Next Stop- Omarama

Catch-up

Our next stop after Lake Ruataniwha was just 30km down the road at the Ahuriri River DOC camp which is just before Omarama and slotted in between SH8 on one side and the river on the other. The entrance is just before the road bridge over the Ahuriri River. The tiny village of Omarama is just across the other side at the junction of SH8 and 83, it's also at the southern end of the MacKenzie Basin. Omarama is world famous in gliding circles due to the excellent gliding conditions and spectacular scenery. We're stopping for the scenery; there's a special place we want to visit.

The main camping area is close to the entrance and the bridge, which makes it a little noisy as there's a constant stream of traffic on the main road; this is the main inland route through to Queenstown from Christchurch and thousands of vehicles a day travel it. We drove down the track a little way and found a spot around the bend where we were a little further away.

Although that helped a little with the noise it was still a busy spot! Haymaking in the paddock between us and the road went on until after 11pm one night and then a couple of days later I was woken at 5am by tractors maneuvering the bales about and trucks carting the bales past. 

Another evening I thought I heard a siren and when I looked out a fire engine went roaring past. Not on the road as I suspected but on the track right beside our van......followed by the fire chief a few minutes later. They went off down the river for quite some time, I didn't see any smoke so don't know if it was a false alarm or not. I captured them on their way back past. You never know what the day is going to throw at you when you live on the road. It's always full of surprises.

Behind the van, through the willows and a couple of muddy back washes was the Ahuriri River, a well regarded fly fishing river, especially in the upper reaches. After spying a few lupins near the bridge (and I bet you thought you'd seen the last of them) I went exploring. I couldn't believe my eyes when I finally made it out onto the shingle banks. Lupins for as far as the eye can see- on the islands formed by the river braids downstream...

and across stream....

and upstream! There weren't the variety of colours that I'd seen around Tekapo but the mass covering was still impressive enough. The Ahuriri River has the lupin problem real bad.

All the same, I still took a fair few photos, just in case I hadn't quite got the right photo in the last 1000! I did add a briar flower just to break the monotony though. 

I wanted to take a photo of the bridge so I crossed over a couple of the shallow braids to an island in the middle of the river, when I was suddenly attacked by two dive bombing black-fronted terns (our new favourite tern). Back and forward they swept, diving very low and aiming straight for me, pulling up just as they got near and diving again. Oh-aw, they must have chicks nearby for such a strong reaction. I backed off, sat down and waited. 

They flew off up the river and one soon returned with a tiny fish in it's bill. I watched carefully to see where it landed and then out of a lupin bush ran a good sized chick, it kept running from bush to bush, crouching and hiding each time it reached safety, only to reappear when a parent flew in with another fish. I only saw the one chick but it's possible there were more as I couldn't get close enough to see down the bank near the water. I left them to it and skirted around the outside keeping a weary eye out in case they thought I was getting too close again. 

...until I reached a spot where I had a good clear view of the Ahuriri River Road Bridge.

Photos taken, I left the island and crossed back to the lupins patch close to the top end of the camp. A large number of motorhomes, both private and rental, had been crossing the bridge while I was exploring. Sometimes there'd be seven or eight in a row then a couple of cars and then another string of motorhomes. They've all got to find somewhere to stay tonight, it has been so busy on the roads and this is only the beginning of December. I wonder what's it going to be like in the New Year. 

We had one more surprise in store for us; David's sister Jackie and her husband Bob called in to say hello as they headed to their family in Southland for Christmas. They had been tracking us down the island, often being just one stop behind us. We see more of them on the road than we did when we lived in the same city! It was lovely to catch up again, have a good chat and send them on their way until the next time our travelling paths crossed. (They actually called in to see us at Te Anau in February, when they were on their way home).

Just a short blog to pique your interest- I wonder if you've guessed what the natural attraction is that we've come to see.

Nature in the Rock Garden

There’s quite an expanse of sand and uneven rocky ground to cross every time I make my way from the NZMCA Park over to the ‘good’ lupin patch on the edge of the Lake Tekapo.

A large patch of ground that turns out to be home to many birds; birds that live quietly and without fuss in an area that usually sees very little foot traffic. Until the lupins are flowering that is. Of course the lupin flowering coincides with the nesting season which means there are often people blundering about in amongst the rocks or passing through (like me) to see the lupins, disturbing the nesting birds and sending them into a panic.

I found this redpoll feeding on the grasses very near the walkway as I cross to the lake edge. Redpolls usually tend to stay high in the trees moving through in flocks chattering away to each other. They are quite skittish and this one didn’t hang around too long. He’s also at the end of lens reach. Redpolls are an introduced species and are quite common in the South Island (not so much in the North Island), and are usually found at higher elevations.

As I approach the edge of a small bay there are a few Pied Stilts/Poaka which are quick to let all and sundry know there’s an intruder on her way.

I scan the rocky terrain ahead and catch sight of a flurry of movement in all directions around and over the rocks. Tiny little birds are dashing about calling little ‘chip, chip, chips’ to each other.

This is the Banded Dotterel/Tūturiwhatu, an endemic small plover (found only in NZ) whose conservation status is ‘Nationally Vulnerable’.

There are nests about and the incubating bird runs off as soon as danger approaches. The birds are well disguised amongst the rocks, and being so tiny, you don’t see them until they run. Some find a high rock to stand on so they can scan their territory, others rush off bobbing up and down and calling as they go.

The nests are shallow scrapes in the sand or gravel and are especially vulnerable to predators and unwary people stepping on them so I tread carefully as I go. The bird on the right is mid-bob. When feeding, Banded Dotterels have the classic ‘run-stop-peck-run’ foraging behaviour.

Sharing the rocky lake side with the dotterels is a bird that is higher up on conservation status than the dotterel, this one is ‘nationally endangered’. The smart looking Black-fronted Tern/Tarapirohe is another endemic bird and one I've been waiting to see at close quarters for awhile. We've see them flying near rivers and as we cross bridges but not up close until now.

The Black-fronted Tern is a small grey tern found on the braided rivers (where they mostly breed), estuaries and harbours of the eastern South Island. They move to coastal areas after breeding and some small populations also head to the North Island.

You might remember the post I did on their much more common cousins, the white fronted terns that danced in front of us on the beach at Greymouth earlier in the year. In that post I explained how the name ‘white-fronted’ refers to the forehead, where a strip of white separates the black cap from the black bill. Most other ‘capped’ terns, including the black-fronted tern, have black caps that reach the bill when in breeding plumage. You can see the distinctive black cap clearly on these birds.

There was a small colony of black-fronted terns nesting in amongst the rocks very close to the lupin patch and before I know it, I was upon a nest. Unlike the dotterels the terns stayed put until the very last moment. The bird on the left is sitting on a nest. They quickly took flight as I backed off…

...and they started dive-bombing and squawking at me. They also bombarded me with sloppy poop, I’m not sure whether that was intentional or they just happened to let go because they were flying. Whatever it was it was very effective and they have good aim; my jacket was covered in great big smelly splotches.

But I did manage to grab one quick shot of the nest! And then exited stage left as fast as I could.

I saw other people cutting through the area at various times and they all made a hasty retreat as well. Unfortunately it was a direct line through the rock garden from the NZMCA Park to town and those that didn’t take the walking track were taking a short cut straight across the nesting area.

Another pair of terns were nesting closer to the water, I stayed well away from another splattering but managed to capture them in the setting sun as they flew past. They are quite gorgeous, I love the cap and their beautiful soft grey tone, and those tiny little feet. Yes, I think these are my favourite terns.

I thought I’d tag the rabbits on the end here…well they are nature too. There’s a rabbit plague around the Church of the Good Shepherd, along the lake front and in amongst the lupins. I took these shots very early in the morning when I went to catch the sunrise. The grounds around the church were alive with rabbits. And they weren’t too worried about the humans walking in amongst them either.

This little cutie was pulling down a flowering bush….

… to have a nibble.

And this one was finishing off a bunch of lupins someone had brought him. A pest eating a pest. Perhaps that’s the answer. Corral the rabbits around the lupin patches and they’ll soon both be gone.

Waipapa Point, Catlins



In 1881 the Waipapa Reef was the scene of NZ's worst civilian maritime disaster when the SS Tararua sank with the loss of 131 lives, only 20 people managed to survive. A lighthouse was erected on the point after the disaster & is now one of the most popular places to visit in the Catlins but also in part because it's a well know spot to see sealions.

When we arrived there was a massive "meat ball" happening right down below us. A "meat ball", or baitball as it's sometimes known, is a huge school of small fish that have formed into a tightly packed spherical formation to try and avoid being eaten by the hundreds of birds feeding from above & other larger fish from below. The mass of fish swung this way and that as they tried to escape the frenzy of the diving birds. Most of the birds were sooty shearwaters, also known as mutton birds here in New Zealand, with gulls, terns & shags feeding on the fringes. It was all very exciting, & extremely noisy.

Down on the shoreline the spotted shags (parekareka)  that were finished with feeding were gathering to prod, preen, dry out & talk (squawk) about their catch.

Some shags dropped in from overhead, others arrived rather abruptly by surf.

And there in amongst all the melee were the sealions, four of them, cast in the sand looking like giant sea-slugs slumbering on with not a care in the world. If you haven't come across sealions before, they can be quite intimidating as can be seen by these visitors (below) that were standing well back from them. DOC (Dept of Conservation)  recommend that you keep a 10 metre distance but there's always someone who will push the envelope......(he's the one with a missing foot! ;) )

This guy below was my favourite, doesn't he look just so darn cute snoring away with his sand scull cap on to keep the sun off his head.

Just behind the sealions the white fronted terns (tara) were bringing home their catch for their fledgling chicks that were waiting on the rocks. They were demanding little blighters & the parents were very particular in getting to the right chick before letting go of their hard earned haul. Any hesitation and a gull stepped in to sort it out!

This chick did not belong to this bird, no matter how much it begged the adult ignored him. The adult kept looking around trying to locate it's chick and then flew on to another rock where a gull promptly grabbed the fish.

After all the animal & bird activity the lighthouse became a second priority but a look over my shoulder confirmed that we needed to high tail it out of there as a southerly front was fast approaching.

The 44 foot high lighthouse tower is built from kauri & totara (native NZ trees) and is one of the last timber lighthouses built in NZ, Kaipara Heads in the North Island being the other & also identical to Waipapa. In the 19th century timber lighthouses were cheaper to build and also the timber was able to withstand the fierce coastal environment. The lower cavity wall is filled with local stone for ballast.

Until the lighthouse was automated in 1976 there was a small community of lighthouse keepers' houses & out buildings located on the plateau behind the lighthouse. It would have been an isolated & windswept place to live.

With the weather front nearly upon us, we had one more stop to do further back along the road. A visit to the Tararua Acre, a cemetery & memorial for the Tararua shipwreck victims which is located over the sand dunes from the reef where the ship went down. It was a short walk across private farm land to the fenced off  acre. Sheep grazed in the dunes & paddocks surrounding the site.

Big fat raindrops joined us for the walk (run) back across the paddock to the car & by the time we got back to the fifth-wheeler it was pelting down, the temperature had plummeted & a strong wind was blowing. It didn't ease up for 24 hours. Such is the weather in Southland.

"A nasty misty mizzle, a steady dripping drizzle"- the person who wrote that in the Clutha Leader newspaper in 1890 knew a thing or two about the Catlin weather.