New Zealand Part 8

New Zealand Trip Report Part 8

Saturday Feb 22^nd

We left the motel at 7.30 with a long drive south ahead of us. We swung by the Kiwi Centre where there were four Kea roosting on the roof. We went back to the beach we were at yesterday for a second attempt at the Sooty Tern that had recently been seen there. The wind had dropped to a gentle breeze unlike yesterday so we didn’t get sandblasted this time but there was still no sign of the tern among the White-fronteds.

Mt Cook

NZ version of Pisa?

Next stop was a short forest loop where we saw an obliging Fernbird and our first proper looks at South Island Robin as well as the scarce black-morph NZ Fantail (which represent about 5% of the South Island population).

Fernbird

NZ Fantail (black morph)

South Island Robin

Tomtit

We stopped next at a popular tourist stop and walked up the path to the viewpoint to see the Franz Josef Glacier. It’s shrinking every year like most glaciers and was said to be noticeably smaller than last year.

Franz Josef Glacier

Lunch was taken at Monro Beach where we also saw a couple of NZ Falcons, including good looks at a juvenile perched in a tree. We spent most of the afternoon driving, just making the occasional stop.

NZ Falcon

Farmed Red Deer

"At the one lane bridge I leave the giants stranded at the riverside..."

Sunday Feb 23^rd

We left the motel just before dawn at 7.00 and drove a short distance to the lake in town where Great Crested Grebe was added to the trip list. We spent the rest of the morning driving apart from the occasional leg stretch and toilet stop so I used some of the time to reacquaint myself with Pink Floyd’s The Wall.

We parked the van and walked up the road towards the road tunnel then cut off over a grassy area and into a rocky area where we started lunch. It didn’t take too long before food was hastily put down and bins picked up as a NZ Rock Wren appeared. It bathed in a little pool of water on top of a flat rock then disappeared into a bush to dry out. They’re an extremely small version of a pitta and it soon came back out and bounced around on the rocks giving us a good show.

NZ Rock Wren

A pair of Yellowhammers were nesting by the Rock Wren

We finished lunch and headed back to the van and continued our journey, making a few stops for photos and the odd short walk in this incredible scenic landscape with towering mountains and forested gulleys. On one rocky stream we passed we saw yet another Blue Duck.

Weka

We had one longer walk in a beech forest late afternoon, our last visit to this habitat. We had decent views of Rifleman as well as the usual Tomtits. We checked into our motel and had a bit of chill time before heading to a very nice restaurant in town.

Monday Feb 24^th

We left the motel while it was still dark at 6.30 as we had another long drive, this time to Bluff where we took the ferry to Stewart Island. We took our bags on as foot passengers and parked up on the back deck for the hour’s crossing to look for seabirds. Around 50 Sooty Shearwaters, a White-capped Albatross and distant views of a few other birds were seen.

Ferry to Stewart Island

We had lunch overlooking the harbour and at 1pm took a water taxi over to Ulva Island where we spent the rest of the afternoon. 

Water taxi

Buller’s and White-capped Albatross were seen on the crossing along with our first Fiordland Crested Penguin resting in a cave. 

Fiordland Crested Penguin

We walked around the forest trails looking for birds. Kaka was sitting up in the trees and there was the usual selection of NZ Fantail, NZ Pigeon, Bellbird, South Island Robin and Rifleman but we also had our first Yellowheads and South Island Saddlebacks. The latter included a pair feeding two juveniles which are known as Jackbirds as they don’t acquire the chestnut saddle until they're adults, unlike their North Island counterparts.

NZ Brown Creeper

Kaka

NZ Pigeon

Yellowhead

Rifleman

South Island Robin

South Island Saddleback

NZ Sealion

We got a boat back at 5pm and headed for our accommodation. The group was split into two as we had two houses to stay in due to the hotel losing our booking. It ended up being to our advantage as we had a really nice well-equipped house up on the hillside with great views overlooking the harbour. We could see White-capped and Buller’s Albatross in the harbour while we had a beer on the veranda.

We walked down the hill to the hotel restaurant where we had dinner and later on went out looking for South Island Brown Kiwi with the local tour guide. We’d only driven 20 metres when one was seen by the side of the road so we all bundled out to watch it feed close by and totally unconcerned with our presence.

South Island Brown Kiwi

After ten minutes we drove to a private site and walked around for a while where we saw a pair feeding in the grass. Morepork was heard and a couple of Possums were also seen.