Rock and roll and stormy-petrels

Well when you wake up to pouring rain at 0430, that is a guides nightmare, especially the night before a key pelagic trip.  Getting up to rain still falling and pretty breezy conditions isn’t any better, but we headed off to get lunch and then off to the boat.  With most of the rain having stopped, but a stiff breeze still going, we spotted some buff-banded rails on the way to the wharf, and then boarded the boat.

We headed out through the channel and then out past Kawau Island.  Not bad conditions in these enclosed waters, and several little penguins showed themselves well.  But as we neared the open sea it was pretty clear this was going to be a little lumpy, and breaking out into the open water, a little spray started to fly!  We all gathered in the cabin, and headed out to the west of Little Barrier Island, bracing ourselves as the boat bucked and slammed on some of the waves.  As we were headed out, you could see the wind suddenly shift, and from a NW it turned suddenly to a SW.  And it didn’t take long for the chop and swells to shift as well, so the ride got a little more comfortable…only problem was knowing that on the way back in, that swell was again going to be against us.

We started to see lots of white-faced storm-petrels, common diving-petrels, and a few Cook’s petrels and Buller’s shearwaters.  Birds zipped past us in the high winds, but we pressed on, attracting a small pod of common dolphins who surfed in our wake for a little while.

We kept punching along, and finally got to a spot we felt would work in our favour, without putting us too far out from the calm harbour from which we had come.  Everyone was putting on a brave face, even in the face of some rather green complexions, and the cameras were out as we set the sea-anchor.  Brett our awesome skipper was chumming like mad before long, and streams of birds were coming in.  We literally had hundreds of Cook’s petrels descend on us, as numbers of flesh-footed and Buller’s shearwaters increased, and then a few black-petrels.  White-faced storm-petrels were also catching the scent of the chum and were feeding well around the slick, and after perhaps 35 minutes our first NZ storm-petrel came gliding over the waves – yes!  The birds kept coming, the the chum kept flying, and everyone was treated to outstanding views of all of the expected species.  An Arctic skua even came in and chased a couple of red-billed gulls around quickly, and then several – perhaps at least 5 – white-capped and a single Salvin’s albatross came in, with at least three northern giant petrels.  A single sooty shearwater capped things off, flying through briefly.  Awesome views of everything, and as the wind slowly increased and the waves started to build, we decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and headed for home.

Punching back into the sea, we spotted many of the same birds, and at one point decided to slow so we could get good views of hundreds of common diving-petrels feeding on something near the surface, with hundreds of white-faced storm-petrels.

Getting back into the shelter of Kawau, people started to liven up, and lunches came out as a small pod of bottlenosed dolphins came and bow rode and played around us.  We scanned the shoreline for weka, and in one of the sheltered bays spotted three birds which gave great views.  By this time there was a little sunshine, and it was pretty darn pleasant to hang out and see what we could spot.  We then decided to head back into Sandspit, where we had more excellent views of buff-banded rail, even a pair briefly copulating, before then looking for kookaburra unsuccessfully, and getting back to the Motel nice and early, with an early dinner and an early night!

Day total – Seen = 51; new for the trip = 17; total for the trip to date = 80

A day amongst giants and fairies

We were up a little later this morning after our nocturnal activities, and everyone breakfasted and readied themselves for the day.  A shining-bronze cuckoo calling nearby stirred everyone up, and running around the accommodations all were alerted to the bird, which stayed put and was seen well by everyone.

We then headed north towards the beautiful Waipoua Forest, where we wound our way between the kauri trees towards Tane Mahuta, ‘Lord of the Forest’.  We wandered into the cool, mossy forest, along the little boardwalk, and stood in front of this spectacular tree.  There was not a lot of bird action around, but there didn’t need to be.  Standing in awe in front of such a tree was enough.  We snapped a few photos, then headed back out, finding some diminutive greenhood orchids in flower, probably the kauri greenhood (Pterostylis agathicola).  We did hear more shining-bronze cuckoos calling, and spotted a grey warbler, but it was time to head south again.

We headed back through Dargaville and across to a small pond near Waipu.  Pulling up we spotted a pair of New Zealand dabchick on the pond, and then in another spot, a nest with two eggs exposed.  This was strange for a grebe, but within a very short time, an Australasian little grebe snuck into the nest, covered it with weed and then snuck away again – clearly the bird had been off the nest when we arrived, perhaps just nearby, and our arrival caused enough concern to cover the nest.  We had excellent views of the pair of Australasian little grebes coming in to the nest to add extra material, and swimming around, and then departed to let them get back on with incubation.

We grabbed some lunch from a local bakery, again more pie crumbs hitting the floor, before heading to a local spot to look for fairy tern.  With binoculars in hand we sat and ate lunch and then as we were nearing the end a fairy tern in breeding plumage flew across in front of us.  We had good views but wanted more.  We headed out to search, and found some confiding variable oystercatchers, a few distant New Zealand dotterels and a few other bits and pieces, and then the same fairy tern flew right past us and landed nearby!  It bathed for a while and then preened nearby, giving fantastic views of this, New Zealand’s rarest bird.  Just 40 individuals are left of this subspecies.  We soaked it all in, before heading away, seeing another bird fly over the neighbouring fields, obviously heading to another waterway.  That is 2 birds out of 40!  A little way along the road, three cattle egret were a surprise!

We headed south along the coast, making a stop for a very confiding New Zealand dotterel, who allowed a close encounter, and then headed to a local reserve area to see what we could find.  Firstly, a family of mum, dad and four duckling brown teal made a nice appearance, and then some nice confiding Paradise shelducks, pukekos, and our first bellbirds of the trip.  A single kaka flew high overhead, first one way and then back the other…clearly it couldn’t make up its mind!  We then chased around a few kingfishers, Eastern rosellas, and found a confiding New Zealand pigeon feeding on leaves.

However, it was soon time to head to the accommodation, quickly checkin and then head off out for dinner, having worked up a pretty good appetite!

Day total – Seen = 48 + 2 heard (Cook’s petrel, greenfinch); new for the trip = 13; total for the trip to date = 63

The start of the tour

You know it is going to be a great tour when the first things discussed upon meeting in the carpark are “Which Sauvignon Blanc is worth drinking?”, and “When do we get our first pie?”!  We loaded the van, rather poorly as happens the first morning of every 21-day tour, and then headed out into the streets of Auckland.  Navigating through all the early morning traffic we headed to a forested area in the west of the city, managing to spot copious numbers of spotted doves, and even one being hunted by a half-hearted cat that clearly was too well fed to really put any effort into the attempt.

At the forest area we had excellent views of tui and New Zealand pigeon, before a noisy sulphur-crested cockatoo flew over and then showed off perching in some nearby trees.  A calling shining-bronze cuckoo would not oblige us, but good views of grey warbler and tomtit rounded things off.  Introduced California quails, Eastern rosellas, and chaffinches also put in an appearance.

We then headed to a nearby Australasian gannet colony, where there was a little drizzle coming in off the sea every now and then.  But that didn’t dampen the spirits and we had excellent views out over the breeding colony, where clearly many birds had not yet laid their eggs – a little late perhaps this season.  The white-fronted terns appeared to be in full swing however, with many birds having small chicks sheltering beside them at the nest.

We then headed into a bakery to attempt our first assault, and it went smoothly.  I have to say the group managed very well under a barrage of pies, pastries and cappuccinos, and we made our escape intact.  WE headed to a nearby pond to have lunch and managed to find a few waterbirds – including New Zealand scaup, New Zealand grebe, little black and little pied cormorants, and some more confiding fantails.  Next stop was a sewage ponds – it wouldn’t be a birding tour without one – and we managed to find a brown teal, which was rather a surprise.  Canada geese and mallards rounded off a few more introduced birds for the day.

We then gradually headed north to Dargaville, making a couple of unsuccessful stops to search for Australian pelican, before getting to breakfast foods at the supermarket and then heading on northwards to our accommodations.  We checked in and had a little time to relax before dinner and then out looking for Northern brown kiwi.  All was quiet to start with, then morepork started to call and then we heard a few calls from distant kiwi.  Then we spotted a female kiwi, and nearby a male called.  We hoped for her to respond, but she didn’t, however we did have excellent views of her.  We carried on search for banded kokupu in a nearby stream, and long-finned eels, plus a bunch of cave wetas.  We decided to head back around towards where we had seen the female earlier and were rewarded with excellent prolonged views of her.  Fantastic, we are off to a great start!

Day total – Seen = 50 + 2 heard (shining-bronze cuckoo, morepork); new for the trip = 50; total for the trip to date = 50

Tongan paradise

Just back from an incredible holiday in Tonga – yes indeed this was a HOLIDAY!  Pretty rare that we get away on an actual holiday, but I guess most people consider my life to be one big holiday!

We had heard about Tonga and the beauties of it through several friends, and thinking more and more about it decided to take the plunge…literally.  The draw of swimming with humpback whales was the main motivation, but then sandy beaches, with beautiful coral reefs, great diving and somewhere a little warmer than Hawkes Bay were all good reasons.  After doing a little research it seemed that a little resort with a big heart called Matafonua Lodge was getting pretty good raps, both from people that had visited, and people that hadn’t but had heard great things.  We planned and booked, as they were already pretty fully booked for the whale season, we took what we could right at the end of the season, arriving there on there on 5 Oct.  The normal whale season runs from July through to early October, so we booked, hoping that the whales would stick around long enough for us to get in a couple of days on the water with them.

Arriving in Tonga, and spotting a breaching humpback calf out the window as we approached the runway, we did a quick tour of the sites with a local taxi driver, who showed us around the main island – the blowholes (which were pretty cool and you could well imagine how impressive they would be in a big swell), the King’s Residence, the Royal Tombs, and a small market.  Then it was time for the smaller flight out to Ha’apai in a 20-odd seater turbo prop.  Coming in to land at Ha’apai showed how spectacular this little island group looks from the air with lots of white sand beaches and crystal clear water revealing reefs in abundance.

Matafonua is right at the northern end of Foa Island, in the northern part of the Ha’apai chain.  Perfectly situated for spectacular clear waters, great diving and cooling breezes, it is also unfortunately a pretty exposed spot, as Darren and Nina (the owners) found out in January 2013 when Cyclone Ian tore through Ha’apai.  The Lodge was completely destroyed, with just the foundations of buildings left, a pretty horrifying experience, and the rebuilding of the Lodge shows Darren and Nina’s tenacity and love for the place.

Arriving we were greeted warmly, shown around, given the run-down and then taken to our beautiful little fale right on the beach overlooking the lagoon just off to the east of the Lodge.  Paradise!  It only took the first evening to realize all we had heard about the food here at Matafonua hadn’t been pure hype…it was all true!  The first night we had beautiful mahi mahi cooked to perfection, followed by a spectacular dessert…and every evening was a similar culinary masterpiece.

The next day was windy, this time of year it can happen.  But we headed out on the ‘whaling’ boat – a whaler with a difference.  Julia, our guide for the day ran through safety, the procedure, and then we set off.  A little chop and windy conditions didn’t help, but it didn’t take long to find our first whale…a mother and calf that turned out to be a pretty nice example of how an operation like this can act as a window into their world, for just an hour and a half.  We had three opportunities to drop into the water, four at a time with the guide and this mother and calf stayed pretty calm and close, diving to the deep every now and then, but often just sitting just under the surface.

The video below – shows our first day.  What a special day out, a chance to really see these guys up close.  I have seen literally thousands of humpback whales above the surface from boats and ships, but seeing them below the surface, you are really seeing them in their element.

The next day we decided to take it easy, and then a couple of days of diving.  The diving was superb – really great tunnels, caves, clear water and lots of small fish.  We did see a few snappers and things like that, but I missed a white-tipped reef shark that some of the others saw.  I was probably trying to take video of nudibranchs or anemone fish!  We then had another go at whale swimming, and were lucky enough to see a small pod of false-killer whales, which cause a little trouble with the humpbacks around here – targeting small calves.  But these guys were moving rather than feeding, so no graphic images!  Then we found several mothers and calves, but their behavior had changed from the previous day.  These guys were far less settled and they definitely seemed to be thinking of heading south.  We did get a couple of great encounters with a mother and calf, but we really had to work for it.  Below is the second video.  We also saw a few spinner dolphins, which bow-rode briefly.

We then spent a couple of days relaxing around Matafonua Lodge, and exploring the reef and lagoon area right beside the lodge.  We managed to find a few Spanish dancers - Hexabranchus sanguineus - a dorid nudibranch.  They are a Gastropod, related to sea slugs, and many nudibranchs are just the size of a thumb-nail, where as this one was the size of my hand, and they sometimes get much larger.  This species gets its name from its colour and the fact it looks like a Flamenco dancer when it moves through the water, actually swimming.  There are several clips of the animal moving along the reef, then seemingly feeding on a sponge, a short scene showing scale, and then two clips of its incredible movement through the water here in this video.  A really stunning beast and really one of the highlights of the trip.

I managed to do a few time-lapse sequences and will post them once i have worked on them a little and put something together.

So, I’m now about to head off to Fiji on my next adventure – a Zegrahm Expeditions trip from Fiji to Tahiti through some of the South Pacific Islands – including three stops in Tonga!  Will be a great trip with some good friends, and visiting some great places…more on that later!

Enjoy the pictures below!

The blow holes on Tongatapu, about a mile of them along part of the coast

Pacific flying foxes roosting during the day on Tongatapu

Inside of the fall, with stunning view out of the window

The view from the fall...not bad waking up to that!

Looking from our fall towards the north and towards the dining area in the middle distance

Night shot towards the milky way, one of the first images on a time lapse sequence

Diving through some awesome canyons

Mother and calf humpback from in the water snorkelling with them

Same mother and calf, just incredible to be so close and in the water with them

Pretty happy after the swim with hum pies!

Awesome tunnel we swam through whilst diving

Saw spinner dolphins on several occasions during the trip, but they never really performed, although did bow ride briefly

Brief but close views of some false killer whales which swing through the area and cause havoc with the humpbacks

Great frigatebirds were present and breed on a small island nearby

Mother humpback on the surface

Young calf taking a look up out of the water

Young calf having a 'whale of a time' tail slapping

Our fall, what a spot!

The line of falls along the top of the beach

Paradise found!

Tonga feast night, this suckling pig was front and centre, on his way to the fire

Being tidied up over the fire

Three hours cooking time, being hand turned over the coals - this was undoubtedly the best suckling pig I have ever had...and I've had my fair share before!

Nearly done

Photo-bombing the time lapse I had set up of the pig on the spit...Abbey shows off!

Then Lily...

And then Amy..talk about wildlife!

Our last sunset looking back down the beach towards the south-west

Ollie the wonder dog on the beach at sunset

More sunset

Pacific flying fox at dusk flying over from a neighbouring island

Petroglyphs that are just down the beach from the lodge and dated at around 850 years old, a bird (pigeon) on the right

New friends - we had an awesome groups of people that we spent time with at Matafonua, so much fun!