Couple of sites for you
Jim, I took these tips for you from a pommy mate who's just 'done' Aotearoa end-to-end. Maybe useful to you too?
Here’s a couple of easy places for ‘wanted’ species:
Grey Teal, Coot, Dabchick, Shoveler, Scaup: Whakamaru Dam
Royal Spoonbill: Tairoa Head, Otago Peninsula. (breed on cliffs below Albatrosses)
Stewart Island Shag: same. Big colony below Albatrosses
All seabirds: Kaikoura, of course!
Spotted Shag: Ohau Point, on roadside approaching Kaikoura. Easy.
S.Island Weka: Cape Foulwind. Many walking about car park. Snatch your sandwiches!
Kea: Arthur’s Pass summit car park and down in the village, near wheelie bins.
NZ Pipit: Banks Peninsula. The Ridge Road and all minor high altitude roads
Crested Grebe: Lake Forsyth, lots.
Black Stilt: Shingle bed of the Tasman River on the way up to Mount Cook from Twizel. Stop at the Glentanner Stream where it enters the river bed, just a little north of a windsock in a tiny airstrip on the right, when travelling north on SH80. Scan the pebbly, overgrown river bed. It’s a big area, but there will be many Black Stilt in there. Be prepared to stop the van and brew up while they scan with scopes and binos for an hour or so. They are there, and this is the best site in NZ, but you gotta ‘get your eye in’ for quite a while before you can pick them out amongst the stones and turf.
The breeding facility is just off SH.8 south of Twizel. Tours of the cages can be booked only at the ‘I site’ at the main road junction a couple of kilometres to the north. But it’s just a zoo, so you might want them in the wild!!
Rock Wren: Big car park on right at mouth of Homer tunnel. Birds up in boulders away to right. They bob up and down like Dippers. That’s what gives them away, along with a dash of yellow colour. Lots of Kea here too.
South Island Fernbird: Hannah’s Clearing enroute to Jackson Bay from Haast. Swampy area on the right just south of the village. (Also turn off here to see Okarito Brown Kiwi, night tours available in Okarito village, and White Herons on the Lagoon!)
Yellowhead: Haast Pass summit. At the very summit there’s a layby on both sides of the road. There’s a big sign on the left saying how far it is to a couple of towns ahead (a bloody long way!) Take the old cart/cattle track on the right. It’s well signed and very well surfaced. You could walk two days down it if you wanted, but just ten minutes into this amazing rain forest and you’re in prime Yellowhead habitat. Give it an hour and have a brew. It rains like hell up there. The birds pass by in the canopy in chirrupy little twittering gangs, just like the Whiteheads you’re used to in the north.
Penguins: Yellow-Eyed: Bushy Beach Oamaru. Best site in NZ.
Fiordland Crested: Jackson Bay, off the wharf if you’re lucky. Too late in the year really, and those bloody black flies will eat you alive. Try the Fish and Chips in the little red chippy at the end of the road, yummy!
good luck Rewi