Motuara Island Bird Sanctuary

Originally razed and now regenerating, Motuara Island is a bird sanctuary in Queen Charlotte Sound. Dolphin Watch Ecotours offer a guided tour of the island leaving from Picton. This island is free of exotic predators, and consequently native birdlife is rich. There is a 30 minute walk to a lookout over the outer sound and its islands.

From Archives New Zealand, an explanation for this conservationally abhorrent historical (1902) image: (the cat on the man's lap is an issue as well as the razed forest):

***On 31 January 1770 at Motuara Island in Totaranui (Queen Charlotte Sound), Captain James Cook claimed the South Island of New Zealand in the name of George III. It is said that a post was carried to the highest point, the Union Jack was raised, and a bottle of wine was promptly opened. ***

***In January 1920 a memorial was erected to commemorate this event in colonial history. Yet the area had long been a significant site for Maori. At the southern tip of Motuara Island is smaller Hippa Island which held a pre-European Pa, and the area in general was an important place for trading (including trade with Cook and his crew). As seen in this image, Motuara Island was burned off around the beginning of the twentieth century. The site was used to graze sheep and was later used as an experimental Angora goat farm.

However the island has regenerated over the last 70 years to a low forest, and is now home to a variety of rare native species. Motuara Island attracts bird lovers from all over the world for this very reason. ***

The image itself was taken by Russell Duncan on 30 March 1902, and was later used in a School Journal publication (the original is held by the Alexander Turnbull Library). It shows an unidentified man with a cat on his lap, seated amongst tree stumps recently cleared away. Archives New Zealand.

Also, there is here a bizarre stumpy little memorial to Captain James Cook's declaration of possession here in 1770. It reads: 'This cairn was erected by the Cook Memorial Committee to mark the spot at or near which on, Wednesday, January 31st 1770, the famous circumnavigator in the presence of the native Chief of the Island, raised the British flag, took possession of the Mainland in the name of King George the Third and named the Inlet Queen Charlotte Sound after the King's Consort.

MOTUARA ISLAND BIRD SANCTUARY AND SHIP COVE CRUISE FROM PICTON