I am loathe to use the word 'awesome' but today has definitely been an awesome day. We woke up to a glorious morning, wall to wall blue sky and sunshine. The dawn colours were amazing:
We were booked to go on the 'Paterson Inlet Cruise' during the afternoon so spent time until then strolling around the Halfmoon Bay area. We walked the short distance to the next little bay called Bathing Bay, and it really did give one the urge to don a cossie and brave the water:
We boarded the boat at the wharf at 12.30 and set off across to Ulva Island. On the way over we were lucky enough to see the tiny Little Blue Penguins, which are hardly bigger than your average seabirds, and White-capped Albatross which were really big.
Ulva Island is the largest of several islands in the Paterson Inlet and is a place where native plants and birds can live in a safe environment.
We had a walk, led by a nature guide, through the pristine native bush where we saw many interesting birds including the Stewart Island robin, the New Zealand wood pigeon, kakas, and a rare viewing of a saddleback. (This pic is the best I could do I'm afraid).
We then cruised the Inlet and were able to see lovely little deserted beaches and coves only accessible by sea. A very interesting afternoon.
During the morning we heard of a night time cruise to another part of the island for kiwi spotting. We went to the Information Centre to book it but were told the trip depended on numbers - a minimum of 5 were needed and, at that time we were the only two who had confirmed although there were another two who could be interested. We were asked to return at 6.15 to see if the trip was on or not. So we were on tenderhooks all day waiting to find out. Seeing a kiwi in it's natural surroundings was something I really wanted to do. Anyway, the gods were with us as the other two confirmed and the skipper said that as we had been patient enough to wait all day he would go with just 4 people.
So we set off from the wharf at 8pm and motored at speed for about half an hour to where the the kiwis are usually seen. By the time we got there it was completely dark and we set off with a torch each, following a guide through the bush. Never was I so pleased that there are no snakes in New Zealand! We couldn't see a thing except the pool of light from the torches guiding our way along the rough path. After about half an hour's walk we came to Ocean Beach where the kiwis come out of the bush at night to feed on sand hoppers. And ..... we saw FOUR! Well, it may have been three as we saw a male (which is smaller and has a shorter beak than the female), a chick and two females but it could be that we saw the same female twice. It was such a thrill to see these rare and elusive native New Zealand flightless birds. That trip was almost worth coming to New Zealand for even if I didn't see or do anything else! We walked the length of the beach and back being plagued by millions of sand flies and sand hoppers and it also started to rain slightly, but that didn't matter at all!
Unfortunately I couldn't take any photos as only the guide's torch was used so as not to frighten them away, and it was too dark for photography. Believe me, I did try - on just about every camera setting I had - but ended up with about 25 plain black photos!
Finally, here is a photo of the sunset we experienced on the way to the kiwi beach. A glorious ending to a glorious day.
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