New Zealand

On Thursday morning, it was time to leave left Dairy Flat and begin our next adventure to Tiritiri Matangi. Mike booked us on a ferry ride from downtown Auckland where everyone is required to stop at a station to make sure you are pest-free before boarding the ferry. This is common all over the New Zealand where hoses and shoe cleaning facilities are provided to ensure the next areas are not contaminated.  We had magnificent views of the Auckland skyline on our way out. We sat on the aft deck with the other birders who helped us identify the Fluttering Shearwater in addition to our target seabird, Australasian Gannet.  

Unfortunately, it was raining when we arrived at Tiritiri but a volunteer had ponchos for sale which we promptly jumped on. Everyone is quickly assigned to a volunteer guide who told us the Maori’s originally settled on Tiritiri Matangi in the 1400’s. Fast forward  to 1940 when a family started farming the island with sheep and cows and cleared much of the land. Luckily Tiritiri Matangi is one of the most successful conservation projects in the world thanks to volunteers in the 80’s and 90’s that planted native trees and relocated rare native birds to the island. One of the best birds on the trail was the lifer New Zealand Robin. This is mostly a ground bird that the guide coaxed out but kicking up a little leaf litter. Another fun bird on this part of trail was the Tui, a common New Zealand green-black bird with white chin tufts and a boisterous song. Our next lifer was the Stitchbird, a bird endemic to the North Island and estimated to have only 2,000 remaining. The Stitchbird is an example of successful translocating to Tiritiri.

One of the most interesting aspects of the tour is that hardly anyone had binoculars, including the guides. The birds are so close you really didn’t need them, unless you are a birder! The big news on the island was an unwelcome rat that was captured in January 2018. There are PVC tracking tunnels with ink pads all over the island that discovered the footprints of the rat which was ultimately trapped. Back on the bird trail we came across another target, the New Zealand Pigeon, which is ginormous by US standards. As we neared the end of our tour we happened upon a family of Brown Quail, another bird becoming more common with the eradication of predators. The Sacred Kingfisher is a bird we saw earlier on this trip but had our best views on the island.

After the tour was done, we enjoyed our lunch near the Tiritiri lighthouse first lit in 1865. Back on the boat I had a brief glimpse of a Little Blue Penguin, my first ever penguin. The sun was shining on the ferry ride back to Auckland and we watched part of the Volvo Race Around the World, a yacht race held every three years.

With only two days left of our trip Mike still had a couple business calls to make so birding had to wait. Later in the afternoon we headed toward Marsden Point which had quite a few good birds reported on eBird. The area was fairly spread out so I reached out to Ruakaka Beach on Facebook. Someone responded right away and stayed in touch to help. While we didn’t find the Godwits or the Fairy Tern it showed how wonderful social media can be in the birding community. This was an amazing stop with both South Island (all black) and Variable Oystercatchers in big numbers. An unexpected lifer was the African Collared-Dove in the parking area grass. One of my favorite birds that we saw several times on this trip was the Pied Shag, a black and white version of our Cormorant.

Our final night in the Northland was in Whangarei with our friend and business associate, Jeff Gibbs. We met at the Town Basin Marina Village and Jeff suggested we get takeaways from Get Ready Roasted, offering home cooked lamb and potatoes. After our marvelous dinner Jeff walked us to our quarters in the ‘Tree House’ where he introduced us to glow worms. As we neared the Tree House we turned off our headlamps and saw several glow worms on the walls, but behind us it was unbelievable like a starry night.

After breakfast on our final day we walked on the one mile boardwalk through Jeff’s property. Besides the stunning views we saw two more life birds, the Tomtit and Australian Magpie. A stick insect was another nice find. We cannot thank Jeff enough for his hospitality and sharing his piece of paradise.

Click on here for a complete bird list from our trip to New Zealand.New Zealand Bird List

There is never enough time to see everything on a trip like this. We’ll have to put New Zealand on our re-bucket list because we didn’t see a Brown Kiwi and I have to see the Glow Worms again.

Trip Birds:  39  Life Birds: 12

New Zealand Birds: 67  Life Birds: 52

Next up: Ecuador