Takahe, Kaka and Albatross

 

We started the day at the Orokonui Ecosanctuary, a more upscale version of the wildlife sanctuary we visited on the Banks Peninsula.  They have a predator-proof fence and are raising ends geared birds brought in from elsewhere.

Predator proof fence

When you first enter you come across the endangered takahe.  They were very tame and were tottering over to visit us when they heard a gate being opened by their keeper and waddled over to visit him.  

They are a larger and weirder version of the pukeko we saw the other day.

Bird of the Day!

Leo's pretty sure he saw a kiwi disappear under a boardwalk but he didn't know it at the time and thought it might be a rabbit.

We spent hours wandering down the steep hillside trails and then hours climbing up again, admiring the big trees.

They had feeders set up so Leo was able to get a good shot of the ubiquitous New Zealand bellbird which is usually hiding high in the canopy.

New Zealand Bellbird

At another feeder there was a group of about 5 kakas raising a ruckus.

We were excited to see our first tui, a new Zealand endemic (and lifer).  There were lots of them wheezing and grunting wheezing and grunting in the trees but most of the photos looked like this:

But it shows the iridescent feathers

Later we saw a juvenile at a feeder that posed for a better picture.

A pair of South Island robins popped out onto the trail to greet us:

Lifer!

 It turns out they weren't just pleased to see us.  They are after the insects our shuffling feet stir up.

After our hike we lunched in the reserve's very attractive cafe with a great view down the valley.

In the afternoon we drove out to Taiaroa Head on the Otago Peninsula, the site of the only royal albatross colony that's located on an isolated island.  

For $70 you can access the observatory looking over the colony and see the Albatross nests up close.

While we waited for our time slot we wandered around the silver gull colony next door. A bunch of almost mature chicks were waiting around for their parents to bring home lunch.

Here an adult regurgitated fishy material for her chick.  Appetizing!

Our tour consisted of an introductory film about the albatrosses. Unfortunately, I can't tell you much about it since I slept through most of it.  Then they walked us up to the glassed-in observatory.  

Loving couple and their chick

To be honest I was a little disappointed. I expected a crowded colony of hundreds of birds. Instead we got views of about 3-4 nests.  They were pretty amazing though.  Big giant piles of fluff. Think of the fee as a donation to protect the species.

The adults raise their chicks for a full year before maturity.  They said there were about 34 nests currently occupied.

A lifer for us though not the Bird of the Day.-  We have seen the Southern Royal Albatross when we were in Chile.

On our Drive back around the peninsula we stopped to check out a flock of royal spoonbills.

Another cool bird but not a lifer. We've seen these before in Australia.

Driving to Dunedin

Woke up in the morning to this view of Mt. Cook. Then we were on our way back to the coast.

On our Drive we came to a historic site marking so we pulled off the road to visit Takiroa Maori Rock Art.

Under these cliffs  were drawings of

A man on a horse

And

A sailing ship.

So these were clearly done in the 1800s.  They were badly vandalized with graffiti but are now behind a fence.  Always interesting to see how people saw the world long ago.

Then just down the road in the tiny community of Dontroon they'd built a boardwalk through their small wetland.  They'd commissioned a beautiful carved gateway to the marsh.

Most of the birds we saw were European imports like this yellowhammer 

And this Eurasian goldfinch

But the walk was very informative with  native plants' pointed out.  For instance we found out that some plants we thought we invasive were in fact natives.  The spiky plants with the large seed heads are not yucca

But native flax used by the Maori for clothing and mats.  The large grass below is not pampas grass but a native called toetoe.

But we'll call this Australasian magpie, introduced from Australia, the bird of the day.

We drove on towards the coast where we stopped for lunch in Oamaru, a small city with many large Victorian buildings.  Many New Zealand towns have very wide main streets, which is interesting because the main highways are much narrower and sometimes have single lane bridges.

Downtown Oumaru

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.