Birding On My Own - Australia and New Zealand 2002
Emmalee Tarry

North Island

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Rotorua

The Rotorua area is very similar to Yellowstone National Park in the United States. The day I left Taupo it started to rain and continued raining for several days. I stayed at the YHA in Rotorua for three nights and toured 4 geothermal areas all of which charged a fee. The YHA here is large and nice with separate facilities and rooms for men and women. There is a park next to the YHA that has active geysers. If you are bothered by the cost of the tours, you can see geysers in the park for nothing.

OraKei Korako ( NZ$15 ) starts with a short boat trip across the lake to a self-guided walk through the geyser area. Diamond Geyser was erupting at 9 AM and continued erupting the whole 90 minutes I was there. There are several small geysers, soda pools and mud volcanoes. The self-guided track was almost deserted in the rain and I enjoyed the solitary tour.

Wai-O-Tapu is a very large geothermal area also with a self-guided tour. On a large salt flat area a Pied Stilt was raising 3 fluffy babies. Highlight of this area is the pink edged turquoise blue Champagne Pool.

The next day I went to the Whakarewarewa Geothermal and Maori Cultural Center in Rotorura. This had an entrance fee which I failed to record and was very crowded. The Maori cultural center was very disappointing and the guides were rude. They do have a Brown Kiwi House here.

The best of the geothermal areas was at Waimangu. It is also the most expensive at NZ$45 which includes a boat trip on the lake. You start at the top of a large hill and walk downhill looking at the geothermal attractions. It rained off and on the entire day and there were very few people here.

At the lake at the bottom of the hill were New Zealand Dabchicks the only time I had them on the trip.

Also Black Swans, Black-billed Gulls, Little Black Cormorant, Grey Teal, Pied Stilt, Kingfisher, and White-faced Heron. A bus takes you back up the hill to the parking area.

There is a large park on the lake at Rotorua. At Sulfur Point there were many birds including many Black Swans, Cormorants, and gulls.

Both Red-billed and Black-billed Gulls can be found on the lake at Rotarua. You have to be careful because immature Red-billed Gulls have black bills. I believe the gull in the back to be a Black-billed Gull

In the lake park rose garden, I met a family of four from Yellow Knife, Canada. They recognized my Bathurst Inlet cap from on my trip with Bill Drummond. The father works for a company that provides equipment for the diamond mine north of Yellow Knife which I remember flying over on the way to Bathurst Inlet. He is here in New Zealand on business. Are they finding diamonds here? One of the girls is very interested in dolphins and whales. I was telling them about Kaikoura and the whale watch which costs a healthy NZ$110 per person. Unfortunately they probably will not be able to afford the trip for 4 people. The Canadian dollars is about on par with the New Zealand dollar.

North Island

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