Well all started great until a 10 hour delay in Heathrow airport, with not a bird to be seen! When we finally arrived in Auckland a day later (very tired and hungry) we bundled into the car to make our way to Taupo.
The first bird of NZ I saw was the pukeko (swamphen) casually eating grass on a roundabout just outside the airport.
Two hours later, Taupo was a welcome sight. We were staying with relatives, so after a quick nap and a snack, I was out in the garden with my binoculars in hand. The bird I was most looking forward to see was the tui, with its alien calls. For the rest of the trip, any time there was a strange call it always turned out to be a tui.
A walk around Lake Taupo brought many great birds such as white-faced heron, pied shag, black swan, NZ scaup, red-billed gull and bellbird with another great sounding song.
After a couple of days in Taupo we headed north to Auckland as a family member there had told me there were nesting NZ kingfishers (kotare) just down the road from his house. A short walk along the beach produced 5 kingfishers flying to and from their nest holes in the sand bank.
The next day, I had a tour booked to Tiritiri Matangi Island, a few hours boat trip from Auckland. Even the boat I was boarding was painted with birds so my hopes were high for a good trip. On the sailing to the island, I saw my first little blue penguins (kororā) swimming around and fishing. Once on the island I set off on my own to discover what birds I could find. The island was beautiful and I walked to the highest point on the island to get a wonderful 360 view. I enjoyed the gift shop and spent some time drinking tea and watching a very clumsy NZ pigeon (kererū) trying to walk in the branches of a tree. The highlights of the island were North Island saddleback (tīeke), tui, stitchbird (hihi), North Island robin (toutouwai) and North Island fantail (pīwakawaka tīwakawaka).
After Auckland we headed across and stopped in Hells Gate, Rotorua, where I found nesting pied stilt and their young running around all the sulphur ponds clearly oblivious to the horrid smell!
We spent Christmas in Napier before heading south after the holidays.
Our next trip took us down to Wellington where we visited Zealandia and saw plenty of North Island kaka, a very noisy brown parrot, and a lot of tuatara of all sizes scurrying about. We boarded the ferry from there to Picton in the south island, and then got a train to Kaikoura.
There is nowhere like Kaikoura for seabirds and ocean wildlife. The first thing I done was book a bird watching boat trip to see what pelagic species are about and it was very worth it. Our skipper for the day was Tracey and she was very knowledgeable about the birds and other wildlife of the area. It was a very beautiful day and we were barely out of the harbour before the first giant northern petrels started following our boat.
We were never that far from the shore line, but the variety of species that we attracted were amazing. The noise of the giant petrels when fighting over the bait was deafening and I got completely soaked when they came right up close to our boat fighting and splashing. My day was complete when a massive wandering albatross appeared and just dwarfed all the other birds around it. It was amazing to see it so close and get a good look at the beautiful pink feathers on its neck. The smaller birds that were swimming about the boat, picking up the scraps of bait were so delicate looking compared to the large bulky albatrosses floating beside them. They included grey-faced petrel, white-chinned petrel and a lovely little cape pigeon. As we were coming back to shore there was a massive flock of approx 100 Hutton’s shearwaters heading out to sea to feed. This bird is restricted to only two remaining breeding colonies in NZ, during the winter it migrates to Australia.
That night we went to the coastguards building to see the little blue penguins that are nesting under it, come in to roost. The building had recently been updated and extended but the nests under it had been protected and even a viewing area built for people to come and watch them and their nest boxes. This is all being supported and protected by a charity called KORI.
The next day we went on both a whale watching boat and a trip to swim with wild NZ fur seals. The boat trip was successful and we saw two sperm whales, a pod of dusky dolphins and a blue shark. There were also a good number of giant petrels eager to check out our boat for food.
When we went to swim with the seals it was a great chance to get to see the young pups up close as they were very inquisitive and swam very close to you to find out what you were.
As we were flying home from Auckland airport, we had to make our way back to the North Island and headed to Gisborne again for a booked shark cage dive. Unfortunately due to rough sea conditions the dive was cancelled, so we got a space on another trip to feed wild stingrays. There where eagle rays, short tailed rays and massive kingfish swimming around us. Not a bad way to spend my birthday!
The journey back to the airport was spent sleeping on the back of the bus. After 6 weeks in NZ we saw a lot of the country, but nowhere near enough to say I’ve seen it all. We are already planning our next trip back and we hope to visit more of the South Island.
Trip tally – 64 species
Gibson’s Albatross
Southern Royal Albatross
Black Browed Mollymock
NZ White Capped Mollymock
Salvin’s Mollymock
Flesh Footed Shearwater
Buller’s Shearwater
Hutton’s Shearwater
White- Chinned Petrel
Cape Pigeon
Northern Giant Petrel
Grey-Faced Petrel
Blue Penguin
Australasian Gannet
Black Shag
Pied Shag
Little Shag
White- Faced Heron
Black Swan
Canada Goose
Paradise Shelduck
Mallard
Grey Duck
NZ Scaup
Australasian (Swamp) Harrier
California Quail
Brown Quail
Wild Turkey
Pukeko (Swamphen)
Australian Coot
South Island Pied Oystercatcher
Variable Oystercatcher
(Australasian) Pied Stilt
Spur Winged Plover
Eastern Bar-Tailed Godwit
Southern Black Backed Gull
Red-Billed Gull
Black-Billed Gull
Artic Skua
White-Fronted Tern
Artic Tern
NZ Pigeon
Spotted Dove
North Island Kaka
Red Crowned Parakeet
NZ Kingfisher
Welcome Swallow
Blackbird
Song Thrush
Whitehead
North Island Fantail
North Island Robin
Silvereye
Stitchbird
Bellbird
Tui
Yellowhammer
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
House Sparrow
Starling
Myna
North Island Saddleback
Australian Magpie