Back to Christchurch

Along the Avon River

On our second last day in New Zealnd we left Kaikoura and drove south back to Kaiapoi, the Christchurch suburb where we stayed our first day in New Zealand.

We checked into the Riverland Holiday Park at noon, made lunch and then headed out to check out some birding hotspots in greater Christchurch.

Our first stop was the Southshore Spit in South New Brighton.  

There weren't many birds about.  But we did see South Island pied oystercatchers:

View of Clifton homes from across the bay:

Our next stop was the Estuary Edge Walk in South New Brighton Park:

Lots of birds here including

Pied stilt (Bird of the Day, previouslyseen in Australia)

Whie-Faced Heron

Silver Gulls

Black Swan stretching

We walked along the boardwalk.

See all these holes in the mud?

Every one had a small crab living in it.

As we walked along we could see waves of crabs running into their holes.

Finally we walked the Avon River.

I only realized later that many of these spacious parks were created when residential areas were "red-zoned" after the 2011 earthquake.  Damaged homes were demolished and the areas deemed unsafe to rebuild because the sandy soils are too unstable (like Richmond, BC).

We also checked out another spot and found ourselves in the only homeless encampment we saw in New Zealand.  There were a variety of rvs parked, some we probably just freecamped, others looked broken down and had accumulated piles of junk, one guy seemed to be living in his motorboat on its trailer.