To The Southern North Island

We got a very early start on Saturday. We left Wild Days at 6am to catch the 7am ferry. The ferry dock is only five minutes away. Either we misunderstood or were misinformed that you had to arrive that early. It may be true for the later ferries, but we were the only ones there when we arrived. Fortunately, the man running the coffee kiosk arrived son after. It took him awhile, but a couple of good cups made the waiting easier.

The ferry left on time and we were in Half Moon Bay in no time. After another coffe stop, we set up the iPad as a GPS using Google Maps to direct us to Te Awamutu. We checked into the Rosetown Motel and then headed off to Sanctuary Mountain Maugatautari ecological reserve. We arrived at 12:30, with plenty of time to look around before the 1:30pm tour.

The reserve is the only mainland predator-free area in the country. It is a forested mountain surrounded by a 47km long predator-proof fence. It took several years after building the fence to eliminate all of the invasive mammals. 

It is a mature forest of Rimu, Tawa and Rata as well as innumerable bushes and ferns and epiphytes. It is a near an original forest as anywhere on the North Island. It is now home to many of the rare bird species including Northern Brown Kiwi, Kaka, Stitchbird, Takahe, Kokako and Rifleman. We only saw a loud group of Kaka, a large brown parrot, but we also saw North Island Robins and a Tomtit, also lige birds.

After our walk in the woods, it was back to the motel for yet another takeaway dinner and complete collaple.

Today we made an early start on our way to Kapiti Beach for our trip to Kapiti Island tomorrow. It was a very long drive right down the middle of the North Island. We left about 7am and arrived at 5pm. We did make a stop at the Manawatu estuary. It is one of the best spots for shorebirds, but not today. I was hoping to see Bar-tailed Godwits. They are a shorebird that flies nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand. I don’t know if it was the wrong tide or they were just elsewhere today, but the only shorebirds were Pied Stilts, stll a good find and a life bird. We also saw Pied Cormorants, another new species, as well as Caspian Terns and lots of gulls.

We then got back on SH1 and ran into about two hours of heavy traffic all the way to Paraparaumu and Elliott’s Kapiti Coast Motor Lodge where we will be for the next two nights. After a good dinner at the local trattoria a block, it was time to collapse again, with just enough energy to write this.

Sorry, no photos yet.