Jim Scarff
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South Island ▷ Stewart Island ▷ Halfmoon Bay ▷
Ruggedy Range Wilderness Experience
Furhana and Raggedy Range were terrific.
They arranged a 2+ day trip to Stewart Island - ferry, lodging & tours. I did a 1/2 day Ulva Island birdwatching tour, and two half day pelagic birding trips.
Furhana has an exceptionally broad knowledge of local natural history and cultural history of the area, and combines enthusiasm with a rare ability to communicate with people on her tour.
I want to make a big pitch for their pelagic birdwatching tours. These are not emphasized on their website, but are extraordinarily good, certainly as good as trips out of Kaikoura. We had dozens of Buller's White-capped and Royal albatross, penguins, and petrels close to the boat. Photos of the seabirds at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimscarff/sets/72157623473187159/ For folks with even a slight interest in sea birds, you need to go on this; for those keenly interested, you will be thrilled.
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South Island ▷ West Coast ▷ Okarito ▷
Okarito Kiwi Tours
As one who has led many wildlife tours, I was impressed by Ian’s and Paul’s ability to find kiwis, and to communicate what is so special about the Okarito kiwi.
Minimal-impact close observation of wildlife, particularly when the life histories of individual animals is known, is a catalyst in changing generic concern for endangered species into a personal commitment to work for their preservation. I also saw Kiwis in captivity at several wildlife parks and on Steward Island. All were good, but Okarito Kiwi tours was the highlight of my four weeks in NZ.
My guide, Paul, knows many natural history subjects well, is highly skilled at field work, and is very enthusiastic. The night’s highlights:
9.55 Joline stomped out of the brush onto the track < 5 meters away, probing with her bill, paying no mind to us. She wandered slowly in our direction nearly stepping on my boots, walked a couple of meters, paused, as if remembering some meeting, and trotted off down the track, unaffected by our presence.
10.17 BZ came out his burrow; Paul shined a flashlight w/ a red filter on BZ just as he let out an amazingly loud call, his whole body shaking with the effort. (very rare sighting)
10.17 BQ called, then a few seconds later BQ answered (out of view) - equally loud, but different. BQ came out onto the track near us, and trundled off down the road in the most ungainly, uncoordinated, lop-sided canter I have ever seen.]
10.25 BQ came out less than 5 meters away from where we were standing, and paying no attention to us, trotted off down the track in the same direction BZ had gone.
10.45 Joline called (not seen) Later we came upon yet another, unidentified kiwi feeding at the edge of the track about two meters away from a brush-tailed possum which was also feeding. Although they were physically close to each other, and no doubt aware of each other's presence, we saw no interaction. Morepork (owl) were calling around us.
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South Island ▷ Kaikoura Region ▷ Kaikoura ▷
Albatross Encounter Kaikoura
I did two trips with Albatross Encounter.
They were fabulous. We had 6 species of albatross next to the boat, lots of shearwaters, both species of Giant Petrels, Westland and White-chinned Petrels, and even a Fairy Prion (They have records of their sightings by species on their informative website.
Gary was our guide and his knowledge and enthusiasm were terrific. All the others on my two cruises also had a terrific times. It was far more fun and interesting than the whale-watch boat trips (which I also did) and yields vastly better views of birds.
Photos from my trips at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimscarff/sets/72157623547666660/