New Zealand
|
The price is per person, and is fully inclusive of scheduled flights* London-Christchurch and Christchurch/Auckland- London, internal flights as specified, airport taxes, full board accommodation, road and boat transport as described, incidental tips, and the services of the leader(s).
The price excludes travel insurance, optional tips to the local guide(s) and driver, Kaikoura whale-watching trip (which is weather-dependent), drinks and other personal expenses. *For a price excluding the flights London-Christchurch, and Christchurch/Auckland-London, please deduct £ 995 from the tour cost. If you are booking your own flights please contact us first to check that the times fit with the current itinerary. ** The extension price (£2195) is for 'land only', joining in Christchurch. If you wish to book the extension as a 'stand alone' tour from London, please ask our office for a quote including international flights. This trip will be operated in conjunction with Limosa Holidays. Principal Leader: Mark Ayre |
Brace yourselves for breathtaking scenery and some of the world's most fascinating endemic birds and flowers, on one of the most exciting wildlife adventures we offer. New Zealand is justly famed for its stunningly beautiful and varied landscape of coastline, forests, mountains and fjords, and its hard-to-match array of endemic wildlife.
|
||
|
A hundred million years of isolation have made New Zealand very much a world apart in evolutionary terms. The absence of land mammals has given its native birds room to adapt and move into the mammal niches, relatively free of predators. Thus they have evolved into a truly fascinating avifauna, including the famous nocturnal flightless Kiwi, but with many other uniquely-formed and often tame species.
The plants are also highly distinctive and we shall be seeing a splendid range of these as we travel through the New Zealand spring. And, perhaps best of all, there is the spectacular scenery. Landscapes range from the volcanoes and ancient forests of North Island to the fjords, alpine glaciers and rushing rivers of South Island, dominated by towering Mount Cook, and culminating in the awesome granite peaks of Fiordland. Our tour is a wildlife extravaganza, covering the islands from south to north, and visiting a superb range of the New Zealand habitats on land and sea. On the main tour we will explore some of the wildest and most spectacular parts of South Island in search of endemics and a host of seabirds along the coast and inlets. Experiences include two of the most memorable night-birding trips in search of Kiwis that you'll ever undertake, close encounters with penguins and parrots - sometimes on the same beach - and above all, arguably the most impressive and varied scenery in the world. The extension begins with probably the most stunningly close encounter with seabirds you'll ever have, then crosses the Cook Strait to North Island. We spend a day in the ancient podocarp forests here, where the primitive, endangered Kokako calls eerily from the treetops, continuing with the myriads of Siberian waders joining the distinctive Wrybill on the Firth of Thames, and finally we sample an excellent array of the endemic landbirds on Tiri Tiri Matangi Island, near Auckland. In addition to a superb variety of birds and scenery, New Zealand also boasts good accommodation and excellent home-grown food and wine. The tour has been devised and organised for us by New Zealand's foremost wildlife tour operator, Mark Hanger. Please note that the main tour and/or extension can be incorporated into your own private visit to New Zealand. We can organise your flights out on any days you choose, or leave you to make your own arrangements. Itinerary Days 1-2 Scheduled flight from London Ð Christchurch via Auckland. Day 3 Arrive in the morning at Christchurch Airport to meet the local tour leader Mark Ayre. We drive down the east coast to Dunedin. In the afternoon we cruise down Otago Harbour to Taiaroa Head, with its colonies of Royal Albatross, Royal Spoonbill and Stewart Island Shags. Overnight Dunedin Day 4 We depart across South Island for Fiordland National Park, New Zealand's largest and grandest national park, where we stay for two nights. The landscapes are unrivalled in New Zealand and the Red Beech forests of northern Fiordland are home to an excellent array of forest birds. Overnight Te Anau Downs Day 5 The Upper Hollyford Valley, through which the famed Milford Road passes, contains superb subalpine herbfields and boulderfields. Weather and snow conditions permitting, we shall spend much of the day here in an area where the boulderfields and cirques are home to the elusive Rock Wren, as well as the threatened Kea. In the afternoon we take a cruise on the fabulously scenic Milford Sound, with its sheer cliffs of granite, and dramatic waterfalls. Overnight Te Anau Downs Day 6 We leave Te Anau for Invercargill. In the afternoon we fly across to Stewart Island for a two-night stay. Stewart Island still holds vast tracts of podocarp forest, together with most of the endemic birds. Here Kaka parrots fly about the only town, Oban - a place strangely reminiscent of one of the smaller Isles of Scilly - and Little Blue Penguins swim in the harbour. In the evening we'll meet up with local guide Philip Smith for one of the most memorable night-birding encounters you'll ever experience - a quest for Southern Brown Kiwi. We'll take a boat out to a remote beach, where, with luck, we'll encounter this most elusive and emblematic of New Zealand's birds by torchlight. As a bonus, we may hear the eerie calls of Sooty Shearwaters, and as we return across the bay, spotlighting may reveal the ghostly forms of petrels and shearwaters returning to their nesting sites. Overnight Stewart Island Day 7 Today our charter vessel will take us around the coast of Stewart Island and then out into the Pacific Ocean. We will search for endemic Yellow-eyed Penguins and Brown Skuas on some of the islets here, while on the sea we hope for good views of Shy Albatross and Sooty Shearwater. Back in the bay we land on Ulva Island, predator-free and home to many South Island forest birds including the incredibly tame Weka, a flightless rail. Overnight Stewart Island Day 8 We take an early morning ferry back to Invercargill, and head for the vast inland plain of Mackenzie Country. We'll visit a nearby river delta for inland waders, most notably Double-banded Plover, and endangered Black Stilt, probably the rarest wader in the world. Black-fronted Tern is a regular sight on the inland lakes and we look for Baillon's Crake and Australasian Bittern. We stay at Lake Ohau for two nights. Overnight Lake Ohau Day 9 Further opportunities to enjoy the inland waterbirds will be followed by a visit to the national park surrounding New Zealand's highest peak, Mount Cook, towering to 3,764m. We'll take a four-hour walk in the fabled Hooker Valley, surrounded by awesome peaks and glaciers. The valley is full of endemic flowers, including showy Mt Cook Lilies, Snowberries and alpine Hebes. Overnight Lake Ohau Day 10 We head to the wild and tumultuous west coast, across the Haast Pass. Here in the Southern Beech Forest we have our first opportunity to hear and see the rare Yellowhead along with Brown Creeper. Overnight Haast Day 11 In the morning we'll walk down to a beach where we hope to see Fiordland Crested Penguins right at the end of their breeding season. We continue further along Westland's battered coastline, stopping for a short walk up to Fox Glacier, amidst glacially-carved mountain scenery, where we'll no doubt encounter the mountain parrot, Kea, and hope to see New Zealand Falcon. We continue north to Franz Joseph, a small town set amongst the glaciers and rainforests of Westland. From here we'll make a unique night-time excursion in the company of a local guide to seek out the endangered Okarito Brown Kiwi. In addition we'll have a chance to look for Morepork, New Zealand's endemic owl, and take in the amazing spectacle of thousands of glow-worms shining like stars on the forest floor. Overnight Franz Joseph Day 12 We travel up the west coast, hoping for a glimpse of the Westland race of Weka in the fields at the edges of the podocarp forest, and of Mount Cook on a rare fine day! We then head inland to the superb mountain scenery of Arthur's Pass National Park. Rifleman, New Zealand's smallest bird, can be found in the surrounding mountain beech forest. We stay at a comfortable lodge in a wonderful setting amidst the Southern Alps. Overnight Arthur's Pass Day 13 We travel back across South Island to Christchurch today, where participants who have booked the main tour only connect with a flight north to Auckland and onward overnight connection to London. Arrival in London on Day 14, where the main tour concludes. Kaikoura and North Island Extension Day 13 Participants on the extension will depart Christchurch in the afternoon, and travel up the Kaikoura coast and across the northern Canterbury Plains to the Kaikoura Peninsula where we stay for two nights. Here the snowcapped peaks of the Seaward Kaikoura Range rise dramatically from the coast and form an improbable breeding site for the endemic Hutton's Shearwaters that gather in huge rafts offshore. Under these rafts, the sea floor drops away equally dramatically as the continental shelf comes close inshore. The resulting upwellings of currents form rich feeding grounds for huge numbers of seabirds and a good concentration of cetaceans. It is these that we hope to encounter tomorrow. Overnight Kaikoura Day 14 Today's pelagic seabird trip is one of the best we know of anywhere in the world for getting close views of birds in their marine environment. Where else could you get virtually within pecking distance of three species of albatross and within stroking distance of several species of petrels as they come to feed on the oily 'chum' close to our small boat? Photographers can expect to blow their whole supply of memory cards for the trip here if they aren't careful. Remarkably, Kaikoura is even more famous for its whale-watching trips - and is probably the best place in the world to get close to a Sperm Whale. Because the whale-watching trips operate only at a fixed departure time each day and are highly weather-dependent, please note that the cost of this trip is not included within our tour price. We allow time for you to go on one of these, weather-permitting, as an optional extra (cost approx £45 pp payable locally). Overnight Kaikoura Day 15 In the morning we travel up the east coastline to the Marlborough Sounds. The only way to explore them is by charter vessel - so that's just what we will use today. Our boat takes us out beyond the sound into the Tasman Sea where we hope to encounter an excellent variety of seabirds including endangered Rough-faced Shags. This is also a good area for Dusky Dolphins and we'll look out for the small endemic Hector's Dolphin with its 'Mickey Mouse-ear' dorsal fin. Overnight Picton Day 16 Leaving Picton and South Island this morning, we embark on a three-hour ferry trip across Cook Strait to New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. The crossing is delightful, as the first hour is spent travelling up the drowned valleys of the Marlborough Sounds, then across a short stretch of Cook Strait before sailing through Wellington Harbour and arriving on North Island. The scenery is spectacular and on the water we should be accompanied by seabirds including Little Penguin, Northern and Southern Giant Petrels, Cape Petrel, Fluttering Shearwater and Fairy Prion, the latter sometimes giving us stunning views alongside the vessel. From Wellington we drive north to the volcanic plateau. Overnight Ohakune Day 17 We have a morning trip to Tongariro where we stay on the slopes of the spectacular snowcapped volcanoes of the National Park. The rare Blue Duck still clings precariously to the headwaters of rivers in this region, and we may be lucky with them, as we have on most previous trips. We continue north to Taupo for an overnight stay in an attractive setting overlooking the lake, with snowcapped volcanoes to the south. Overnight Taupo Day 18 We make an early start to the so-called 'dinosaur forests' of Pureora, its superb stands of tall, ancient podocarp forest typical of the world as it was 100 million years ago. This is one of the few places we can hope to find the primitive Kokako, something of an emblem of New Zealand conservation, gliding through the canopy, with its evocative calls echoing through the treetops. We'll have a picnic breakfast here, while Tomtit, Grey Warbler and Fantail all sing in the surrounding trees. In the afternoon we head for sulphurous Lake Rotorua, which holds New Zealand Dabchick, Black Swan, Little Pied Shag and New Zealand Scaup, and take a look at some boiling mud pools nearby. Overnight Taupo Day 19 We travel north to Miranda, an area of saltmarsh and tidal mudflats on the Firth of Thames, a large bay to the south-west of Auckland. This area holds New Zealand's greatest concentration of waders, and in summer has one of the largest populations of migratory shorebirds in the country. We hope to locate a range of key New Zealand internal migrants such as the scarce Wrybill, with its unique right-bending bill and New Zealand Dotterel. Banded Rail can sometimes be seen near the Visitor Centre. We continue to Auckland. Overnight Auckland Day 20 Today we head for one of New Zealand's best spots for endemics, Tiri Tiri Matangi Island. Just 30 minutes away by boat, this small predator-free island offers a last chance to see several New Zealand endemics, and we should encounter re-introduced Stitchbird, North Island Saddleback, and Kokako. At lunch we may well be joined by a few tame Takahe - the highly endangered giant flightless gallinule. We reluctantly leave Tiri in the afternoon and head for Auckland and our homeward flight, arriving in London on Day 21. Accommodation: All hotels and lodges have rooms with private facilities except for the occasional room on Stewart Island. Principal Leader: Mark Ayre Numbers: Max. 14 clients Tour Extensions and Independent TravelClients frequently ask us to extend their tour by a few days or a week, and we have organised several tailor-made options including whole tours, at any time of year to suit you. We recommend a self-drive option as being particularly cost-effective: all the hard work of bookings is done for you, and you'll get a detailed information pack giving precise directions to the best wildlife spots. Please contact our sister company, Wild Ambitions, for more information.
Sunday 20 November - Saturday 10 December 2011 (21 days)
Few places available! click here for full details! |
|
UK Tel: 01305 267994, UK Fax: 01305 265506, International Tel: +44-1305-267994, International Fax: +44-1305-265506
email: info@naturalist.co.uk