We were up early and away, stopping at a bakery to grab some lunch, before heading out of town. We skirted around Lake Hawea and then made a stop in the lovely early morning light to look for falcon. Well no falcon, but we did have some lovely scenery to look at and a few common species to keep us occupied.
We carried on passing Lake Wanaka again and heading towards the West Coast. Another scenic stop before a stop in the forest to walk a trail through some spectacular beech forest, with mosses galore and some nice birds. We had good views of rifleman, and a family of yellowhead feeding two newly fledged chicks, plus heard yellow-crowned parakeet and tomtit. Was lovely to walk through this beautiful forest and the sun was shining.
We headed on along the road, enjoying the stunning scenery and taking it all in. We made a stop at Haast township, where Sav had found a falcon chasing birds just a couple of days earlier, but nothing seen. So we carried on our to Jackson Bay and enjoyed more beautiful scenery and managed to get great views of South Island tomtit. We also scanned from a small beach and located at least a couple of Hector’s dolphins out in the surf, so nice to see these little guys a little bit closer. We carried on up the coast, carefully searching for falcon along the way, but nothing seen. The weather continued to be stunning and as we pulled into our Motel in Fox Glacier it was the start of a beautiful evening. The views from the motel were pretty special, so we took photos of Tasman and Cook looming above us. Then we headed to a spot with equally stunning views, looked for falcon as this was a site where we had seen them in the past, and then had dinner with the mountains as a backdrop. Gorgeous as the sun got lower! What a great day on the often wet, West Coast!
 |
| The coast, the mountains, the sky |
 |
| Mt Tasman on the left, Mount Cook (Aoraki) on the right |
 |
| Tasman and Cook (Aoraki) |
 |
| The photographers |
 |
| A spectacular evening on the West Coast |
No comments:
Post a Comment