Best time to visit Stewart Island
New Zealand · Oceania
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Stewart Island
Tap a month for its page
- JanJStewart Island in January: ok, busy
- FebFStewart Island in February: sweet spot
- MarMStewart Island in March: sweet spot
- AprAStewart Island in April: ok
- MayMStewart Island in May: ok
- JunJStewart Island in June: avoid
- JulJStewart Island in July: avoid
- AugAStewart Island in August: ok
- SepSStewart Island in September: ok
- OctOStewart Island in October: ok
- NovNStewart Island in November: ok, busy
- DecDStewart Island in December: ok, busy
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
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Flights from
Flights
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Book with the airline
Where to stay
Book direct
Luxury
Things to do
Car hire
Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
Mobile data (eSIM)
Your own plan's EU roaming may already cover this.
Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is the other common way to stay connected.
These are sites people in book with. Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.
Month by month
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 17° | 13d | 78% | 9.7h | okbusy | busier than usual |
| Feb | 17° | 12d | 77% | 9.5h | sweet spot | 17C max, 12 rainy days |
| Mar | 16° | 11d | 79% | 7.9h | sweet spot | 16C max, 11 rainy days |
| Apr | 14° | 14d | 79% | 6.2h | ok | 14C max, 14 rainy days |
| May | 13° | 13d | 81% | 5.3h | ok | 13C max, 13 rainy days |
| Jun | 11° | 11d | 83% | 5.1h | avoid | 11C max, 11 rainy days |
| Jul | 10° | 13d | 83% | 4.7h | avoid | 10C max, 13 rainy days |
| Aug | 11° | 13d | 80% | 6.4h | ok | 11C max, 13 rainy days |
| Sep | 12° | 15d | 78% | 7.5h | ok | 12C max, 15 rainy days |
| Oct | 13° | 15d | 77% | 8.0h | ok | 13C max, 15 rainy days |
| Nov | 15° | 13d | 77% | 9.7h | okbusy | busier than usual |
| Dec | 16° | 15d | 78% | 10.0h | okbusy | busier than usual |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at Oban, the island's only town: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Stewart Island's May days now average 12.6°C, 1.6°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 6 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | 16.6° | 16.5° | 15.2° | 13.4° | 11.0° | 9.5° | 9.0° | 10.1° | 11.4° | 12.5° | 14.2° | 15.4° |
| 2017–26 | 17.0° | 17.1° | 16.1° | 14.1° | 12.6° | 10.6° | 10.1° | 10.7° | 11.5° | 12.7° | 14.8° | 15.9° |
| Change | +0.4° | +0.5° | +0.9° | +0.7° | +1.6° | +1.2° | +1.1° | +0.6° | +0.1° | +0.2° | +0.6° | +0.6° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
Fly into Invercargill (IVC), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Invercargill.
The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.
How far Stewart Island is depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
- from Auckland
- from Sydney
- from Melbourne
- from Brisbane
- from Perth
- from Jakarta
- from Singapore
- from Manila
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Stewart Island, flying or not.
Before you go
Type I plugs at 230 V. Drives on the left. The currency is the New zealand dollar. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Global Affairs Canada: Exercise normal security precautions. US State Department: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions. Everything for New Zealand: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — Cards and contactless (called paywave) work almost everywhere; a few small shops take only New Zealand cards, so carry a little cash. Some shops add a surcharge for credit or contactless payments, which must be clearly shown.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
- Tipping — Not expected, even in restaurants; prices include service. Rounding up a taxi fare is fine.
Getting around Stewart Island
- Apps — Rides: DiDi, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: Messenger, Text messages (SMS), WhatsApp.
Walk, mostly. All of the 20 kilometres of roads are around Oban/Halfmoon Bay, and the rest of the island is a hiker's wilderness paradise. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Stewart Island, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Help
- Emergency — 111 (any emergency).
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
- Hospitals near Stewart Islanda search on Google Maps
- Pharmacies near Stewart Islanda search on Google Maps
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (13)
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/new-zealand/getting-help
- consumerprotection.govt.nz/general-help/ways-to-buy-and-pay/card-payment-surcharges
- at.govt.nz/bus-train-ferry/contactless-payments/using-contactless-payments-on-auckland-public-transport
- uber.com/global/en/cities/auckland
- web.didiglobal.com/nz/driver/cities
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/New_Zealand
- scoop.co.nz/stories/SC2603/S00003/social-media-still-has-an-internet-stronghold-new-research-finds.htm
- infobip.com/blog/most-popular-messaging-apps-by-country
- developers.google.com/maps/coverage
- apple.com/ios/feature-availability
- orc.govt.nz/orbus/fares
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608
- rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/AnnualReport/PDFs/09PAYMENT290526C6588B796E664822A2BD0DEB6452CAD4.PDF
Stewart Island in pictures
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AxonsArachnida, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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AxonsArachnida, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Stewart Island is like
Stewart Island is the third largest island of New Zealand after the South Island and the North Island, known for its wild kiwi birds, cute small-island town, backcountry recreation, and Ulva Island rare bird sanctuary. It lies 30 km to the south of the South Island, separated from it by Foveaux Strait. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- The museum and Department of Conservation (DoC) in Oban both have excellent displays and are open most days. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- Stewart Island is one of the only places in New Zealand where you have a good chance of spotting a fully wild kiwi bird, but they're still not exactly easy to find. More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- Getting there requires crossing Foveaux Strait by boat or plane from Southland on the mainland. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Stewart Island, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Stewart Island
Also in New Zealand
- Auckland best Feb, Mar, Oct
- Chatham Islands best Feb, Mar, Nov
- Christchurch best Feb, Oct, Nov
- Dunedin best Feb, Oct, Nov
- Great Barrier Island best Feb, Mar, Oct
- Nelson best Feb, Oct, Nov
- Picton best Jan, Feb, Oct
- Queenstown best Feb, Mar, Nov
- Rotorua best Feb, Oct, Nov
- Tauranga best May, Sep, Oct
- Wellington best Feb, Mar, Oct
Nearby
- Hobart Australia · 1,693 km
- Lord Howe Island Australia · 1,876 km
- Sydney Australia · 2,025 km
- Mornington Peninsula Australia · 2,110 km
Kind of place
Stewart Island is in New Zealand, Oceania. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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