Daily Yaffle: March 2025

New Zealand February 2025

I booked up a 21 day trip with Wrybill tours last year and it soon came around. Visa and immigration forms were completed online easily enough.

Wednesday February 5^th

I started my trip late afternoon on Wednesday although the tour didn’t actually begin until Saturday. I left home mid-afternoon and took the train from London Bridge down to Gatwick arriving just after 5pm and checked in for my Emirates flight. Once I’d gone through the various queues there was time for a light meal before boarding commenced. The flight left on time at 20:25 heading to Dubai.

Thursday Feb 6^th

We landed in Dubai at 07.10. Normally when I fly through Dubai it’s in the middle of the night so it was nice to see it in daylight for a change and it seems to get bigger each time I see it. I only had a couple of hours before boarding the next flight to Auckland which was the long leg at 15 hours.

Dubai

Friday Feb 7^th

We arrived at Auckland at 11:35 and went through immigration and biosecurity very quickly and without issue.

I took a cab to the Rose Park Hotel, arriving at 1pm. After checking in I went for a walk into town to do some shopping for snacks and then popped over the road to the rose garden and park for a little birding. Aside from the various introduced species like House Sparrow, Starling, Common Myna and Australian Magpie there were a few naturally occurring birds like a flock of Silvereyes, Welcome Swallow, Sacred Kingfisher and some Kelp and Silver Gulls (of the NZ race known as Red-billed Gull). I met up with Todd and Steve who were on the same trip and we did a circuit of the park then headed down to a fish ‘n’ chip shop on the corner to grab an early dinner.

Downtown Auckland

Rose Park Hotel

Australian Magpie (one of the common sounds in Neighbours!)

Sacred Kingfisher

Silver Gull (in NZ it's Red-billed Gull)

Silvereye

I lost track of how many hours I'd actually been travelling due to the two changes of time and heading East but it spanned three days. I was now ready for some proper birding!

Saturday Feb 8^th

I had breakfast in the hotel and checked out before we all met up in the car park at 07.30 and loaded up the van. There were seven of us, our guide, Brent, and a trainee guide, Bradley. Our first stop was a short distance away beside a golf course. The first bird we saw was a California Quail, another in the long list of introduced species in New Zealand. A few Masked Lapwing were up next, a species that has colonised from Australia. Another Aussie species – Eastern Rosella – was yet another introduction, although I'd not seen one before.

Eastern Rosella

We drove a little way to a forest where our first proper NZ endemic was a New Zealand Pigeon, a large and colourful pigeon.

NZ Pigeon

This was shortly followed by our first Tui, a bird we would become familiar with very quickly as it’s one of the commonest endemics. A NZ Fantail became our next endemic and a small flock of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos were our next introduced species.

Tui

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

We went along the coast to Muriwai National Park where there’s a large breeding colony of Australasian Gannets numbering into the thousands. As it is late in the summer here, breeding is well advanced and there were a few juveniles flying around as well as some young fluffy chicks.

Australasian Gannet

Our last stop was at Tawheri Park where we briefly saw a Banded Rail cross the track. It has a small wetland area so there were plenty of birds around including some more endemics: Paradise Shelducks and Brown Teal.

Australasian Swamphen or Pukeko

Brown Teal

Variable Oystercatcher (either all black or with a white belly)

White-fronted Terns

We walked up the hill through native forest seeing yet more endemics - Whitehead, NZ Robin, Bellbird and Saddleback before encountering a Morepork, the endemic owl which was at a regular day roost.

Snoozing Morepork

North Island Robin

North Island Saddleback

Silver Fern

At the top of the hill we walked around an open area and saw a pair of Takahe with a juvenile. They’re like Purple Swamphens on steroids, being almost twice the size with huge powerful beaks that they use to rip out grass roots. They have been reintroduced back into many areas, as had this pair which had been tagged with a radio transmitter.