Boulder Beach

Another day to charge the battery a bit... After getting up without any alarm again and starting the day slowly, I went to Ulva Island, a small island close to Stewart Island, which is well-known for its birdlife. The whole island is basically a forest, so beautiful and quiet. There are a few tracks open to the public, but more than half of the island is not accessible to the public. I enjoyed four hours on Ulva, took my time and tried to spot and observe as many birds as possible. I saw quite a few smaller birds like the tomtit, the Stewart Island robin, maybe a silvereye and/or a grey warbler, furthermore quite a few New Zealand parakeets (beautiful green birds with a red crown) and wekas, some oystercatchers, as well as two kakas (the lowland counterparts to the keas in the mountains), one of them very close. One of the robins was kind of brave. It was on the track pretty close to me and I was standing still watching it. Then, it came twice on my feet picking on my hiking boots. The one kaka was sitting on a branch close to the track cleaning its feathers. I could watch it for a pretty long time. A weka wanted to pass me while I was standing still watching it. It came slowly towards me. When it was very close to me, it started running to pass me quickly😀The silence in the forest, the birdsung and the smell of the forest as well as the sea was once again great to calm down and relax. In the evening there was a pub quiz in the hotel bar. I did not take part actively, but I was having a beer at the bar listening to the questions, and in the second half I kind of assisted one of the teams. We did not know very much though🙃Later, there was live music in the pub. The band was pretty good, playing a good mix with kind of a focus on country music. Anyway, I was once more pretty tired and did not stay to the end of the concert.Read more