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New Zealand
5th November - 4th December 2005
Stewart Island
White-capped Albatross (Thalassarche [cauta] steadi)
The cold, windy weather I'd experienced up at Dunedin continued on Stewart Island. The crossing over the Foveaux Straits was extremely rough with pretty mountainous seas. On the plus side this meant that the albatrosses were coming quite close to shore at Acker's Point and there was a constant stream of them going back and forth for the 3 hours I stayed out there. Unfortunately, I didn't spot any Buller's Albatrosses among them. Little Blue Penguins were common on the sea here (especially in the evenings as they start to gather offshore before returning to their burrows after dark) and I also had reasonably good views of a Fiordland Crested Penguin (the only one I saw on the trip). Unfortunately, it kept diving before I could get the camera on it.
Acker's Point is on the south side of Halfmoon Bay and is accessed by walking along the coast road from Oban then following the signed track from the end of the road.
White-capped Albatross (Thalassarche [cauta] steadi)
Albatross are extremely effortless flyers and are a real joy to watch. One of them even soared past preening in mid air!
White-capped Albatross (Thalassarche [cauta] steadi)
The weather got even worse over the first night I stayed, with constant torrential rain, meaning the Kiwi trip I was booked on was cancelled. Thankfully the wind had dropped by the following evening, but despite a long search none of the Kiwis seemed to be coming down to the beach that night so all we got were rather poor views of a couple of Kiwis running away from us along the forest track. The Kiwi trips are run by Phillip Smith (e-mail) and give you the easiest chance of seeing the Tokoeka (Stewart Island Brown Kiwi), unless you have the time to take a trek out to Mason Bay where you may get really lucky and see one during daylight hours.
Kaka (Nestor meridionalis)
Kaka are very common around the township of Oban but, since it was so wet and the light so appallingly bad most of the time, I found it very difficult to get any decent photos.
Kaka (Nestor meridionalis) |
 Fern Valley |
Lesser Redpoll (an introduced species from Britain) were common, around Oban. This female was photographed on the grass outside the chip shop in one of the rare sunny periods during my 3 day stay on Stewart Island.
Lesser Redpoll (Carduelis cabaret)
Silvereye were also common.
Silvereye (Zosterops lateralis )
Silvereye (Zosterops lateralis )
Stewart Island Shags are only found on Stewart Island and the south-east of South Island. The total population is less than 2000 pairs.
 Steward Island Shag (Phalacrocorax chalconotus) |
 Variable Oystercatcher (Haematopus unicolor) |
Variable Oystercatchers appeared to be much tamer than the ones I had seen on North and South Islands, and were very approachable. All the individuals I saw on Stewart and Ulva Islands were of the completely black colour morph.
Variable Oystercatcher (Haematopus unicolor)
Variable Oystercatcher (Haematopus unicolor)
| Nugget Point |  |
New Zealand map |  |
Ulva Island |
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