It was gifted to the government of New Zealand by Noeline Baker in 1940 and is today administered by the Department of Conservation.
She returned to New Zealand to write her father's memoirs and spent time on Stewart Island.
[1] According to her biographical entry in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, she purchased the 34.5 acres (14.0 ha) of land clad with bush and overlooking Halfmoon Bay at that time,[1] but during a speaking tour in Auckland in April 1940, she appeared to imply that her father purchased the land for her at her birth.
[2][3] She had a homestead built in 1934–35 in a Dutch colonial style and called it Moturau Moana, which is Māori and means "islands of bush above the sea".
[8] Baker had another cottage built for herself on Stewart Island, but she later purchased a house in Nelson where she stayed over winter.