The South Island (official alternative name , from Māori) is the larger of the two main islands of New Zealand by surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. With a population of as of the South Island is home to % of New Zealand's million inhabitants. The most populous cities are Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson and Invercargill.
The South Island is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south by Foveaux Strait and the Southern Ocean, and to the east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers , making it the world's 12th-largest island, constituting 56% of New Zealand's land area. At low altitudes, it has an oceanic climate.
The South Island is shaped by the Southern Alps, which run along the island from north to south. The Southern Alps include Aoraki / Mount Cook, at New Zealand's highest peak. The Kaikōura Ranges lie to the northeast. The east side of the island is home to the Canterbury Plains, while the West Coast and Fiordland on the west are renowned for their rough coastlines, native bush and national parks, and the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers.
Prior to European settlement, Te Waipounamu was sparsely populated by three major iwi – Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, and the historical Waitaha – with major settlements including in Kaiapoi Pā near modern-day Christchurch. During the Musket Wars expanding iwi colonised Te Tau Ihu, a region comprising parts of modern-day Tasman, Nelson and Marlborough, including Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne, Ngāti Tama, and later Ngāti Toarangatira after Te Rauparaha's wars of conquest. British settlement of the South Island began with expansive and cheap land purchases early on, and settlers quickly outnumbered Māori. As a result the Wairau Affray was the only conflict of the New Zealand Wars to occur in the South Island.
Dunedin boomed during the 1860s Otago gold rush, which was shaped by extensive Chinese immigration. After the gold rushes in Otago and on the West Coast, the South Island held the majority of the European population and wealth. After the gold rushes the "drift to the north" meant the North Island displaced the South as the most populous. The North Island's population overtook the South Island's in the early 20th century, with 56% of the New Zealand population living in the North Island in 1911. The drift north of people and businesses continued throughout the twentieth century.
Naming and usage The island has been known in English as the 'South Island' for many years. The Māori language name for it, '', is an official alternative name. '' is most often translated as 'the water(s) of pounamu', but possibly evolved from '' ('the place of pounamu'). It was first recorded in English by Captain James Cook on his voyage to New Zealand in 1769. North Island iwi alternatively used the name '' ('the canoe of Māui') for the South Island.
In the 19th century, some maps identified the South Island as 'Middle Island' or 'New Munster' (named after Munster province in Ireland), with the name 'South Island' or 'New Leinster' used for Stewart Island. In 1907, the Minister for Lands instructed the Land and Survey Department that the name 'Middle Island' was no longer to be used: "South Island will be adhered to in all cases".
The New Zealand Geographic Board found in 2009 that the South Island (along with the North Island) had no official name. After several years and at a cost of over $10,000, the island was officially named both "South Island" and "Te Waipounamu" on 17 October 2013, as announced by Minister for Land Information Maurice Williamson in the New Zealand Gazette. Three months of public consultation in April through July 2013 saw an "overwhelming" majority in support of choice between English and Māori names.
In prose, the two main islands of New Zealand are usually called the North Island and the South Island, including the definite article "the." It is also normal to use the preposition in rather than on, for example "Queenstown is in the South Island", "she lives in the South Island".
The island is occasionally referred to by residents as 'the Mainland'. A tourist train service called 'The Mainlander' is set to begin operating in January 2026 between Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill. There is also the Mainland brand of cheese which was formerly produced in Dunedin.
Māori mythology
The island is also known as Te Waka a Māui which means "Māui's Canoe". In some modern iterations of Māori legends, the South Island existed first, as the boat of Māui, while the North Island was the fish that he caught.
Various Māori iwi sometimes use different names, with some preferring to call the South Island Te Waka o Aoraki. This refers to another Māori legend called the story of Aoraki: after the world was created, Aoraki and his three brothers came down in a waka (canoe) to visit their mother, Papatūānuku the earth mother, only to crash after failing to perform a karakia on their way back home to their father, Ranginui (also known as Raki) the sky father. The waka transformed into an island and the four brothers became the mountain ranges on top of it.
History
Early history (c. 1280 – c. 1820)
Archaeological investigations of the Wairau Bar in the north east of the South Island suggest that the site was part of the first era of colonisation of New Zealand, around 1288–1300 CE. Wairau Bar is a rare example in New Zealand of an early East Polynesian settlement clustered around a central point, and is described as "the type-site of the earliest phase of New Zealand's prehistory".
Rock art painted in red ochre and charcoal can be found on limestone rock shelters in over 550 different locations across the South Island. Stretching from Kaikōura to North Otago, the drawings are estimated to be between 500 and 800 years old and portray animals, people and fantastic creatures, possibly stylised reptiles. Some of the birds pictured are long extinct, including moa and Haast's eagles. They were drawn by early Māori, but by the time Europeans arrived, local Māori did not know the origins of the drawings.
Waitaha was an early Māori iwi (tribe) that settled in the South Island from the late 15th century. They were largely absorbed via marriage and conquest by the Kāti Māmoe in the 16th century. In the early 18th century, Ngāi Tahu, a Māori tribe who originated on the east coast of the North Island, began migrating to the northern part of the South Island. There they and Kāti Māmoe fought Ngāi Tara and Rangitāne in the Wairau Valley. Ngāti Māmoe then ceded the east coast regions north of the Waiau Toa / Clarence River to Ngāi Tahu. Ngāi Tahu continued to push south, conquering Kaikōura. By the 1730s, Ngāi Tahu had settled in Canterbury, including Banks Peninsula. From there they spread further south to Foveaux Strait and across into the West Coast. Kāti Māmoe were largely absorbed via marriage and conquest by the Ngāi Tahu as they migrated south, although many Ngāi Tahu have Kāti Māmoe links in their whakapapa and especially in the far south of the island.
European contact The first known contact between Māori in the South Island and Europeans was when the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman arrived with his ships Heemskerck and Zeehaen. In December 1642, Tasman anchored in a bay at the northern end of the South Island that he named Murderers Bay following a clash with Māori, in which four crew were killed. He then sailed north to Tonga.
British naval captain James Cook of HM Bark Endeavour visited the South Island on his first voyage to the southern Pacific Ocean, around 127 years after Tasman in 1769–70. In mid-January 1770, Cook arrived at Ship Cove in Queen Charlotte Sound, on the north coast of the South Island. Ship Cove became an early site for sustained contact between Māori and Europeans, and Cook returned there during his second and third voyages. After leaving Ship Cove, Cook sailed down the east coast of the South Island, charting the coast and continuing the search for the southern continent. The Endeavour rounded South Cape, the southern-most point of Stewart Island on 10 March 1770, proving that the South Island was not the sought-after sixth continent. During Cook's second voyage on 17 December 1773, ten crew of the Adventure, the sister vessel to Cook's Resolution were killed and eaten by Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne people in Queen Charlotte Sound.
From the 1780s, South Island Māori encountered European and American sealers and whalers. Some Māori crewed on the foreign ships, with many crewing on whaling and sealing ships that operated in New Zealand waters. Some of the South Island crews were almost totally Māori. Between 1800 and 1820, there were 65 sealing voyages and 106 whaling voyages to New Zealand, mainly from Britain and Australia.
In January 1827, the French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville arrived in Tasman Bay on the corvette Astrolabe. A number of landmarks around Tasman Bay were named by d'Urville and his crew, including d'Urville Island, French Pass and Torrent Bay.
Musket wars 1827 – 1839
In 1827–28, Ngāti Toa under the leadership of Te Rauparaha attacked and defeated Ngāi Tahu at Kaikōura. Ngāti Toa then visited Kaiapoi Pā (a fortified village), ostensibly to trade. When they attacked their hosts, the well-prepared Ngāi Tahu killed all the leading Ngāti Toa chiefs except Te Rauparaha, who returned to his Kapiti Island stronghold. In November 1830, Te Rauparaha persuaded Captain John Stewart of the brig Elizabeth to carry him and his warriors in secret to Akaroa, whereby in subterfuge they captured the leading Ngāi Tahu chief, Tama-i-hara-nui, and his wife and daughter. After destroying Tama-i-hara-nui's village, they took their captives to Kapiti and killed them. John Stewart was arrested and sent to trial in Sydney as an accomplice to murder, but escaped conviction.
In the summer of 1831–32 Te Rauparaha attacked the Kaiapoi Pā commencing a three-month siege, during which his men successfully sapped the pā. They then attacked Ngāi Tahu on Banks Peninsula and took the pā at Onawe. In 1832–33 Ngāi Tahu retaliated under the leadership of Tūhawaiki and others, attacking Ngāti Toa at Lake Grassmere. Ngāi Tahu prevailed, and killed many Ngāti Toa, although Te Rauparaha again escaped. Fighting continued for a year or so, with Ngāi Tahu maintaining the upper hand. Ngāti Toa never again made a major incursion into Ngāi Tahu territory.
In 1836, the Ngāti Tama chief Te Pūoho led a 100-person war party, armed with muskets, down the West Coast and over the Haast Pass. They fell on the Ngāi Tahu encampment between Lake Wānaka and Lake Hāwea, capturing ten people and killing and eating two children. Te Puoho took his captives over the Crown Range to Lake Wakatipu and thence to Southland, where he was killed, and his war party was destroyed by the southern Ngāi Tahu leader Tūhawaiki.
Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Toa established peace by 1839, with Te Rauparaha releasing the Ngāi Tahu captives he held. Formal marriages between the leading families in the two tribes sealed the peace.
European settlement The first permanent European settlement in the South Island was founded at Bluff in 1823 by whaler James Spencer who set up a trading post to supply visiting ships.