Postcards from Australasia #18

We started our New Zealand trip working through some unexpected jetlag and arriving on Auckland Day (we worked out the artillery-like noise was in fact fireworks on the other side of the building we were staying in).

Our first birding trip was to Tiritiri Matangi, catching a cat from Auckland Harbour:

New Zealand's wildlife has been devastated by the waves of human settlement since first peopled by the Maori (from Taiwan) around 1100 and then the British invasion of the 1700's.   39 species of bird were lost under the Maori, 19 more since the British ran things.   Currently of 49 land birds, 25 are critically endangered.   Some species are down to a handful of nesting pairs or are entirely in captivity to try and ensure their survival.

Another approach has been pest eradication of remote islands, one such is Tiritiri Matangi.   You get there by boat, it's far enough away from other land that rats can't swim there (they do on other islands that are closer together) and everyone is asked to check themselves and their bags to ensure nothing is taken to the island.

Birds are thriving in these few spots.   This is the Kereru or New Zealand Pigeon:

We also saw North Island Saddlback, Hihi (Stichbird), North Island Robin, Red-crowned Parakeet, Bellbirds and Takahe, giant Gallinules.

Having completed our giuded walk we took off to find a nice spot for lunch, this is Fisherman's Bay:

Back on the mainland we left Auckland and headed North, exploring along the way, this is an old farm in a typically bumpy Kiwi landscape:

We visited another sanctuary, Tawharanui Regional Park, which has a huge pest-proof gate for access that cuts off the peninsula.   The location is stunning:

And we saw New Zealand Dotterel on the beach:

They have Kiwis there too but they're are amost exclusively a night bird and we're not night owls :) 

We stayed near Sandspit so i could hop aboard a pelagic out to some remote sea-stacks:

We saw a good number of species though not that many individuals, but we did see Shearwaters and Petrels including this Flesh-footed Shearwater:

Until 2007 the New Zealand Storm-Petrel was considered extinct.   It turns out they survived on a few unvisited rocks.   Pest eradication of the proximate sea stacks has provided habitat for them to expand back into, which they are now doing:

The next day we visited Ruapekapeka Pa, the last defence of the Maori against a British attack, seeking to quell any resistance to the rule of the crown, land seizures, etc.   As well as a fascinating site and significant part of the human history of the island, we found this Carronade (cast in Falkirk) atop the Pa:

From there it was on to the Bay of Islands and our first night in Russell, from where we watched the sunset over the water:

A beautiful sight:

We got the ferry on Sunday morning from Russell to Urupukapuka, another pest-free island, seeing Bottlenosed Dolphins on the way.   It's a beautful island to explore, very up and down, but the replanting is still young so only a few native species have so far been reintroduced.  Well worth a wander with some lovely scenery in the hills and the bays and beaches:

Back on the mainland we continued to the Far North of Northland, visiting various forests, which are noteable for their tree ferns:

We also walked the only open track around Kauri trees, they are distinctive, much harvested for their wood for furniture as they grow fat but not very tall.   There are very few older specimens left and those that remain are dying off with a human introduced fungus so most access is now closed apart from boardwalks that isolate the visitors from trees.  I wonder if the bark patterns are related in some way to the art of Maori people:

After Northland we visited the Coromandel Peninsula, a popular and busy spot just 90 minutes from downtown Auckland and it's easy to see why:

A hot spot for tourists is cathedral cove, we were advised to avoid a few such spots due to huge overcrowding.  Instead of visiting during the day, having enjoyed exploring some of the peninsula and doing a bit of beaching, we pitched up above the cove just after sunrise as we headed back out and further south and east:

We drove on to Miranda and the shorebird centre there (don't try and follow this on a map it'll look like a spider possessed and wandering randomly!) to see the shorebirds at a very high tide.

First-up the self introduced White-faced Heron:

We saw roughly 1,500 of the endemic Wrybills, hundreds of Pacific Golden Plover, a few Banded Dotterel, a single Broad-billed Sandpiper, Far Eastern Curlew, various shags and thousands of Godwits, here spooked by a passing harrier:

From Miranda we drove on to Whakatane (pronounced Fak-a-ta-neh), jump off point for the now defunct White Island tours, to visit Ohiwa Harbour and Estuary, where this story will be continued...