In the Abel Tasman national park

Just as in Australia we mainly focused on birds, but the whole landscape and vegetation is very special, with many unique trees and plants, including ferns and tree ferns.

Larger trees support epiphytes

Many of the trees have beautiful and extraordinary flowers.

We found lots of these on the ground during a forest walk near Waikanae

Rewarewa flowers

Small Pohutukawa in Takapuna

Pohutukawa buds and flowers

Some trees have a juvenile stage which doesn’t look much like the adult tree.

Juvenile lancewood; small tree with mature leaves; mature leaves appearing on juvenile

Lichen

The cabbage tree

A flowering shrub, poroporo

The NZ flax was in flower, attracting birds such as Tui.

The Tui hid as soon as the camera appeared!

Flax can grow very tall

Many flowers were in blossom.

Green hood orchid; the yellow lupins were introduced

There were butterflies and bees everywhere. We mainly saw cabbage white and monarchs, as well as monarch caterpillars.

Monarch caterpillars

Rather tired-looking monarch

Common copper

Freshly hatched female monarch

The only native mammals we saw were fur seals, sunbathing on the rocks or swimming

Fur seal in Tasman Bay

Some birds were happy to hang around to have their photos taken, especially if they sensed there might be picnic crumbs dropped. Others were very shy, so this selection by no means covers all we saw, which included Kiwi, Saddleback, Whitehead, Silvereye, Grey warbler, Bellbird, Kaka, Brown quail, Brown teal and NZ dotterel, to mention only the NZ specials.

Takahe enjoying its lunch – grass

White-faced heron

Toutouwai or NZ robin (North Island)

Weka chick

Adult weka

Kereru or NZ pigeon

A friendly little robin

Tui

Black swan with cygnets

Karoro or black-backed gull

Parera or grey duck

Pied shag

Mallard with ducklings

Grey duck, mallard and pukeko

Red-billed gull

Auckland from the ferry to Rangitoto

Having stayed with Alan and Rachel three years ago we felt quite at home in both the house and the area. We had only a few days with them this time, but we still managed to pack in quite a lot.

Alan had kindly arranged a special outing for us: a small-group guided nature tour with Habitat Tours, run by Tristin, a delightful and knowledgeable young man. (Highly recommended if anyone is in the area!) We went on the so-called day/night tour to Tawharanui (the wh is pronounced f) regional park, a fenced and thus pest-free headland with beautiful beaches and interesting wildlife. You have to be very careful when entering the reserve not to bring in any kind of rodent or other pest, as these are serious predators of the flightless birds. When we arrived it was a lovely sunny afternoon, and there were several groups of students on the white sandy beaches, enjoying having finished their exams and started their long holidays.

An evening view of the beach

On our first guided bird walk we saw and heard several native and endemic birds, some for the first time, including NZ dotterel, a wader, Bellbirds, which really do sound like the beginning of a peal of bells, Saddleback – and three Takahe. We learnt that there are fewer than 300 of these still in the wild! So they are far rarer than Kiwi.

Two Takahe crossing the path just in front of us

There were also many native trees, including several good-sized Kauri. We made our own way back to the car while our picnic supper was being prepared, enjoying lovely views out over the sea.

On our way back for the picnic

We also saw a small colony of Australasian gannets, and large numbers of Pukeko wandering around. Like the Weka they seem very friendly and inquisitive, but both birds have the unpleasant habit of eating other birds, nestlings, fledglings and eggs.

We had a delicious picnic supper, home-cooked by Tristin’s mother. We even tried a local speciality, Manuka tea. (Manuka is mainly known for the honey produced from its rather pretty little flowers.)

The picnic supper

Manuka blossom

After supper we wrapped up warm, took our head-torches, and set off in search of nocturnal creatures. Quite a few Eastern rosella ( a colourful and noisy parrot, though we couldn’t see the colours in the dark) were flying in to roost. We heard Morepork, the NZ owls, but didn’t see any.

Sunset – time to look for Kiwi

Of course we were all holding our breath for Kiwi.  Once we in the woodland we all moved as quietly as possible, listening for rustling in the undergrowth, and fairly soon we heard the right sort of noise. There in the bush down below the path we saw the round and furry-looking rear end of a Brown Kiwi! He turned his head slightly so that we caught sight of his beak, and then disappeared in search of food. As well as being flightless, Kiwi are also very short-sighted and rely heavily on their sense of smell. Uniquely, their nostrils are near the tips of their beaks. Feeling very pleased, we  headed for a stream where we might find eels. As we were leaning over a small bridge we once again heard rustling, and there on the bank was another Kiwi. Unbothered by our (red) torch lights, he rootled around for quite some time, at one point standing up on his toes to stretch up into a low shrub, looking like a funny little man with no arms. Once he had disappeared we made our way back to the car, and were driven back to Takapuna, all most satisfied with a really enjoyable visit to a fascinating and beautiful place.

The weather the next two days was a bit grey and damp, so we felt even more how lucky we had been in Tawharanui. One day we took the ferry across to Auckland city; the next day Alan drove us to near Hamilton, where he had business, and where he has family. He dropped us at Horotui (pronounced roughly horror two) some 12 kms from the city, and we walked along the Waikato River path for about three hours. It was a pleasant walk, but we were very glad to meet Alan and have lunch in a cafe.

Approaching Rangitoto Island

On our last full day in Auckland we were again lucky with the weather. We had decided to visit the youngest volcano in the area: Rangitoto, a mere 600 years old. Rangitoto is a classic volvano shape: it’s almost circular, rises to a cone in the centre, and is covered in pumice and dusty grey rocks and stones. Over time plants and trees have become established, sometimes just a clump in the middle of the grey waste, but in other places providing quite extensive cover.

Typical vegetation

Part of the walkway to the top

The climb to the top was quite steep, and already it was getting quite warm, but the views all around certainly made it worthwhile, and we felt we deserved our picnic lunch.

The view over Hauraki Gulf from the top of Rangitoto

We had a rather hot, dry walk back down, making sure we were back in good time for the last ferry. But the  landscape was fascinating and contrary to expectations we saw and heard many birds: lots of Tui, and the ubiquitous house sparrows, which seem to have adapted to any imaginable habitat, as well as our only sighting of a Tomtit.

Katharine on the path back to the landing stage

The ferry

It’s nearly Christmas!

The following day we packed and went out for a last New Zealand coffee, and then Alan drove us to the airport for the long journey home, via a short stopover in Hong Kong. We knew England would be cold and grey, but we had had another terrific holiday meeting old and new friends and seeing interesting places and wildlife – and there were only three weeks till Christmas.

Under the tree ferns

The flight from Nelson to Wellington was reminiscent of travel in an earlier and more innocent age. We arrived at the airport, checked in with the ground stewardess and handed over our bags. When it was time to leave we gathered round the stewardess who counted heads and then led the 8 of us across the tarmac to the ‘pencil plane’, a single prop 12-seater operated by Sounds Air. She helped us get strapped in, then the pilot introduced himself – no separate cockpit, just up at the front of the plane – and off we flew. It wasn’t nearly as scary as Katharine had expected; in fact it was a very smooth flight, and as we were flying quite low we had an excellent view over the mountains and then the sounds before we crossed the Cook Straits and flew into Wellington. Very different from the usual flying experience.

The plan had been to spend some time in Wellington and visit the WW1 diorama (Peter Jackson) but the museum didn’t open till later and the traffic was heavy, so we decided to take the scenic route round the bays and stop for breakfast in a friendly cafe overlooking the water. Then we went on to Waikanae, where our friends live in a pleasant spot with a lovely sheltered garden. After lunch they took us to visit friends of theirs who had bravely bought a rather boggy and unlovely paddock 20 or so years ago. Somehow they had seen the potential in it, and now they have a lovely house at one side against the forest, with beautiful water gardens and native plants. The ponds have grass carp and the trees and shrubs are full of native birds. All the trees were blossoming or about to, and the whole effect was just stunning.

The next day we got up early ready for our day and night on Kapiti Island, a wildlife sanctuary about 5km over the water. But then came the phone call – too windy for the crossing. Great disappointment. So instead we made ourselves a simple picnic and set off for Mangaone South Road to walk along the Mangaone Walkway, which follows an old bush tramway in low hill country east of Waikanae. It was historically known as Reikorangi Track. The southern half follows the Waikanae River through Kaitawa Scenic Reserve, which protects previously milled podocarp forest. There are streams running through the area, now crossed by means of bridges. The northern end runs through farmland, and as the route isn’t circular, we walked about half of it before stopping for our lunch and then returning to the car.

One of the bridges

Out of the forest

Tree ferns

In the forest

The following day it was still pretty windy and threatening rain, so Kapiti was still not on. So we set off on a rather circuitous route, caused by the roadworks for the new highway, to Nga Manu nature reserve. This has a mix of aviaries and night areas for rarer or endangered species with open and wooded areas where birds fly freely. It’s very pleasant to walk around the different paths and areas, and we saw lots of native birds as well as huge longfin eels in the ponds: feeding them is one of the features of the reserve. There were plenty of waterfowl, including a number of Pukeko, some of which were very young and friendy.In the aviaries we saw Kea and Kaka, two of the big native parrots, as well as tuatara lizards. We even saw a brown kiwi trundling around in the night enclosure.

A very friendly young pukeko

Monarch butterfly caterpillar – some of their food plants are pretty unpleasant, though not the swan plant

The largest fuchsia in the world – a tree

Christine talking to Dan, the tui who is too tame to live outside

A clump of cabbage trees

Canada goslings resting – it’s hard work eating all that grass

Black swan on the lake

The eel feeding frenzy – they were climbing right out of the water

After watching all that feeding we left the park and went to have excellent battered fish with twice cooked chips at a cafe near the beach. Our stroll along the beach afterwards probably didn’t do much to walk off the calories!

Thursday morning was fine and sunny and the wind had dropped – so we were up early, down to the bakery to buy our picnic lunch, and on the boat to Kapiti Island, along with a school party and four other tourists. Once again we took our seats in the boat and were tractor-hauled into the sea, much to the delight of the school children. The crossing took about 20 minutes, and the 6 of us got off at the north end, where the forest is less developed than further south, as this was the most recent part to have been farmed. So there was a lot of Kanuka and Manuka, with the forest trees growing up beneath the canopy. In time the forest trees will dominate and the other plants disappear. This will also have an impact on the bird life. For now there are lots of whiteheads and fantails, the latter all displaying busily, rising and falling in the air, twirling round, and fanning out their tails.

It really was a beautiful day, and Kapiti is a truly magical place. We had a guide tell us about its history and the birds we might see, and then we set off on our own, round the inland path and up to the high point: sadly for us the gulls and royal spoonbill were nesting so we couldn’t take the coastal path. We could look down on the gulls but the spoonbill were out of sight. We had our picnic in a little clear spot near the cliff, with a view down to the beach on one side and to a cove where there was a colony of fur seals, which we could see swimming, on the other. A family of weka, two adults and two largish young, came and investigated us, hoping for some crumbs for their lunch. Then we walked back down to the lodge, where we would have had lunch and stayed had the weather not been against us. We enjoyed sitting in the sun and seeing a few more birds, including a Takahe, before taking the boat back to the mainland, where Christine was waiting for us. In the evening they had friends round for a delicious BBQ leg of lamb.

The tractor returning to the beach

On our way to Kapiti at last

A kiwi burrow, sometimes borrowed by a little blue penguin

The boulder area on Kapiti island

Looking down from the northern end

The other side of the little bay

Katharine on top of the island

Back on dry land

The following morning  Murray took Richard out to see his new project, a pear orchard. Then we loaded our cases into the car, and Christine drove us to Wellington airport, to fly up to Tauranga. We had had a great time in Waikanae, and were quite sad to leave.

The pear orchard

We have mostly focused on birds here in Australia, but the native plants are beautiful and many attract different birds such as Honeyeaters, Figbirds and Wattlebirds, as well as Lorikeets. We’ve seen far more than we have been able to photograph, such as raptors, including Whistling and Brahminy kites, Ospreys, Nankeen falcon; different parrots, such as Yellow-tailed black Cockatoo and Galah; as well as Fairy-wrens, Satin Bowerbird, Dollarbird (Australia’s only Roller), Catbirds, and some of the ‘double-named’ birds such as Magpie-lark and Cuckoo-dove.Several of these swoop into Jane’s garden for bugs and flowers; several others sit at the top of a tall tree in the garden. Few have been obliging enough to pose for a portrait.

Apart from birds we have seen quite a few butterflies flitting around, a couple of snakes, including a Carpet snake just at the side of the house, and another smaller one on the little tractor. We have also seen a few kangaroos, and a possum, which woke Katharine by thundering up and down the veranda roof one night.

Little Friarbird on yellow Grevillia

Rainbow Lorikeet

Laughing Kookaburra

Laughing Kookaburra on guard by the compost heap

Like gulls, these Australian White Ibis are great opportunistic foragers.

These Spurwinged Plovers are also very common.

Australian Pelican near the mouth of the Bellinger River at Urunga

Little Wattlebird on pink Grevillia

Grevillia and other native plants

A tiny moth – about 5mm long

Kangaroos in the salt marsh near Urunga

A water dragon

A sweet-scented flowering creeper

Red Grevillia

A native tree in blossom

Coral tree in blossom

We are spending most of our time with Katharine’s brother and sister-in-law, Chris and Jane, near Bellingen in rural New South Wales, but over the weekend we had a jaunt northwards to Brisbane, where Chris and Katharine have a second cousin, Sarah Davies (nee Barron). On the way north we stopped off for lunch at a pub on the Clarence River. We spent the night in a nice little 1980s motel in Byron Bay, Mecca for hippies and surfers, where we met a friend of Jane’s for dinner in an excellent fish restaurant.

The next day we visited the Tweed Gallery which features many paintings by Australian artist Margaret Ollie, together with a reconstruction of her studio, as well as other work by Australian artists. Our drive to Brisbane was slow, with  very heavy rain and then heavy traffic on the Goldcoast highway, but we were warmly greeted by Sarah and her husband Mark. He is both an excellent cook and a champion beer brewer. On Sunday we visited central Brisbane. In spite of the storm it was still very hot and humid, but an attractive city.

On the way back south we stopped off in Evans Head to visit friends of Chris and Jane’s. The highlights were an evening beach picnic where we drank bubbly and waited for the supermoon; then the next day we had breakfast in ‘Evans to Betsy’s’ breakfast cafe.

Lunch by the Clarence River

Byron Bay

Byron Bay beach

At the easternmost point of mainland Australia

From the lighthouse at Byron Bay

The Tweed River

Brisbane

The river promenade

Summer beach in Brisbane

An exhibit in QGOMA

Old and new in Brisbane

Catching up with cousins

The coastline above Evans Head

Chinaman’s Beach, Evans Head

Evening picnic, waiting to greet the supermoon

The moon, at last

Last glimpse of the supermoon

Double hibiscus in Hong Kong Park

Spot the butterfly!

There’s another butterfly hiding here.

Hong Kong is surprisingly green with lots of trees and flowering plants. We did a couple of good walks. Unfortunately all the truly wild birds as well as the butterflies were flying round too busily for decent photos, so we cheated a bit and got some photos in the open aviary in Hong Kong Park. The orchids were in an amazing display also in Hong Kong Park. The big grey butterfly is the size of a small bat – and was black. We’ll try to do better in Australia!

Double hibiscus in Hong Kong Park

Spot the butterfly!

There’s another butterfly hiding here.