Blog

I was lucky enought to get some good photos of bar tailed godwit on our recent stay at the Manawatu estuary. Godwits are an amazing bird completing one of the most extraordinary migration patterns of any bird migrating from Alaska where they breed to New Zealand where they spend the summer restocking, building themselves up before returning to Alaska for the next breeding season.  They typically arrive here in September after an 8 to 9 day non stop flight and can be seen feeding in the …

The Manawatu estuary is one of the best places for seeing shore birds and waders in the lower North Island. We recently had a one night stop over at Foxton beach on our way to Wellington so had a good chance to explore the estuary and see the wonderful variety of bird life that we just don't see in Taranaki. My favourite was the bar tailed godwit, a bird which I think is absolutely amazing with its extraordinary migration from Alaska to New Zealand.Next on my list is probably the Pacific golden …

I had a wonderful walk along the coast from Bell Block beach to the Waiongana river mouth this morning. It's about an hours walk along the beach only accessible at low tide. You often have to cross several boulder fields but today they were all covered in sand making it an easy walk.  It's a great section of cost to see birds with the Waiongana river mouth being home to a dotterel nesting site and with oyster catcher, white faced heron and shags nearly always somewhere along the coast on th …

East ridge is becoming my favourite summer route for climbing Taranaki now that the North Egmont summer route has become so crowded. The route up East Ridge from the Stratford Plateau is poorly marked but if you know the way it is a great route to take.  Great views out over central Taranaki, relatively undisturbed moss slopes and then a long climb up the old lava flows taking you up onto the top of Sharkstooth. To get down into the crater from sharkstooth, you go down through a narrow …

I've been meaning to do a tramp up to Bells Falls for a while now and finally got my chance yesterday when the persistent cloud that has been hugging the mountain for the last week finally cleared and we got a fine clear morning.I set off early wanting to get to the falls before the sun rose too high so I could get long exposure shots of them still fully in the morning shadow without the bright contrast that would be caused once the valley was lit by sunshine. The first third of the track i …