permit to be there between 6 pm and 6 am.

In Oban you can hire a water-taxi to take you from Golden Bay wharf to Glory Cove Scenic Reserve.

The reserve is located on the southernmost part of the Neck; a narrow peninsula of land which protects the entrance to Paterson Inlet/Whaka a Te Wera.

Keep to formed tracks, so as not to disturb kiwi. Do not stand between kiwi and the safety of the bush.

Do not use flash photography or bright lights.

No dogs are allowed.

To protect kiwi, bylaws limit access at night. You must have a permit to be in the reserve between 6 pm and 6 am. You can apply for a permit from the Rakiura National Park Visitor Centre.

Māori visited and lived on the Neck from as early as the 13th century. In the 1800s European sealers and whalers intermarried with the Māori community living there. In 1864, when Rakiura/Stewart Island was sold to the crown, the Neck was set aside as land for 'half-castes', and grew to become the largest Māori settlement in the area.

Many people living in Oban or Bluff today can trace their roots back to those families. Most of the Neck is still private land owned by Rakiura Māori.