The Tuia Mātauranga Pōkai Whenua GeoTour follows the footsteps of early explorers of Aotearoa New Zealand taking you to places where leaders of the past searched for food, resources and ways to adapt and survive in this new land.
Use the Pōkai Whenua GeoTour as your classroom to explore the stories of the past, in the present, to preserve what is unique in Aotearoa New Zealand for the future.
Collect the codewords to get the Geocoin puzzle pieces.
To be able to complete this GeoTour and receive your special Geocoin collectable, remember to take a note of the codeword placed in the cache. This will need to be recorded in your passport which can be downloaded here.
63 of the 150 Pōkai Whenua GeoTour caches will contain a randomly placed special FTF token (a replica of the Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour commemorative coin). This is yours to keep! If you find more than one, you might consider leaving it for the next person who finds the cache.
Stewart Island is a special place where 85% of the Island is a National Park, 15% of Paterson Inlet has become a Marine Reserve and more recently a Dark Sky Sanctuary has been created.
Rakuira National Park - officially opened in 2002, the park is the newest of New Zealand's National Parks covers 1400km2 of Stewart Island’s 1570km2 land mass. The northern end overlooks Foveaux Strait, with rest facing the Southern Ocean on three sides.
While there are multiple walking tracks around and near the township of Oban, the National Park boasts of three multi-day tracks, the South-West and North-West Tracks and the Great Walk - Rakiura Track which can be walked year round. While walking these tracks you may see a variety of native wildlife, including weka, kaka, tui, bellbirds, kereru, an occasional saddleback, and you may hear ruru (owl) and kiwi at night.
Te Wharawhara Marine Reserve (established 2004) covers 1075 hectares (15%) of Patterson Inlet/Te Whaka a Te Wera, one of the largest sheltered harbours in Southern NZ. This inlet is a shallow Ria, an submerged river valley, surrounded on all sides by native rainforest. The Marine reserve is teeming with fish and sea flora that can be observed snorkelling, and penguins and other birds while kayaking. The Reserve surrounds most of Ulva Island where you can walk the tracks admiring the native bush, scenic views across Patterson Inlet and the Island is well known for your ability to get up close to wildlife, especially birds. This is the result of a concerted effort to remove all the usual predators.
The Rakiura Dark Sky Sanctuary, designated in January 2019, was the 5th recognised International Dark Sky Sanctuary owing to the island’s remoteness and sparse population. The Island’s exceptionally dark skies are a wonder to experience. The stars definitely shine bright as recognised by the International Darksky Association “Stewart Island/Rakiura’s pristine night skies are a rare treasure and through the sanctuary’s enacted policies, the area will remain a resource in a world where access to the night sky is becoming increasingly rare.”
The cache will be found on the Golden Bay – Deep Bay walkway, along the walkway you get glimpises of the Te Wharawhara Marine Reserve, Ulva Island, the Rakiura National Park across the Inlet, and if out at night enjoy the beautiful night skies, with the possibility of hearing Kiwi’s and seeing an elusive Aurora. This walk can be started either at Deep Bay or Golden Bay. Cache can be found with shoes on the track.