On to Okarito

Coastal vegetation at Bruce Bay

Another driving day along narrow winding roads with one lane bridges.  We came out on the coast at Bruce Bay and at the rest stop on the beach we found a coffee cart that sold ice cream. After a short walk on the beach I got the day's special homegrown rhubarb icecream, delicious!

The road goes by two glaciers Fox Glacier and Franz Joseph.  Both glaciers were covered in clouds but we did see the back side of Mt. Cook.

We stopped in the busy tourist town of Franz Joseph for a chicken pie and an enormous slice of quiche.  We debated driving 5 km to the glacier viewing point, but given the clouds, the crowds and tourbusses and the $5/hr parking fees (again I stress, New Zealand national parks do not charge entrance fees, we're just cheap) we decided against it.

Instead we drove on to our destination, the small town of Okarito (permanent population of 35) and checked in at the very well run community Holiday Park.  And inexpensive at $36 NZ.

We checked out the town

and reserved kayaks for the Okarito Lagoon the next day.  We wanted to reserve for another kiwi hunt but a sign on the shop said that the tour was filled for the next three days.

Okarito is an old goldrush town and there's a few old buildings remaining.

General Store

The old schoolhouse has been converted to a bunkhouse and it was full with volunteers who come every year to remove gorse from the Lagoon.

Schoolhouse on the right, war memorial on the left.

Just past the schoolhouse is a trail (ahem, track in New Zealandese) to a boardwalk on a marsh and then up the hill to the "trig"  (survey point at summit).

The marsh was quiet in the afternoon

but the hike up the hill was full of birdlife.  Maybe because the trees were in blossom.

Bellbirds were not only singing but also peeking out of the shrubbery.

Tui were feasting on blossoms.

This tree is referred to as the "Christmas tree" because of its red berries and evergreen foliage:

The robins were as bold as ever.

We met up with some hikers who told  us there were kea at the summit but when we got there they had moved on.  Nice views, though, of the ocean, the lagoon

and the town below.  On our return trip we saw yellow-crowned parakeets flying overhead (lifer!)

The Kayak rental guy told us that the marsh would be very birdy in the evening so we went back after dinner but it was still deadsville.

So we walked out to the beach

-and found a single photogenic great egret (kotuku, white heron) standing in the current.

Just as the sun was setting

We saw 5 Kea flying over to the campground where quite a crowd was gathering.

They put on quite a show for us, cavorting in the ??? trees and we finally got some closeup views.

They were not a nuisance however, and they run a pretty tight ship at the Okarito Campground - you'd probably get banned if you fed them.

Bird of the Day!