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Queenstown, NZ

Queenstown, NZ

This is our last view of New Zealand. It was raining in Queenstown so we headed for Patagonia Chocolates and sat on a comfy sofa upstairs with our coffee and warm brownies (they make the chocolate on site and add macadamia nuts to the brownies, yum) and viewed the waterfront activities.

We saw over 70 bird species in all so we were well pleased. An Australasian Crested Grebe near the Queenstown jetty was a final delight.

Omarama to Queenstown via Wanaka

Our last full day in New Zealand. We turned south from Omarama on Highway 8, heading for Queenstown. We drove over the Lindis Pass and downhill through the long, long and beautiful Lindis Valley to Tarras.

Clay cliffs

Lindis Pass

Tussock-covered hills at the pass.

Success. We followed these two bike riders up the pass.

Green beetles covering a shrub.

Growing at the top of the pass.
Could be a weed. NZ has lots of weeds.

Lindis Valley

Sigrid investigating road kill, Lindis Valley.
We kept hoping to see a falcon feeding on kill on the road.
It was a stoat or a weasel - both are introduced pests in NZ.

Tarras

 At Tarras we turned turned west to Wanaka. The December weather in New Zealand has not been kind to places like Wanaka and we saw a lot of storm damage on the foreshore. There are roads closed and paths closed and a lot of repair work required to the infrastructure. (There also seems to be a lot of stray canoes everywhere waiting to be claimed.)

View from the waterfront at Wanaka.

Storm damage at Wanaka waterfront.

Australasian Crested Grebes, Wanaka.
There is a breeding group at the Wanaka Marina (with their own Facebook page!).

Storm damage at Wanaka.

Back to Queenstown via Cromwell, in a valley filled with orchards and vineyards, where we bought sweet luscious cherries and real-fruit icecreams. Yum.

Mount Cook highway

Tasman River, Glentanner

We dropped in to the Information Centre at Twizel on our way up to Mount Cook Village. Just to check. We mentioned that we were looking for birds and a lady there told exactly where to go to find Black Stilts! (See the photo above.) We had no expectation of seeing this rare and endangered bird so we were pretty excited and dropped every other plan in favour of 'The Hunt for the Black Stilts'.

The recommended site was on the road to Mount Cook at the head of Lake Pukaki.

Sigrid at the hot spot for Black Stilts,
the braided gravelled wetlands of the Tasman River
 at the head of Lake Pukaki.

We saw the birds as soon as we pulled up and they weren't shy of us. Most of the group were mottled young birds and there were a few black adults (with red eyes and red legs). They all had leg bands which indicates that the population is being monitored.

An adult Black Stilt. They seem to like standing on one leg.

A Black-fronted Tern. Another new bird for our list.

After the excitement of spending time with the stilts everything else was a bonus - the beautiful scenery, snow-capped mountains, the Mount Cook Visitor Centre, the walks through silver beech forest at Mount Cook village, the misty views, the extraordinary blue glacial-water lakes and the shadows of drifting clouds on mountains and lakes.

Mount Cook Visitor Centre

Silver Beech and ferns, Mount Cook village.

Lake Pukaki

Oamuru to Omarama

Highway 83, Oamuru to Omarama. We drove in to Oamuru for breakfast and ended up staying all morning because it is such an interesting town. A lot of the buildings have been constructed using a local limestone and they look beautiful and many of the local businesses have embraced the 'olden days' theme and decorated accordingly.  I would love to spend a few days there rather than a few hours.

But we had to move on. We drove west and followed the Waitaki River upstream. The icy blue colour of water from a glacier is amazing and we oohed and aahed at every turn. There are several big dams on the river with power generators but because of the high rainfall this month the dams are full and the overflows were raging torrents.

Kurow Island

Lake Waitaki

Lake Aviemore

Waitaki River

Lake Aviemore

Moeraki Boulders

Sea Lion

We call in to check out any beach or wetland or bush block as we drive north so a short distance can take all day. It's been worth it though because we've seen some wonderful landscapes and our bird list is growing every day.

At Waikouaiti beach we saw a black rock about a kilometre along the sandy beach but then the rock lifted its head! So we walked along to check it out but kept our distance - Sea Lions can be dangerous. Another bonus on the walk was seeing Gannets diving into the surf only a few metres off shore. (Unfortunately it wasn't until I looked at a map later that I saw that there is a Lagoon Walkway in the town. Oops. Missed that.)

Australasian Gannet

Gannets loafing on the water.

Then we moved north to see some more blobs on the beach, this time they were rocks. The Moeraki Boulders are spectacular and geologically very interesting because they were formed underwater in marine mud.

Moeraki Boulders

Tourists posing.

Orokonui Ecosanctuary

Just north of Dunedin is Orokonui Ecosanctuary. A predator fence surrounds 307 hectares and pests have been removed and the reserve is continually monitored just in case a few sneak in. Volunteers help with planting, weed removal and maintenance and rare species of plants and animals have been introduced.

Orokonui Ecosanctuary

The cafe and information centre made from shipping containers.

Walking track lined with many species of ferns.

We slowly walked for several hours on tracks through the forest with fern understory and several open areas with grasses and tussocks. There are feeding stations for birds in several places. It's an amazing experience and we only saw a fraction of the property.

We were delighted to find a notoriously shy Fernbird family and watched the parents feeding a young family with a moth, a caterpillar and a spider. And it was a real pleasure to see the Tui and the Bellbird up close on a feeding station. These two birds in particular have provided a sound backdrop to our travels in the south island. Both are in the honeyeater family.

Bellbird

Tui

Fuschia Tree, the world's largest fuschia.

At the sanctuary they have built a rocky enclosure for the Otago skink and another one for the Tuatara, an ancient reptile related to lizards and snakes, and we were lucky to find both species basking in the warmth of the rocks.

Tuatara

Otaga Skink

I was delighted to find three species of orchids, some Greenhoods, tiny bird orchids and a white finger orchid.

Bird Orchid Simpliglottis cornuta

White finger orchid

White finger orchid

Greenhoods

Greenhoods

Orokonui is the type of place you could visit many times at different times of the year and still find something new.