While Mom and Sarah were finishing up getting ready, I went back out to the fog-shrouded Purple Swamphen field behind our cabin for the last time. Besides the fifty or so Purple Swamphens that are always there, the two Paradise Shelducks were very close to the path, allowing me to get rather good photographs of them. Fantails were flitting among the Eucalyptus trees as Common Blackbirds and Song Thrushes dodged about on the field. The prettiest bird in the field was a single male California Quail running among the Song Thrushes.
I went back into the cabin and helped pack the car. As Mom took her shower, I headed over to reception to drop the Okarito brochure off. In the hedge next to the building was a Gray Gerygone, which I watched for two minutes. Dad then pulled up in the car, with Mom and Sarah already sitting in it, just as Don entered the reception. We bid farewell to him and then headed out on our drive.
The first hour of the drive was pretty much the same as the drive from Nelson to Abel Tasman, through vineyards and sheep fields. After this hour, the vineyards slowly vanished, leaving just huge tracts of fields on each side of the road for another hour and a half. These fields each had large numbers of Purple Swamphens, a pair of Paradise Shelducks or two, and from two to ten Spur-winged Plovers. As soon as the vineyards went away, a Yellowhammer flew alongside the car for a second. A little while after that, we drove up through a small pine forest and over a small pass, and, on the other side, crisp black and white Australasian Magpies started appearing in the fields. The only other new bird during the drive to Westport was a single Pacific Reef Heron hunting up on one of the hillsides.
As we drove down the winding mountain road towards Westport, we stopped off at the Buller River Gorge swing bridge, a 110 meter swing bridge, the longest in New Zealand. We walked over the bridge among the ringing calls of Bellbirds, and I saw two Common Chaffinches in the rainforest canopy; these were my first two birds for the West Coast.
Continuing down the serpentine road, Dad yelled “Brown duck!!” as we went around a turn. Because of how quickly we were going, I had no chance to see what Dad had pointed at. Twenty minutes later, we had reached Westport and continued on to Cape Foulwind and the New Zealand Fur Seal colony there. Along the road Dad saw another of his “brown ducks,” but I got to see it too this time. It was a Weka, a flightless endemic of New Zealand. We saw two more on the drive out to the walk and several more while walking to the seal colony and later on to Pancake Rocks.
When we pulled up at the seal colony walk, the parking lot was overlooking a beach with two flocks of white birds on it. The first was a group Red-billed Gulls with a couple of Kelp Gulls, while the second consisted of around thirty White-fronted Terns.
White-fronted Tern Flock
We walked out to the seal colony; saw at least thirty seals, along with Kelp Gulls, Red-billed Gulls, and White-fronted Terns; and then drove on towards Franz Josef. We got gas in Greymouth, stopped to view the Pancake Rocks and saw three or four more Wekas, and then reached Hokitika. In Hokitika is the New Zealand Jade Factory and the National Kiwi Center. We decided to visit both, but see the Kiwis first. For any birder traveling in New Zealand, this stop is a must.
Within the Kiwi center, there are several little indoor exhibits, but the most important one and the one I was focused on is the Kiwi exhibit. This section is separated from the rest of the building, and for the most part plunged into darkness. The only lights are two small lights that show the Kiwis in the enclosure. They are very cool birds, and the woman there has brochures for the Okarito Kiwi Tour, which is a night walk in Okarito that has a “85% chance of seeing a Kiwi.”
We continued driving south to Franz Josef, a drive full of beautiful scenery and two new birds. At one point we passed a pond with Black Swans, Mallards, Purple Swamphens, and two bulky…things. At the next road we turned around and drove back to the pond, discovering that we had discovered another Australian introduction: Cape Barren Goose. The only other birds of the drive were several dozen Black-billed Gulls in a single flock. With the light failing, we drove onwards to Franz Josef and the Genfern Villas, with every new trip bird that day having been a life bird for me.
43. Gray Gerygone – 626
44. Yellowhammer – 627
45. Australasian Magpie – 628
46. Pacific Reef Heron – 629
47. Weka – 630
48. White-fronted Tern – 631
49. Cape Barren Goose – 632
50. Black-billed Gull – 633
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