More Mt. Cook

 

We got up early to beat the crowds but by the time we got to the trailhead it was pretty busy though there were still parking spots at $5 per hour (keep in mind there's no entrance fees at NZ national parks).

The trails were very busy and the birds were not very active, singing but not coming out.

We had to cross a long suspension bridge, (always a challenge for Connie). There was a 20 person limit which nobody seemed to be concerned about.  

But we did make it across without incident and continued on to the second bridge which was being reconstructed so the trail was closed.  

At one point it looked as though the clouds would part and we would see Mount Cook but they closed back again.

Just after we recrossed the bridge we spotted a large parrot flying across the river calling "Kea Kea kea."  It disappeared into the trees but we had seen the famous kea.  No photos but here is a Eurasian blackbird.  If it looks like a North American Robin that's because it is a fellow thrush.

Not endemic but very much at home

Our next stop was up the Tasman River Road.  No parking fees but the lot was full so we parked on the side of the road and ate our lunch in the sun with views of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman,

Then we made a short hike to the Tasman River and along a berm above Tasman Lake.

That's Mount Cook obscured by a cloud

And eventually the whole mountain was revealed.

Turns out our campsite had its own view of Mt. Cook!

Mt. Cook National Park

Cornelia meets Moa

We were able to find a  MacBook and a guidebook for New Zealand birds in a bookstore in Timaru in the morning so we were all set to head to Mt. Cook National Park.

We stopped for lunch at the touristy town of Lake Tekapo.  

Making lunch in our van's kitchen

Lake Tekapo doesn't really have much to offer except for a beautiful blue lake and a view of Mt. Cook (New Zealand's highest mountain).  Today though it was hidden by clouds.

Non-view of Mt. Cook

It does however have a statue of a moa, New Zealand's extinct Gian ostrich-like bird.  And a set of automated self-cleaning toilets that nobody could figure out.  Not even the Japanese tourists!  Actually a young German woman helped me out.  

High-tech toilets, lo-tech tourists

We also found this handsome guy, our first view of the endemic New Zealand scaup, a lifer.

Bird of the Day!

And well worth another photo:

We innocently arrived at the government campsite at 3 pm only to find it was fully booked.  So we quickly made a reservation at Glentanner commercial campground, 20 minutes back down the road.

Meanwhile we went for a short hike from Mt. Cook Village through silver beech forest.  These beeqches are not related to the European beeqches but they are related to trees in Chile and in many ways the New Zealand remind me of Chilean forests minus the bamboo.  We didn't see any new birds:  silvereye, NZ fantail, chaffinch and Eurasian blackbird.

When we drove back to Glentanner campground it was just packed.  People were waiting in line in the communal kitchen for a hotplate or a sink.  We wound up cooking back at our van Despite the cool weather. After dinner we walked down to Lake Pukaki where we saw a dunnock, New bird for this trip but one we've seen before in Europe.

Timaru

 

Timaru has a beautiful sand beach

We drove to Timaru where we'd read there was freedom camping at the harbour but they were now charging $20 a night.  

But we didn't care because right next to the car park was this:

Directions to the penguin viewing point

No fun allowed, New Zealand style:

Little penguins, also known as blue penguins, nest in among the rocks along this road.

Timaru has a beautiful beach

On the other side of the road is the Timaru container docks.

At dusk we followed the penguin trail to viewing area.  It started to rain, hard.  Nothing to see. When the volunteers arrived (their job is to protect the penguins and spot them for the tourists) they explained that the penguins are mounting now and do not eat; therefore they don't go to sea.  However they do co e out of their dens u Der cover of darkness.

The volunteers know where their nests are so they showed us where a pair were active in the dark, in the pouring rain.

Little Penguins are the smallest in the world, about 12 inches tall. Leo got some not very sharp shots.

They were adorable!

Lifer and Bird of the day!

Earlier we spotted another lifer next to the parking lot.  

The black-billed gull is endemic to New Zealand and distinguished from the similar and more abundant  silver gull

By its (duh) black bill.

Hinewai Reserve

 In the morning we drove up to the private Himewai Nature Reserve.

It was high up in the hills and you could see down to the ocean. If you had the time and energy you could hike all the way down and back up again.

We did a loop trail from the visitor centre down into the forest.  The woods were full with birdsong. We were greeted by the outgoing fantails and the songs of the bellbirds.

Connie stands on a nifty little bridge in among the tree ferns

Leo in among the giant ferns

Leo caught a photo of a chaffinch (European import).

And we saw our first tomtits, a New Zealand endemic and lifer for us,

Immature tomtit, best photo we got

The caretaker here is evidentally a bit of a character.  He made many informational signs with engraved lettering describing the native plants

But he also made similar signs scolding visitors for pulling up invasive foxgloves or 

breaking off fern fronds.

We made a short side excursion to see this small falls.

And eventually we reached the bottom of the loop where we crossed below this larger waterfall.

Then it was time for the long steep climb back up to the van.  Right after the falls we had to ascend a stairs which turned into a ladder.

Seriously, have these New Zealanders never heard of such a thing as a switchback?

Finally we got back to our van and headed south to the town of Timaru.

Akaroa and the Banks Peninsula

We headed south from Christchurch to Akeroa on the banks Peninsula.  We stopped at a reststop on Franklin Lake

 Where we saw black swans (introduced from Australia), great crested grebes and mallards.

We turned off the main highway onto narrow windy roads that looked down onto sheep pasture.  It was really beautiful and really stressful for our first day of driving on New Zealand roads.  The van is rather underpowered so we had a train of vehicles behind us.

Eventually we reached our destination, Akaroa harbour, and pulled into one of the last free parking spots where we would spend the night.  

We checked out the busy main street, walked the pier

And saw these birds:

White-faced heron

One of a number of Cormorant species

The very pretty silver gull with a very not-pretty hoarse seagull call

After supper we took the trail to Children's Bay (10 minutes, it said).

When we got there there was a loop trail up into the hills so we checked that out.  

We had great views back to the town from here

And the whole trail was very birdy.  We saw the New Zealand pigeon (lifer).

Bird of the Day!

We were commenting how noisy the cicadas were and Leo spotted one.

The fantails were very outgoing and flashed their tails at us.

We spotted this guy running around a field nowhere near a swamp.

Australasian swamphen

Eventually we got back down to Children's Bay only to find that the tide was in, cutting off our return. So we had to climb back up the hill and retrace our steps. Some 10 minute evening walk!

First Day in New Zealand

After a 17 hour day of flying we arrived in Christchurch at 9 am and picked up our Toyota Hiace van.  She's got a name, Caroline II, and she has 400,000 km on her.

We drove 3 minutes to the Woolworths for groceries and then another 5 to the Riverside Holiday Park where we set up.  We thought we'd fall asleep right away but we didn't sleep at all.  For one thing it's 28 degrees today, the NZers are surprised too, it was 13 degrees yesterday.  

Fantails and silvereyes were abundant among this road lined with what Leo thinks are Monterrey pines.

We went for a walk around the neighborhood and saw quite a few common New Zealand birds including a lifer for us:  New Zealand fantail.  We also refamiliarised ourselves with several Australian species:  Australian magpie, masked lapwing, silverwing.  And there's lots of introduced European birds:  song thrush, house sparrow, starling.