third largest island of New Zealand, in the southwest Pacific Ocean off the southern tip of South Island. Roughly triangular and measuring 45 by 25 miles (70 by 40 km), the island has a total land area of 674 square miles (1,746 square km). It is generally hilly (rising to 3,215 feet 【980 m】 at Mount Anglem), wooded, and windswept, and its 102-mile (164-kilometre) coastline is deeply creased by Paterson Inlet (east), Port Pegasus (south), and Doughboy and Mason bays (west). The numerous, small Mutton Bird Islands lie close offshore. Stewart Island was seen (1770) by Captain James Cook (Cook, James), who thought it was a peninsula of South Island. This initial description was disproved in 1809 by a survey conducted by Captain William Stewart, one of the many whalers and sealers who visited the island at that time.

Stewart Island is sparsely populated and depends on summer tourists and fishing for oysters and crayfish for its livelihood. It is connected to Bluff, on South Island, by a ferry, which crosses Foveaux Strait, approximately 17 miles (27 km) wide. The ferry lands on Stewart Island at Halfmoon Bay (formerly Oban), which is the most southerly permanently inhabited place in New Zealand.