Having reserved a spot on the evening’s Kiwi tour with the registration desk, we started off the day by going up to the Franz Josef Glacier. We drove up and parked in the car park for the hikes in the area, and I got out with binoculars ready. The first bird I saw was a Dunnock singing from a nearby tree. I watched it for a moment, turned around, and started. In the moment that I had been looking away, a Kea had come down and landed on the car next to ours, which had a ski rack on top. It was quite content to chew on the rubber window seals and plastic ski bindings as I snapped several pictures of it. Just as we were about to leave, however, it gave a loud, keening cry that bounced back and forth across the valley, causing Mom to duck and Sarah to start in surprise. As I watched, another Kea came circling down from above, showing off its red underwings and calling back to the one on the car. We headed off on the hike.
Kea on car
Our hike through the rainforest ended at sentinel rock, with a platform overlooking Franz Josef Glacier and another Kea sitting on the rail. I got several more pictures of this one and then we headed back down to the car, this time devoid of inquisitive Kea. As we emerged from the rainforest, a male Tomtit flew out onto the end of a Fern Tree and sat there as I took its picture, then flitted away. It was the first male I had seen, and what a beautiful bird!
We then drove over to Fox Glacier, half an hour south of Franz Josef. Here, all the trails were flooded, so we could only walk up to a little knoll overlooking the terminus of the glacier. More Tomtits were flitting about in the trees, and a lake just south of the knoll contained around twenty Paradise Shelducks, the first time I had seen them outside of a wet field. On the drive back down the south bank access road, Dad dropped me and Mom off at the bridge hike that would take us across the river to meet him and Sarah on the north bank access road. The hike started off across a wodden swing bridge and then took fifteen minutes or so through a beautiful lush rainforest. As we walked, small flocks of Silvereyes and Pipipis, or New Zealand Brown Creepers, flew back and forth in the canopy.
We met Dad and Sarah in the parking lot on the north access road, and then headed off on an hour and a half hike to an overlook for Fox Glacier. Due to swollen rivers from recent rains, we had to turn back after only half an hour, and did not get a good view. I’m happy with this, however, because it paid off when we went down to Lake Matheson.
On the drive to Lake Matheson, we passed through waterlogged fields holding the usual Spur-winged Plovers, Purple Swamphens, and Paradise Shelducks. One small pond held a new West Coast bird, however, a White-headed Stilt. We reached Lake Matheson and started off on the trail, but Sarah had left her rain coat and fleece in the car. Just as Mom was about to turn back, Dad saw a “Green-backed parakeet,” as he put it, fly across the trail. Mom went back to the car, Sarah and Dad stayed at the trail, and I dove into the bush in search of the parakeet. It was calling right in front of me, so I moved forwards. It stopped, I moved backwards. It started calling again, I moved forwards. It stopped, and I pulled aside the branch in front of me, giving me and unobscured view of a beautiful Yellow-crowned Parakeet.
Yellow-crowned Parakeet
The only other birds on the hike around the lake were a few Mallards, three Tomtits, and a dozen Common Blackbirds. We drove back to the Glenfern Villas in Franz Josef Glacier only to find out that the Okarito Kiwi Tour for the evening had been cancelled due to rain and that the “White Heron” tours were also closed because of the aforementioned rain. Instead, we ate at a restaurant, The Landing, for the first time since arriving in New Zealand and visited the Glacier Hot Springs, where we soaked for a half hour in 36ºC, 38ºC, and 40ºC water. We returned to the villa with a long drive, from Franz Josef to Te Anau, in store tomorrow. The upsides are a shot at Fiordland Crested Penguins and driving through a new region, Otago, and into another, Southland.
51. Dunnock
52. Kea – 634
53. Pipipi – 635
54. Yellow-crowned Parakeet – 636
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