New Zealand

5th November - 4th December 2005

Introduction

If you are planning on visiting New Zealand and want to see as much of the endemic wildlife as possible, I would recommend spending at least a month on your tour. The distances involved and the slow, twisty nature of the roads means that a large amount of your time will be spent driving between places. I had tried to plan as efficient a route as possible, but still ended up driving about 7000km in my circumnavigation of both islands. Despite the often rushed nature of my tour, I managed to see all bar one of the endemic landbirds, including 4 species of Kiwi, and most of the numerous seabirds that are present in New Zealand waters in early summer. I even managed to get decent photographs of most of them...

Below is a clickable map of all the places I visited on this trip. Each link will take you to a page outlining the key points of interest and illustrated with photos taken at that location. Some places were obviously better than others and this is reflected in the number of photos on each page.

North Island 1. Muriwai Beach 2. Trounson Forest Park 3. Hauraki Gulf 4. Tiritiri Matangi Island 5. Miranda 6. Rotorua 7. Urewera National Park 8. Pureora Forest Park 9. Ruatiti South Island 10. Queen Charlotte Sound 11. Kaikoura 12. St. Anne's Lagoon 13. MacKenzie Basin & Mount Cook 14. Taiaroa Head 15. Nugget Point 16. Stewart Island 17. Ulva Island 18. Eglington Valley 19. Homer Tunnel 20. Milford Sound 21. Fox & Franz Josef Glaciers 22. Paparoa National Park