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On My Own - Australia and New Zealand 2002 Emmalee Tarry |
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Rangitoto - A Volcanic Island in the Hauraki Gulf
On a beautiful Sunday morning I took a boat trip to the volcanic island Rangitoto in the Hauraki Gulf. There were many sailers and kayakers enjoying the harbor. The ferry makes one stop at Devonport to pick up and drop off passengers.
The Maori were here to see the last eruption of Ragitoto 600 years ago. The island is a popular recreational area for day trippers and people with vacation homes. The vegetation and bird life of the island have been terribly disrupted and the contrast with Tiritiri was very evident. NZ$44 gets you the ferry trip and a ride on the tram to the 800m boardwalk to the summit. At the top you can look into the crater of the volcano and enjoy a beautiful view of Auckland.
At the summit I met a man with Zeiss Binoculars, the international symbol of a birder. He said he had lived in Europe for the past 30 years and just returned to New Zealand to retire. He was happy to tell me that two years ago he had been in Boston in May and had birded at Mt. Auburn cemetery. He mentioned that the birders there were very friendly and helped him identify the birds. He called it the best birding day of his life. Boston birders have world wide reputation.
There is a large breeding colony of Black-backed Gulls on the island. I also saw Tui . An eradication program is underway to remove the introduced Brush-tailed Possum and other predators that have cause much damage to the native plants and animals. As the owners die off, the vacation homes too will be removed making the island a park for all the people.
.Cook Strait
I took the night train from Auckland to Wellington. This seemed like a good idea at the time since I saved money by sleeping on the train and did not have to rent a car until I got to South Island. The cost was NZ$125 and included a ticket for the Cook Strait ferry. The train does not have sleeper cars and I spent a fitful night in a reclining airplane seat. The train makes many stops, but everyone going all the way to Wellington is seated in the last car and the conductor does not waken people in this car.
This was my first big mistake. Some time during the night I passed Miranda and about 2,000 wintering Wrybills. When I later visited Miranda in December most of the Wrybills had departed for the breeding grounds and there were only 30 left. I was very lucky to see one. You can drive from Auckland to Miranda in about 2 hours. All the rental car companies facilitate dropping off a car on either side of the strait and picking up another on the other side. See New Zealand Rental Cars.. You can stay at the Miranda Shorebird Center. See the chapter on north island.
In Wellington a bus took me from the train station to the ferry terminal. The Lynx Ferry to Picton on the south island was a big disappointment. This is a huge car ferry with many passengers, gambling, restaurants, and blaring television sets. There was only one very small rear facing outside deck that was populated with smokers. I was forced to stand at the front windows of the lounge. I saw many flocks of Fluttering Shearwaters. There were 7 Albatross (sp) all of which seemed to be the smaller Mollymawks. I also saw:Cape Petrels, Australian Gannets, and Common Diving Petrel.
At Picton on the south island I rented a Budget Rental car at the ferry terminal and arrived in Kaikoura about 3 PM. This was my first time to drive on left side of the road and I drove very slowly and carefully. I was also adjusting to the narrow 2-lane highway with the very narrow one-lane bridges. Fortunately I rented a car with automatic shift for this first trip.
On arriving in Kaikoura, I went to Albatross Encounters to arrange for the pelagic trips and then registered at the YHA hostel. I stayed here 5 nights on the June (winter) trip. I returned to Kaikoura in November and spent another 3 nights taking two more trips with Albatross Encounters and doing the Swim with Dolphins. This chapter describes both visits.
The reason I started this trip in New Zealand was to take the Kaikoura Pelagic trip in the winter. All but four species of Albatross breed in the southern hemisphere during the astral summer September - April. They spend the winter months at sea feeding and this is the best time to see them at Kaikoura and off Wollongong. My plan was to do Kaikoura in June and then fly on to Australia to pick up the July Sydney and Wollongong pelagic trips. I would return to the south island of New Zealand in November to tour the rest of the island and then return to tour the north island before my December 17 return to the US.
Albatross Encounters
Albatross Encounters formerly known as Ocean Wings operates daily boat cruises from the coast of Kaikoura to see the pelagic birds. You will find the booking office on the main street of Kaikoura sharing space with Dolphin Encounters. They have two trips a day in winter and three in summer, but they cancel trips if they do not have at least 2 participants. The reason they can offer so many trips is that their appeal is more general than just pelagic birders.
Go to the booking office upon arrival and book your trips. Trips last 2 ½ ¡to 3 hours. The cost is NZ$60 per person. Ask to view the beautiful film by Dennis Buurman on the birds, whales, and dolphins of the area . The cost is a modest NZ$3 . Also check out their books sales. This was the only place I was able to buy the New Zealand Birding Directory.
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This is the smallest boat used by Albatross Encounters. They
pull the boat up the ramp at the end of each trip. Passenger get on and off the
boat on the land. This boat can take 10 passenger, but 4 seems more reasonable.
Group trips may use one of the larger boats normally used for the swim with
dolphins program.
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I arrived in Kaikoura during a spell of very good weather. However, it was winter (June) and a slow tourist season so Albatross Encounters did not have many customers. Dennis Buurman, one of the owners and an excellent photographer was planning a special trip and invited me to come along. Usually trips are 2-3 hours in length, but he planned to spend all day on the water. I met him at 7:30 AM the next morning at South Bay.
On this trip we were looking for photo opportunities and did more searching than usual. Kaikoura is a great pelagic location because the edge of the continental shelf is only 1.5 miles offshore and a deep canyon (1600 meets deep ) runs into Goose Bay.
Hutton's Shearwater
We were barely away from the dock when we saw a flock of 20 Hutton's Shearwaters on the water. The only known breeding location of this small shearwater which looks like our Manx Shearwater is on the mountains behind Kaikoura. It is very common here, but very skittish and not attracted to the chum or the boat. While I saw hundred of Hutton's Shearwaters I never did get a good picture of one.
Hutton's Shearwater is very similar to the smaller Fluttering Shearwater which is much more common around Auckland and in Cook's Strait. Separating Huttons from Fluttering at sea is difficult unless you are very experienced. We did have one Fluttering on the water at Kaikoura.
| Chum Basket Dennis uses a frozen block of fish guts which he puts in a wire basket with attached floats and drops off the back of the boat. Within seconds we attracted a chattering flock of Cape Pigeons. In the photo to the right you can see the wire basket. The Cape Pigeon used to be called the Pintado Petrel. Two subspecies have been identified. Most of the Kaikoura birds are the Snares subspecies. On one of the summer trips we had a Southern Cape Pigeon which has much more white on the wings. |
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