Photo Gallery
Brent Stephenson
We use clean and tidy accomodation around the country, generally with a self-contained kitchenette and bathroom…
…and often in attractive settings with good birding nearby.
We typically dine at cafes and resturants but on some nights we take a catered meals providing an introduction to real “Kiwi” food.
We usually grab lunch from a cafe or bakery and consume it in a beautiful place.
Our vehicles are comfortable given our small groups sizes…
…and small groups and relaxed travel times generally allow us to make the most of our birding locations.
Sometimes it rains of course but good weather is typical most places…
…and of course it’s not just about birding, but having a great time as well.
Our pelagics use small charter boats with known operators that are specifically certified for taking passengers.
Our Hauraki Gulf pelagic finds several endemic breeding seabirds such as Black (Parkinson’s) Petrel….
…and Cook’s Petrel…
…but specifically targets the recently rediscovered New Zealand Storm Petrel.
The ancient looking Takahe is a flightless endemic rail, considered extinct for almost 50 years, and now found on several predator-free offshore islands.
The lively male Stitchbird is in a newly described endemic family and we’ll see it very well on Tiritiri Matangi Island near Auckland along with…
…the beautiful Kokako, a member of the endemic Wattlebird family.
Miranda is an amzing shorebird location, and we’ll spend time here looking for…
…the quirky Wrybill - the only bird species with a beak bent to one side…
…and the relatively common New Zealand Dotterel.
New Zealand Falcon is our only endemic diurnal raptor, and usually findable…
..but the endemic Blue Duck can be more difficult. We visit the best locations for it.
Our pelagic out of Kaikoura offers unrivaled views of several species of albatross and other tube-nosed seabirds…
…including Southern Royal Albatross….
…and the scenery from off Kaikoura is stunning.
The West Coast of the South Island is magnificent, and we’ll spend several days travelling and birding in this area and visit…
…such well-known sites as the ‘Pancake Rocks’ at Punakaiki.
Near Okarito we will spend an evening in search of the rarest of the kiwi species - the Okarito Brown Kiwi.
The South Island is renowned for its spectacular scenery.
This is Franz Josef glacier on the West Coast of the South Island…
…and this a view on the road through to the famous Milford Sound.
A key endemic, the Yellowhead, is high on the target list of birds to see…
…as is the Rock Wren, not just an endemic species but an endemic family.
One of the world’s rarest shorebirds, the Black Stilt, is another key endemic.
We also look for as many marine mammal species as possible, here acrobatic Dusky Dolphins…
…and here the endemic New Zealand (Hooker’s) Sealion.
The incredibly curious and entertaining Alpine Kea makes for a strange parrot.
The New Zealand forest can be extremely beautiful, but with all this moss in a South Island Nothofagus beech forest it means there can sometimes be rain.
Of course the most famous New Zealand endemic family is the kiwi. Of the five kiwi species we attempt to see and hear, the most incredible is on Stewart Island.
On all our pelagics we provide ‘chum’ to attract the birds to us, providing excellent viewing and photographic opportunities…
…like this White-capped Albatross, one of the larger ‘small’ abatrosses.
We target three species of penguin during the tour, with the largest being the Yellow-eyed Penguin.