The start of the Rakiura Track
The big chain going into the sea is something to do with a Maori legend about a bloke mooring his canoe.... No wait a minute - I remember - NZ's South Island is the canoe and Stewart Island is the anchor; the chain is the link between them. Basically all you need to know is that most Maori legends involve canoes even if there are no actual canoes present. Anything can be a canoe as long as it's surrounded by, floating in or has contact with some water (the exception being heavenly constellations which are all, in one way or another, canoes).
The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year... ... read more 
