Night Fever

Back in October, I regaled you with stories about how I was embarking on training for night tours at Zealandia. Were you not entertained? Since then I’ve been shadowing night tours, co-guiding (meaning me leading the tour, but having an experienced guide along as backup if needed), learning all the night emergency procedures, and taking a first aid course. Shortly before Christmas, I was assessed by the training coordinator, and passed as competent to lead a night tour.

We then promptly buggered off to Queenstown and the Milford Track for a week.

On our return, however, I was back into the thick of it straight away. January is the busiest month despite the lack of cruise ship business, as it’s school summer holidays; and just as everyone in Wellington heads off to other parts of New Zealand for their holidays, many people come to Wellington on theirs. I’m currently scheduled for two day tours and two night tours per week, but may do additional tours as needed to fill in gaps in the schedule. So far I’ve taken two night tours.

The format of the night tour is similar to the day, but the main attraction for most people is seeing a kiwi out in the wild, and this is where we concentrate our effort once night falls. Before then, however, there’s still plenty of other things to see and talk about. When it comes to seeing kiwi, I emphasise that we’re not a zoo and nothing is guaranteed. The species we have in Zealandia is kiwi pukupuku, or little spotted kiwi – the smallest kiwi species. I introduce the “Close Encounter” scale, as in the film Close Encounters Of The Third Kind – a device I shamelessly stole from another guide, who admitted that he’d nicked it off someone else as well!

Kiwi Encounter Of The First Kind: You are in a wildlife sanctuary where kiwi are present.

Kiwi Encounter Of The Second Kind: You hear kiwi calls.

Kiwi Encounter Of The Third Kind: You hear a kiwi rustling¹ in the bush, but don’t see it.

Kiwi Encounter Of The Fourth Kind: You see a kiwi.

This is great, because as soon as you step inside the sanctuary, you’re already at First Kind! And hearing kiwi is also pretty much a given too – there’s activity throughout the year. So far, I’ve been lucky, and seen at least one kiwi on every tour I’ve shadowed or led. Overall, around 80% of tours get a sighting of at least one kiwi; the most I’ve seen on one tour is three, but there are stories – stories – from other guides of seeing seven in one night. As I get more experience I’ll learn to hear and pick out the rustling sound, but most of my sightings so far have been because I’ve been alerted by my assistant – when we go out on a night tour there must be at least two Zealandia personnel present. The assistant will go off ahead, particularly towards the end of the tour, and then they are able to listen for kiwi better as they are away from the main group with their footsteps, talking etc.

So that’s my work cut out for the summer. Tell your friends! Heck, tell your enemies too!

¹              Kiwi are notorious sheep thieves

Nick’s Head Station

Our final excursion was to Nick’s Head Station, a mixed sheep and horticulture farm formed from the amalgamation of three properties, one of which incorporates Young Nick’s Head, named for the seaman who first sighted land from HMS Endeavour. The Māori name is Te Kuri o Pāoa (the dog of Pāoa), which it is said to resemble. It was the site of the landing place of two waka – one commanded by Pāoa – which carried Māori settlers to Poverty Bay around 1350CE.

We started off in the office, where farm manager Kim Dodgshun told us about the history of the station, the background to the 2002 purchase, and the subsequent conservation, reforestation and predator control. The farm employs 22 staff (compared to just three at the neighbouring farm) to ensure that not only is the farm well-managed, but all aspects of conservation and care are undertaken.

The owner has cleared the area of predators, added a predator-proof fence, and introduced endemic species such as tuatara and wētā. Using solar-powered speakers to imitate bird calls, tākapu, tītī and other sea birds have been tempted to recolonise the cliffs and establish new colonies there.

We ate lunch alfresco in the substantial wetland, an area created by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. Afterwards we walked to the beach, seeing many New Zealand species on the way: pūtangitangi, poaka, weweia, and kakīānau in the wetland, and tūturiwhatu on the beach. These are only possible because of the protection given to this habitat. My photography in this area was not an unbridled success, as I didn’t have my 500mm lens with me, but we were able to identify many species.

Afterwards we boarded the bus which took us back to the hotel. We picked up our car and drove down to Napier on a Sunday afternoon road thankfully clear of logging trucks, to arrive in time for dinner.

Night Stalker

This summer there’s unlikely to be quite the same demand for guided tours at Zealandia. Last year, we had a bumper crop of cruise ships into Wellington before the covids abruptly cut off that business, and I for one am not expecting it to resume in the 20/21 summer season. Maybe next year? Maybe no go.

Anyway, rather than recruit and train a new batch of guides, they have decided to train up some of the existing day guides to be able to take night tours. This involves an additional layer of training and responsibility – because the visitor centre is closed at night. This means that the night guide is the only person available to deal with any situation that may arise – you can’t just get on the radio to call up Duty Ops or other assistance as you can in the daytime. Also, a first aid certificate is required. 

Why am I telling you this? You’ve guessed it – I’m one of those guides who got the call. Starting on Saturday, I’ll be shadowing a number of different night guides over the coming weeks to pick up their techniques and learn all the procedures for night guiding. At some indeterminate future date I’ll also receive first aid training.

On Saturday evening I turned up at Zealandia, to join the Twilight Tour. It was led by Jac, one of the guides with whom I trained last year for cruise ship duties. She’s been doing twilight and night tours from the outset, and also has some work with the education team. Our night guide assistant was late, so we actually had to do a lot of the set-up that they would normally do, which was helpful as I didn’t know what all that was – checking torches, headsets, arranging the tea etc.

The first part of the tour is pretty much the same as for a Zealandia By Day tour, which I’ve been doing for the last year. The only difference is I have to check people in myself using the Visitor Centre systems, so I’m going to need to learn all about these. Otherwise it’s a welcome, introductions, short history of New Zealand, show the film, and out into the valley. This is where it gets different: for the Twilight Tour – you’ve guessed it! – it’s going to get dark. This is why we supply all visitors with red light torches (the red light doesn’t interfere with most animals’ vision). Also, as we’re looking for some quite shy creatures in the quiet of the night, we use a headset and earpieces so the guide doesn’t have to make their voice carry. But it doesn’t get dark straight away, so we spend some time doing the normal day guide stuff – looking for birds, other animals, plants, and telling the same stories. The hardest part for me was keeping quiet! I’m used to leading tours, not shadowing them, so had to keep shtum whilst Jac did her spiel. Towards the end of the tour as night fell we started looking for kiwi in earnest, and although Jac saw two briefly, I never caught a glimpse. We heard them calling, though, as well as kākā and ruru. We also stopped for a cup of kawakawa tea towards the end of the tour.

At the end of the tour, there’s also more procedures to go through as the Visitor Centre has to be secured, the events of the tour recorded on the system, and possibly take any sales of merchandise from the shop. Also, all the equipment needs to be stowed away after use. Finally, we have to leave the building securely.

That was my first tour shadowing. I’ll be doing a couple more next week, and also have to do After Hours Valley Emergency training, and do a training tour. This will all happen over the next few weeks. Watch this space!

Manuel Antonio

A morning’s drive from Monteverde took us to Manuel Antonio, on Costa Rica’s southern, Pacific coast. We boarded the bus reasonably early in the morning and travelled in air-conditioned comfort until we reached Orotina for a rest break. The driver slid open the bus door and…it was hot! Yes, we’ve arrived in the tropics, and away from the rain forest. Expect temperatures to reach 31°C during the day, and to fall to 27°C at night.

Why is Manuel Antonio so called? No-one seems to have a definitive answer. It’s like finding a town in the UK called Dave Johnson, but not knowing  who Dave Johnson was.

It took us another hour or so to reach our destination – Playa Espadilla, in the Manuel Antonio National Park. Our room wasn’t ready for us on arrival, so we went and had a leisurely lunch in the restaurant. Our hotel is in fact in two parts – Espadilla Gardens and Espadilla Hotel. We’re in the Gardens part, which has a pool and reception but no bar or restaurant. So we need to cross the road each time we want to use those. No matter. At 2pm we returned to a blissfully airconditioned room. There are lizards to be seen all around the place - we quickly identified Lizzie, Eddie, and Guttie, who lives in the gutter. We spent the rest of the day lollygagging. In the evening we went out and admired the sunset over the beach, and found a restaurant on the main drag alongside the beach to have dinner.

Eddie Lizard

The next day, we were up early-ish for a guided tour of the Manuel Antonio National Park. Even though we started early (8 o’clock) there were crowds of people trying to get into the park. Many were in guided groups, like us, but large numbers without guides too. It reminded me of a cruise ship day at Zealandia when three coaches arrive at once. Our guide, Allan, sorted us out pretty quickly and took us down a side track to try and avoid the most egregious overcrowding. As on previous tours we’d taken, the guides all carry telescopes on tripods to view the wildlife, as it’s often high up a tree. We saw lizards, white-faced monkeys, more bats, and some birds, including the majestically-named nighthawk, which ought to be something more substantial than a species of cuckoo. And of course more sloths – both three-toed and two-toed varieties. Allan was a fount of knowledge – he’d done a degree in marine biology and had been a tour guide on Costa Rica’s best place for dolphins and whales before coming home to Manuel Antonio.

We ended up at the beach, where we took a twenty minute break (swimming optional – we hadn’t brought our togs so not for us) before finishing the final part of the tour. This is where we had a close encounter with the white-faced monkeys – they are quite accustomed to having people around, and walked along the rails of the walkways with no problem. At the end we had refreshments – iced water or tea – and melon and pineapple. The tour had ended quite close to our hotel, so we decided to walk back instead of waiting for the bus.

After a quick dip in our pool to cool down – difficult as the water is like a bath – we then headed over the road to the restaurant and poolside bar for the rest of the afternoon.

Bird Life

One of the joys of visiting Waiheke is the variety and abundance of native birds. We went out to Whakanewha Regional Park to see what we could see.

It’s nesting season for tuturiwhatu (New Zealand dotterels) at the moment. They build open nests directly on the shore, and rely on the cryptic coloration of themselves, their eggs and their chicks to avoid detection and predation. Unfortunately, this leaves them vulnerable to being predated by mammals such as rats and cats, and also to having their eggs stepped on by people who don’t see them. DOC have taped off some areas where there are nests so we couldn’t get on to all areas of the beach, but we were able to see some further up the beach, along with a pair of torea pango (variable oystercatcher) with a chick.

New Zealand dotterel

Variable oystercatcher and chick

We then went for a walk around Lua loop, where we heard plenty of tui, piwakaka and riroriro without actually seeing much. Still, it’s nice to know they’re there.

Finally, we walked along Dottie’s Lane for a bit, again in the hope of spotting some bird life – in particular, mioweka (banded rail) which we had seen along there before – but only(!) saw more dotterels and oystercatchers, and a pair of eastern rosellas. It’s notable that the variable oystercatchers show much more variation that the ones we see down in Wellington, most of which are black all over. I guess that’s why they call them variable!

Other places we stopped to look for birds include the causeway between Surfdale and Ostend, which is particularly good at low tide. We saw poaka (pied stilt) and matuku moana (white-faced heron) here on Monday. Also, we went for a walk around our local area, Owhanake Bay, where we saw kotare, riroriro, kereru, as well as non-native chaffinches and yellowhammers. Blackpool Beach was another excursion, where we saw kuaka (bar-tailed godwits). Finally, on our way to Passage Rock vineyard today we saw a kahu feeding on a rabbit. I tried to get a picture of it both coming and going from the vineyard but each time it flew off before I was ready!

White-faced heron

Pied stilt

Bar-tailed godwits

Kārearea Opportunities

“As I get older and remember all the people I’ve lost along the way…

maybe a career as a tour guide wasn’t for me” anonymous

Over the past year, I’ve been volunteering at Zealandia. I started as a weekend volunteer guide back in September last year, working most weekends over the summer. In the winter season, I also helped out during the week as well as weekends, as a number of the summer season volunteers only stay for a short while; many are students or visitors to New Zealand who aren’t planning a long-term stint. The volunteer guides' duties aren't onerous: we give one short talk (5-10 minutes) per shift, and spend the rest of the time roving – helping visitors see the wildlife, pointing out birds and animals, answering questions, giving directions and advice about the best way to see the sanctuary.

This year, the call went out for more trained tour guides for the summer season. This is due to the increasing numbers of cruise ships that will visit Wellington over the coming months. Zealandia doesn’t have enough permanent guides to cope with this influx, as our tour is one of the most popular shore excursions for cruise ship passengers. I answered that call.

 

In September, therefore, I attended an “interview” – actually more of an audition – where we were all invited to give a short talk to our fellow interviewees on the subject of one of the animals in Zealandia. We were given a choice of four, and I picked tuatara. So, of course, did many of the others, so there was a certain amount of repetition in the process. What they were looking for was how well you could present to a group of people, rather than specific esoteric knowledge. One of the better presentations was basically just the contents of the Wikipedia page on tuatara, but it was delivered well. We only had one “choker” who literally could not get their words out.

Those who passed that stage, and subsequent references and police check, were invited to a training session in October. As I would miss the first day of training as it started on the day we returned from Tonga, I decided to go for the second session of training starting from 15^th October. I found myself in a room with nine other guide candidates, and one trainer, called AJ. Over the course of the next two weeks, we learned about giving a tour in Zealandia, with again the concentration on giving a good tour rather than filling people’s heads up with facts and figures. This included Te Reo pronunciation, learning the mihi, introducing the film that’s shown in the exhibition before we go out into the valley, health’n’safety, caring for our guests, and practising giving a tour. Despite the weather being a bit dodgy on some days, we were out in the valley every day at some point.

At the end of two weeks I booked a slot for my assessment. I’d originally planned to use this slot for a co-guiding session with an experienced guide, but decided to switch it so that I could get my “wings”. We took a group of 11 people from a cruise ship out on a tour. The experienced guide, Julia, was there to assess me but otherwise took no part in the actual tour. I had the “leisurely” group (tours are triaged so that the fitter guests can take the tour at a faster pace), so we didn’t get as far into the valley as some, before we had to turn back. But we made Rule Two of guiding – get the guests back before the bus leaves – so that was OK. (Rule One, I’m sure you know, is “always come back with the same number you started out with”. If they’re the same people, that’s a bonus.)

Afterwards I sat down with Julia and we went through the assessment form together with AJ. Long story short, I passed, and am now a tour guide at Zealandia. The next cruise ship is due in next week and I’m on the roster for taking a tour! As the season ramps up, I’ll be working more and more frequently, but to start with I have four tours scheduled for November. Woohoo!

p.s. Kārearea  is the New Zealand falcon. 

Measure For Measure

We stayed on Waiheke for a further two days. We’d been down to Blackpool beach at the bottom of our street in search of shore birds, but they were being rather uncooperative – standing around on a patch of grass instead of posing more picturesquely by the sea. Undeterred, we set out further afield in search of Whakanewha Regional Reserve, where we’d been told there might be better prospects. Indeed, we found them, in the form of New Zealand dotterels and variable oystercatchers aplenty. We also managed a substantial walk around a loop track, and did a bit of the Dottie Track where we saw banded rails.

New Zealand dotterel

Variable oystercatchers, demonstrating variability

Banded rail

We lunched in Surfdale at Found, which, despite running out of halloumi, nevertheless managed to provide us with some decent nosh.

The following day we were back out on the wine trail – this time to Cable Bay wines, where we were welcomed by Jamie, a Canadian who was on a working visa for a year and had previously worked at Noble Rot in Wellington, so we chatted to her about Wellington and wine, whilst tasting her wares. Then we headed over to the other side of the island, to Waiheke’s most-awarded winery, Passage Rock. Again we had a good talk, with the owner and winemaker, David. We’d decided to stop there for lunch, as they also have an exceptional bistro attached, and had salmon and escargots.

In the afternoon we revisited the cultural centre to see Whittaker's Music Museum, where we learnt about pianos and other musical instruments, some of which could be played, others were "Do Not Touch". They'd been collected over a lifetime by Lloyd Whittaker

In the evening we drove out to 372 in Onetangi for our final meal on the island. Having been so impressed by them a couple of days ago at lunchtime, we decided to give them the pleasure of our company again, and they did us proud – I had the salmon tiradito that Nicola had had previously, followed by a slow-cooked lamb shoulder, and Nicola had shiitake dumplings followed by fish of the day. All delicious, and definitely gets my recommendation!

We were up early the next day to catch the ferry to Auckland, and, after dropping off our bags and rental car, headed into Auckland CBD for some lunch. Once again we were making lunch the main meal of the day as we would be at the Globe in the evening, so had burgers at Danny Doolan’s, an entirely inauthentic Irish pub. So inauthentic it didn’t even have a bicycle on the wall, which I understood was mandatory for Irish pubs.

In the evening, it pissed down. We started out towards the Globe on foot, but were eventually defeated by the weather so finished the journey by taxi, arriving in the nick of time and unfed. We managed to procure some food in the interval – chips and wine, two of the main food groups.

Despite the weather, the show must go on. The groundlings were equipped with rain ponchos and similar, and it was noticeable that the actors stayed away from the edge of the stage, which was exposed to the elements, unless forced to (at some points they have to descend the steps at the front and exit via the crowd). Occasionally the swirling wind gusted some rain at us, but for the most part we stayed dry. The play itself was well-executed, although as with all Shakespeare comedies, the convoluted plot leaves you thinking “why bother with all that?”. But they pulled it off with much comic effect, throwing in some more modern touches again – such as having wheelie suitcases to indicate that they were going on a journey. Elbow, the policeman, was dressed in completely modern police garb, whilst the other characters where in mostly period costume.

So that’s our Pop-Up Globe adventure for this year…we will probably make this an annual fixture for as long as they continue to offer it. The following morning it was back to Wellington and more wet weather.

Maleny

We’d just about exhausted all the possibilities of Noosa. On our final day, we drove down to Maleny to go to the Botanic Gardens and Bird World. After buying tickets to the next tour in half an hour, the first order of business was to get covered in birds!

Covered in birds!

These birds are tame, and an experienced handler decorates you with them. Once on, they stay pretty much where they’re put. Many of them are recovery birds so not able to be released into the wild, or even integrated into the general population in the aviary.

Inside the aviary, our guide told us what birds he had and how to behave around them. In particular, make sure you look where you’re going so you don’t step on one on the ground! The first house contained smaller birds – finches, some varieties of pigeon, and others. The next cage was the parrots, cockatoo, macaws etc – many of whom would land on you, sometimes without warning. One of them was very interested in my backpack and travelled around with me for a while.

 

After that we wandered around the botanic gardens for a bit before spurning the rather basic offerings of the café to find something more suiting to our needs in the town of Maleny. This we found in an Italian restaurant who were able to supply us with caesar salads. We carried on down to the airport, dropped off the car and awaited our flight. We’d needed something substantial for lunch as our flight times and arrangements left us with little dining time when we arrived in Sydney. As it was, the flight was delayed a further hour, so by the time we arrived we just wanted to get to the hotel and go to bed.

Hinterland

 On Saturday, Noosa was full of people involved in the triathlon and other related events, so we got the hell out of Dodge. We planned a drive into the hinterland to take us away from the crowds.

Our first stop was the town of Cooroy, home of the Noosa Botanic Gardens. We took a walk around there, on the lookout for bird life, and immediately spotted some moorhens on the lake, as well as what was once known as the purple swamp hen, which now goes by the more dignified name of Australasian swamp hen. Here in New Zealand we know it as pukeko.

Australasian swamp hen - aka pukeko

We also spotted some insect life.

And a catbird, which sounds like a cat.

Catbird

We then drove on to our second stop, Kenilworth, where we stopped for lunch at the Kenilworth Dairies. They make cheese, and offer cheese tastings to the passing punters in small cubes which you stab with a cocktail stick to taste. As I was posing for a picture of me with cheese, a kookaburra, who had clearly planned this, swooped in and nicked the cheese right off my stick in front of me! He then sat on the wall and ate it, looking smug. This is what he does every day, I guess.

We had a platter of cheeses and meats, and then decided to round it all off with freshly made gelato.

Next on the agenda was two parks with waterfalls. The first was the Mapleton Falls National Park, where we took the Wompoo walk around the forest, spotting a yellow robin along the way.

The final stop was a bit more arduous, as we went to Kondalilla National Park. This involves a long downhill to the waterfalls and waterhole – a journey which most people seemed to be making in swimming gear, we noted. We’d left ours in the car. D’oh! We got to the bottom where people were disporting themselves in the substantial waterhole at the foot of the falls.

Of course, walking downhill has a downside…you have to walk back uphill. We climbed and climbed and climbed, taking a shortcut back to the carpark so we didn’t have to walks so far. Even so, our phones (which track our daily steps) were inordinately pleased with us that day!

We drove home along the Bruce Highway, washed the dust from our feet, then made it to Maisie’s Seafood & Steakhouse for a well-deserved steak dinner.

Happy Birthday

Sunday was Jason’s birthday. A few friends and family were coming round for lunch. Elissa sent us out of the kitchen so she could prepare lunch, so we went for a walk up to the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens to see what we could see.

On the pond there were ducks, and in the trees there was a kookaburra.

We also went up to Gwen’s to look at the gardens, where we saw a little blue bird on the lawn.

We’d seen these on our trip to the Pyrenees yesterday, but had been unable to capture a pic of one – they move around like nobody’s business! It’s called the Superb Fairy Wren, which just makes all the other fairy wrens feel inadequate.

On the way back we stopped in again at the Shedshaker for a cooling beer – I tried four of the ones that I hadn’t had on the previous visit, including one called Breakfast Lager, and a chocolate stout. Then we returned for lunch. Folk were arriving as we turned up, and lunch got underway.

Black Forest gateau

Castlemaine

Next time I’m not leaving my laptop behind when I go on holiday. I get so behind on my blogging!

Two weeks ago we got up at some ungodly hour (well before sparrow fart), flew out to Melbourne, picked up a car at the airport, and drove the short distance to Castlemaine, arriving in time for a second breakfast at Tog’s Café. This somewhat surprised Jason, as I’d told him we’d be arriving around lunchtime. What can I say? We made better than expected time both on the plane, car rental place, and drive.

After breakfast we dumped our stuff at Jason’s then went for a walk around Castlemaine’s wild side – Kalimna Park, to be exact – with the intention of capturing some bird life on camera. In this I was relatively successful, as we saw lorikeets, long-billed corellas, rosellas, a grey fantail and a spotted pardalote.

Rainbow lorikeet 

Long-billed corellas

Grey fantail

Spotted pardalote

We walked back via the Burke & Wills memorial and Castlemaine anticline, which appears to have grown since we last saw it; then went up to the other end of town where there is a brewery. No, not XXXX, but a proper one. It’s called Shedshaker, and after a fairly energetic day’s walking in the hot hot sun, a selection of beers in a tasting paddle was the very thing. So rested we, by the tum-tum tree.

There's much more anticline to be seen these days

Kapiti Island

Kapiti Island lies 5km off the west coast of North Island, just north of Wellington, and has been a nature reserve of one kind or another for over 100 years. These days it is a predator-free island and reserve, and hosts a number of birds not found on the mainland (except at Zealandia, or in aviaries such as Mount Bruce).

Our original plan had been to take an overnight trip there, but the lodge was fully booked on the weekend we wanted to go so we decided on a day trip. The ferry leaves at 9 in the morning, so we decided we would be better off if we stayed in the vicinity the night before, rather than make an early-morning trek from Wellington. Accordingly, we booked into a bed and breakfast in Paekakariki. This allowed us to visit the Southwards Car Museum in the afternoon, and also to explore a bit of Paraparaumu before heading to our lodgings.

A copper car. Yes.

After dinner we walked along the beach as the sun set in an almost cloudless sky.

That's South Island in the background

I received a text in the morning confirming that they would be sailing that day – which, as the Rauoterangi channel was as flat as a mill-pond, was entirely expected. I guess there are occasions when the conditions in the morning look entirely acceptable for a trip but the forecast is for high seas later in the day when they would cancel…but this wasn’t one of them. We parked by the beach and registered our presence at the Kapiti Boat Club, where we searched our bags for rats and mice, watched a short video about the island and its history, then went outside to board our boat.

Paraparaumu beach has a very shallow slope, so the method of boarding the water taxi is up a gangway whilst it is on a slipway attached to the back of a tractor. The tractor then pushes the boat out to sea until it floats off and is able to make the crossing. The journey is about 10 minutes. At the island, we walked up to a shelter and had a quick talk about the species we were likely to see on the island, and also the ones we wouldn’t see (kiwis, because they would be asleep underground during the day).

Our guide took us part of the way around, pointing out a couple of kiwi burrows on the way, then we parted ways as he took a group on the lagoon walk, which concentrated on seabird life, whilst we took the loop walk up the hill to the lookout point. Along the way we sought out and found various birds, including weka, North Island robins, swallows, and young bellbirds, as well as the inevitable tuis and fantails, often accompanied by whiteheads. We also saw a Pacific visitor, the long-tailed cuckoo, which was being driven away by an angry tui.

Hobbit holes...no, wait, kiwi burrows

Mini Babybel

As we returned to the lower level we saw several kakariki, although they weren’t being particularly cooperative in staying still. I managed to get one feeding on flax seeds, but my positioning wasn’t too good in relation to the sun.

As we returned to the lodge for lunch, we found that there were a lot more weka than we’d thought, and I needn’t have been so worried about getting a picture of one – they live around the human settlements and are quite bold in scavenging and stealing food. Also, several kaka turned up at lunchtime – they’ve been known to unzip backpacks to get at packed lunches. The injunction not to feed the birds seems not to apply to the birds themselves – they’ll happily help themselves to anything left unattended.

After lunch we had another walk around on the flat, where we spotted one of the island’s resident takahe (there are 10 on the island, out of a total world population of around 280), and also some saddlebacks, which resolutely failed to come out into a good photography position.

The water taxi took us back at around 3:20, and we had an ice cream in Paraparaumu before heading back home.

Kaikoura

We bunked off work early to get home and to the airport for a 6:30pm flight on Sounds Air over to Blenheim, then collected our hire car and drove the 128km down to Kaikoura. The first part of this drive is fairly average, but when we reached the coast there were spectacular views out over the sea. We’ve just had a bit of a blow here, so there were some big breakers rolling in…with a scattering of surfers in amongst them on some of the beaches.

We found the motel with no problems and met up with Julian, who’d taken the scenic (i.e. slower) route via the Interislander ferry and bus to get here. He’d set off at 9:00am and arrived mid-afternoon, so was able to check in to the hotel for us and explore the environs. This doesn’t take long as Kaikoura isn’t a big place.

When we arrived we were pretty famished, so unpacked quickly and headed into the CBD. The first pub that we came to had closed its kitchen (it was, after all, past 9 o’clock!), but we walked a little further down and found a pizza place called Passione – a bit better than Pizza Hut, I hasten to add – and they were happy to serve us with pizza, pasta, beer and wine. We then headed back to watch England play Australia in an ODI – at one point it looked like England might actually win a cricket match in Australia, but the Aussies had a different idea about that and they managed to complete the run chase with three balls and one wicket to spare.

 Next day we were up with the lark to go into town and get ourselves a good breakfast, as we were booked on the 10:30 whale watch departure. We trundled along to the Kaikoura Whale Watch centre, based at the Whaleway Station on Whaleway Road (yes, really!) only to be informed that the sea was too rough, with 5m swells, and that the tours this morning were cancelled. We were offered a refund or rebooking, so decided to rebook for the next day, Sunday, at 9:30.

This left us at a bit of a loose end for the rest of the day, so we decided to drive up the coast and walk around the peninsula. There is a car park at the beginning of the north end of the walkway, so we parked there. There is a seal colony here, and we spotted several lounging about on the rocks. We then went up a steep path to reach the top of the cliffs, and look around:

We walked along the cliff tops, seeing various wildlife including the ubiquitous red-billed seagulls, and some wax-eyes and a yellowhammer:

From the cliff tops we could see people walking down along the shoreline, and decided that we would see if we could do that from the southern end of the walkway after lunch.

We again parked at the southern end of the walkway and took the track along the coast. Fairly soon it started going uphill to the top of the cliffs, so we abandoned the beaten track and took to the shoreline to explore. The rock formations here are weathered limestone and form some spectacular arrangements as they have been bent out of shape and eroded. The birdlife seems unfazed by the surrounding geography.

In the evening we went out for dinner at The Green Dolphin restaurant, where we had fish and lamb. I was going to order the crayfish, the local speciality – Kaikoura means food/eat (kai) crayfish (koura) – but decided I’d get that tomorrow, as we would be heading past some famous eateries on the way back to Bleinheim.

Otago Peninsula

Albatross!

Boxing day was...you guessed it, wet and rainy. First stop was a whistlestop tour of the Otago Museum (which is different to the Otago Settlers Museum), which contains scale models of many of the ships which were an important part of the development of the city of Dunedin, as well as the skeleton of a not-quite-full-grown fin whale.

Then we drove out to the Otago Peninsular once again, this time to visit the Royal Albatross Centre. We'd booked a tour at 12:00, which consisted of a bit of talk from the guide to begin with, answering such important questions as "are the albatrosses royal, or is the centre royal?" to which the answer is "the albatrosses, duh!" The centre is there because Southern Royal Albatrosses (see?) have their only mainland nesting colony there. We then watched a short film about albatrosses and other animals before trooping up to the viewing centre. The area where the albatrosses nest is fenced off from the public, and from ground predators. It's currently the nesting season, so one of the pair sits on the nest whilst the other goes off to sea to feed...for up to 10 days at a time. When he or she comes back, they change position, and the starving one disappears off for an extended squid binge.

We were fortunate to also see two albatrosses circling, either attempting to land to swap over, or, more likely, younger birds showing off to try to attract a mate.

After a quick lunch at the centre's cafe, we then drove down to Weller's Rock to take a marine tour with Monarch on the MV Monarch. We had barely left the mooring when we saw a little blue penguin, New Zealand's, and indeed the world's, smallest penguin:

We then headed round the rocks to see New Zealand fur seals lounging on the rocks, a white-fronted tern, and loads of albatrosses of various kinds (there are 11 different species which hunt around here, but only the Southern royal albatrosses breed here).

We also saw spoonbills, godwits, stilts and oystercatchers but at distances too great to photograph successfully. We didn't see any whales or dolphins, but these are less common round here.