During my recent tour of New Zealand I had been particularly keen to see New Zealand Falcons, partly because I love birds of prey, but also because I’d failed to connect on my previous visit.
Almost half way through our three-week tour we reached Wanaka and we still had not found a falcon. We called at the local D.O.C. tourist office and they suggested a location where there had been recent sightings so, that evening, we set out to a locality near the Hawea River. Our instructions involved a 3km walk out to a site from the local campground. My mate Ian had a foot injury so we gave him a stick to bite on as we toiled toward our suggested location. 2 Hours and 6km later, in failing light, we had singularly failed to find any falcons and I...
I love my encounters with nature, from the small scale and regular to the big ticket events. Some days stand out for a particular moment, some for the variety of encounters and then you get those rare days when it all comes together. Such was my much anticipated pelagic trip into the Hauraki Gulf with Pterodrdoma Pelagics led by Chris Gaskin.
A ten hour pelagic on a relatively small vessel is a daunting prospect, especially if you are a martyr to sea-sickness, thankfully I had taken the magical Kaikoura Cracker and the benign conditions ensured a comfortable trip. The main danger was sunburn.
We had barely left the harbour at Sandspit when we got out first close look at a Little Blue Penguin. However we couldn’t linger, the pl...