Travel Blog

We went back to Tawharanui and hiked all over the place. And, as spectacular as was the scenery, with the wind-whipped ocean a deep turquoise, the hills bright spring green and the forests a deep Winsor green, the highlight of the day was the birds.

We did a fair amount of walking, part of it out on pastures in the 25-30 knot wind (well bundled up), and part of it in bush. The forest near the point is a very young monoculture of ti trees (rather boring, yet affording shelter from the gale), but the forest in the creek valley is wonderfully rich and diverse. We saw great vistas of rugged sea stacks, we lunched while watching gannets, and we dawdled back along the creek, binoculars at the ready .

Tawharanui is a great place to see birds. A peninsula, it has been fenced off from the mainland, and all of the invasive predators - rats, stoats, etc. - have been trapped and eliminated. Several almost extinct bird species have been re-introduced and are now thriving. Many cannot survive outside of the park. They leave, they die; it's that simple.

We had the great pleasure of hearing and seeing quite a few of these rare specimens. We even saw the two native species of parrot, one big, and brown, the other eye-catchingly colourful. A visiting birder (the only other person we met all day) explained some of the programs and tried to lure in the elusive and very rare robin. (No luck, though there are several nesting pairs in the park.)

On the way back to the car, I sat on the beach and did a quick sketch. It may have been a great day for birding, but it wasn't quite as good for painting... Oh well, all in all, it was a great outing!

Tawharanui Beach

The one downside of the day? We were having such a great time that we didn't start home until after 4:00 pm, and by then the gelato place was closed!