Page 20 - Dainfern Precinct Living 8 2021

BIRDING
BY RON SEARLE, PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADAM RILEY OF ROCKJUMPER BIRD TOURS AND RON SEARLE
aving just spent two weeks
travelling the length and
Hbreadth of New Zealand’s
South Island, including a three-day
visit to Stewart Island in the deep
south, my family and I arrived in
Wellington with our hired campervan
after a ferry crossing of the Cook
Strait from Picton.
Early the following morning, having
spent the previous night at a motor
park in Paekakariki, we travelled
further north. We stopped at the
Waikanae Estuary hoping for a
sighting of the very rare NZ Brown
Teal, and then at the Waimeha
Lagoon for the Australian Little
Grebe, neither of which obliged – not
an encouraging start for our North
Island birdwatching tour.
To worsen matters, an unseasonal
(November) snowstorm arrived in
the environs of our destination of
Ohakune, where we were to meet the
local guide for an evening excursion
A Birding Trip
to New Zealand
North Eastern Bay, Tiri Tiri
Part 3
into the nearby forested hills on a miserable and icy-cold group that
quest for the North Island Brown Kiwi. eventually emerged from the forest
This resulted in the cancellation of two and a half hours later, having
this anticipated outing. The final straw ‘dipped’ (missed) again with not even
was, (despite sightings of the North a chirp from our quarry. Thawing
Island Robin and party of chattering out in miraculous sunshine, we then
Whiteheads), our utter failure during decided, in a last-minute bid to find
a walk in the Mapara Forest to secure our target bird, to visit the nearby
a sighting of the rare Kokako, a bird Information Centre at Pureora in
about the size and colour of the case they could direct us to a site in
African Grey Go-away-bird. the forest.
Stopping our camper at the
side of a deserted road for an
overnight stay, we were lulled
to sleep by the organ-like call
of, you guessed it, the Kokako,
closing a day to be forgotten of
long travel and unsuccessful
birding.
Undaunted by the events of the
previous day and encouraged by
the calls in the night, we were up
and ready to go at the crack of
dawn for a walk into the forest in
pursuit of the esteemed Kokako.
Still, it was a totally disheartened, North Island Robin (AR)
2 18
DPL