More friends

Sabine and Erica, whom we first met on our Galapagos trip a few tears ago and with whom Beverly went to India, arrived on the 11 o’clock ferry. Wonderful to see them again and after a coffee, excellent Portuguese custard tarts in a Swedish-owned cafe and a walk to their accommodation, we set off on a scenic walk around Horseshoe Point. It took much of the day and we got a taxi home at the end of it as we all suffered knee problems.

Good scenery and interesting vegetation but few birds, though many hundreds of “mutton birds” feeding offshore. These are Sooty Shearwaters - a much nicer name which does not hint at the over exploitation of these birds in the past. We learned in the museum yesterday that such exploitation was typical of the island’s history. The Māori finished off the giant flightless Moas, and later colonists over-fished and killed huge numbers of whales.

Other birds we saw were Tomtits, a Brown Creeper, a few Kakas and, best of all, Red-crowned Parakeets.

Evening meal together in the South Sea Hotel followed by a dusk watch for a few incoming Little Blue Penguins at the harbour. We saw about five in the poor light and the first heavy rain of the day.

Ulva tomorrow and some good birding…Read more