BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="birdboybowley" data-source="post: 1254022" data-attributes="member: 60953">Hey everyone, here goes another one!New Zealand has long been a dream destination for me, and after our adventure around the magnificent Oz, we were eager and ready to go. The birdlist may not be huge, but it is seriously specialized and with seabirds galore on offer and breathtaking scenery to boot, I think this was the country I’d most wanted to get to all year.We left our backpackers on the 0600 Skybus to Melbourne International Airport and took off pretty much on time at 0900 and landed at 1405 local time into Christchurch, getting great views of the Alps and the glaciers as we crossed the cloudless South Island (oh, how that was to change...!) Upon landing, this time we disclosed everything and found customs to be a lot more welcoming and a lot less hassle than them in Oz - they even cleaned off our hiking boots, result! We changed up some money (which has birds on it!) and caught the bus into the city and checked into Cokers Backpackers where we got ourselves a double room at a good price – what a joy not to have to sleep in a dorm! It proved to be a friendly place with a huge shared kitchen, lounge and internet access, reminding me of an old-fashioned pub with its mismatched carpets and spacious rooms. The first bird on the list was Blackbird, shortly followed by Song Thrush, House Sparrow, Starling and Mallard.....I am on the other side of the world aren’t I or did I miss something?!? The next 3 days were spent looking for another vehicle and wandering around the charming and very English-like city and bought the Heather & Robertson fieldguide which I found to be an excellent book, with pretty good plates and each species is dealt with in more detail at the rear of the book. A few better birds were noted, including Red-billed and Kelp Gulls, Paradise Shelducks, Australian Magpies, Pacific Black Ducks, Welcome Swallow and Masked Lapwings, and a few more from home: Dunnock, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch and numerous Lesser Redpolls. The weather was pleasant and decidedly cooler than Melbourne. We knew we weren’t going to need a full-on 4WD as we did in Oz, so after looking a few vans we bought a cosy-looking Toyota TownAce from another backpacker, Christa. It had everything we needed: it was diesel, had a double-ring gas cooker (with a grill - proper toast, yeay!), comfy bed in the back and seemed to drive ok – the only downer was it only had a tape deck....! We kitted it out with new bedspreads, pots and cutlery and swapped ownership papers at the post office (so much simpler over here than Oz, where we never actually had any due to diabolical WA bureaucracy!!) and bought 5000kms of RUC (Road-User Charge) which you buy in increments of 1000kms because diesel is not taxed and it had WOF (rego) on it until November so we’d only have to buy 3 months more when we came to sell it. Went over the road into good old Pak’n’Save for supplies and that was that – we were now ready for the off!We left on the morning of the 30th and headed south towards Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. Now, driving in NZ...not a problem as they drive on the proper side(!!) but turning is most odd – if I’m driving down the road and want to turn left and a car coming towards me wants to turn right down the same road, I have to give way...!!?? Eh?! That caught me out quite a few times...not sure of the logic behind it but.....so remember that when visiting! Other than that, it was fine, the roads are pretty quiet and well signed, and must be like driving in the UK about 30yrs ago. The countryside rolled past and we could see the distant snow-covered peaks away to the west. Saw Australasian Harrier, Royal Spoonbill, Black Swan, the distinctive NZ race of Australasian Shoveler, Australasian and Great-crested Grebes, White-faced Heron, White-headed Stilt, Purple Swamphen, Coots, Canada Geese and Skylarks. The van drove fine and was very economical and we rolled into Akaroa at 1600, booked ourselves onto a harbour cruise in the morning and parked up and walked along the coast for a bit, seeing Grey Warbler and New Zealand Fantail, South Island Pied and Variable Oystercatchers, Great, Pied and Little Pied Cormorants and good-sized flocks of Yellowhammers and Redpolls (something I don’t see at home!). We then found a nice lay-by out of town to park up in for the night - same old, same old! More pasta and sausages for tea and suddenly it was like being back in Oz again – except for the Bellbirds and huge New Zealand Pigeons in the surrounding trees.Over breakfast the following morning a pair of Sacred Kingfishers was watched near a nesthole and better views were had of the impressive pigeons. We made our way back into the quaint town and boarded our boat, the Black Cat, for our 2hr cruise at 1100 (good thing we were told the clocks went forward last night!!) The captain, Mark, kept up an interesting narrative about the history and culture over the past 150yrs and got us close to some of the local beasties. [ATTACH]152321[/ATTACH]We had great views of 6 of the dapper and endemic Hector’s Dolphin (the world’s smallest) as they played around the boat and plenty of NZ Fur Seals, gorgeous Spotted Shags at their noisy colonies, a stunning Gibson’s and a Salvin’s Albatross, along with Westland and Northern Giant- Petrels were seen as we reached the harbour mouth and edged into the South Pacific, and Short-tailed and Hutton’s Shearwaters were present also. White-fronted Terns and gulls followed us closely, but by far the best were the 5 White-flippered Penguins seen swimming near the boat – excellent!! The only place they can be seen is here and they didn’t disappoint. Met up with 2 SA birders on board who had just been to Kaikoura and were singing its praises and also mentioned that there was a Leopard Seal hauled out on a beach there yesterday...so that kinda decided our next move!It took us 3.5hrs to drive north towards Kaikoura, phoning Albatross Encounters (<a href="http://www.oceanwings.co.nz" target="_blank">www.oceanwings.co.nz</a>) en route and booking ourselves onto the 0900 trip for the following morning ($80pp), although bizarrely they didn’t seem to know where the seal was hauled out....most unhelpful that! The road was mostly single lane and rose and fell quite sharply with the contours of the countryside which itself was pretty bare and rugged with sheep everywhere and once a big male Common Turkey near the road. It was almost like driving though North Wales or Scotland, until the huge mountains rising above the cloud layer came into view. As the road moved to the coast it hugged the cliffs tightly and at times went straight through them with various tunnels. We parked up in a pull off near the mouth of the Kahutaru River and as the wind had picked up big time, we found the van had the added advantage of being able to cook inside it. We ate our staple of pasta watching the thousands of Hutton’s Shearwaters that were streaming past and the clouds roll in and obscure the surrounding mountains. Oh dear....The following morning we drove into the town, seeing a pair of California Quail by the road, and pulled up at the Oceanwings office along the Esplanade and found out we were the only ones on the trip – cool! We hopped onto the bus with the multitude of dolphin and whale trippers and were driven down to the docks. We met our jolly skipper, Gary, and boarded the (alarmingly small!) boat. Out into the murk we sped, launching over the rolling waves and stopped after about 10mins. A bit of chum and a feeding ball out the back, and we were literally surrounded by seabirds: first to appear were the delightful Cape Petrels (of both races) and then the lumbering Northern Giant-Petrels appeared, throwing their weight around and having huge scraps with each other. A single Sooty, several Short-tailed and a multitude of Hutton’s Shearwaters kept their distance and delicate Fairy Prions swooped in on opportunistic flights. A gorgeous White-chinned, a single Great-winged and many Westland Petrels loitered with intent and a Southern Giant-Petrel also came into scrap with its bullish cousins. Best of all were the albatrosses which included 2 Snowy, c22 Gibson’s, 3 Northern Royal, c12 Salvin’s, c9 White-capped and 5 Campbell Albatrosses....WOWOWOWOW!!!! Unbelievable, to have these amazing birds so close and personal was a life-experience I will never forget...[ATTACH]152317[/ATTACH][ATTACH]152318[/ATTACH][ATTACH]152319[/ATTACH][ATTACH]152320[/ATTACH]We cruised round some rocks where huge NZ Fur Seals were hauled out, and had a couple of Black-billed Gulls join the throng of Red-bills and Kelps that were our constant companions and 2 Australasian Gannets were also noted.Upon disembarkation, Gary showed us where the Leopard Seal was yesterday – it was on a tiny bit of shingle right behind where the Oceanwings boats dock – why couldn’t someone of said that when I phoned the office I don’t know...bummer, would loved to have seen that beast!! We drove back round to the docks and had lunch as the tide came in, just in case it returned, but no joy. A lovely pair of Cirl Buntings fed in one of the gardens, and Variable Oysters and 3 Turnstones fed on the rocky shore along with a couple of Eastern Reef-Egrets.The weather began to turn, so we headed back southwards, picking up a very wet hitchhiker, Rachel, and dropped her back into Christchurch, visited Pak’n’Save again and ended up parked up near Ashburton, unfortunately between the road and a railway track – I swear one train kept passing for over 5mins last night! We spent the following day avoiding the torrential rain by doing internet and going to the cinema in Timaru. The 4th dawned amazingly bright and sunny, and after good views of a Grey Warbler singing in the trees above our car over breakfast, we hit the road towards the distant snow-clad mountains that beckoned us inland....</blockquote>

Verification