Stewart Island NZ

[Tim Sykes via Birding-Aus <>]

Hi Kirri,

A quick note mostly just to echo what Peter just said...

- forget about Kakapo unless you're willing to volunteer on one of the DoC projects for a month;

- there are common NZ endemic birds everywhere on Stewart Is it would seem!

- there are Kiwi in and around Oban town (Church Hill, rugby field, footpaths leading in and out of the rugby field, etc).  I just saw Kiwi on Ulva island at 5pm (ie broad daylight), although I searched for 5 hours before scoring.  I missed Yellowhead, although another guy saw them twice in 4 hours.  It's very easy to day-trip.

- seem to be lots of accom and food options to suit whatever budget.

- there are also several companies offering wildlife tours if you wanted to team up with an expert for a better chance of seeing Kiwi, plus also other target birds / sea lions / albatrosses / dolphins maybe / whatever else.

Hope that's of use!

Cheers,

Tim

Tim Sykes BSc MCIEEM

Freelance Ecologist - Terrestrial and Marine

On ‎Sunday‎, ‎9‎ ‎December‎ ‎2018‎ ‎09‎:‎01‎:‎04‎ ‎+07, Peter Ewin <> wrote:

Kirri

I am not even certain there are Kakapo left on Stewart Island (other than reintroduced ones). My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that most of the population is on Codfish Island which is a long way away from the main settlement, and I would be very surprised if they would do "tours" there and even if they did take people the chances of just "finding" a Kakapo would be very remote (when I volunteered with DOC many years ago when they were still on Little Barrier Island the only time we saw one was when we had to recapture a radio tagged bird, and even it was impossible to see until within a few metres).

It was over 20 years ago when I was on Stewart Island so things may have changed. I stayed at the Youth Hostel which wa fine, but there was also the hotel which did great meals. There probably is other options but just checking on the web would identify that. At the time there was a tour comapny that did both fishing and birding tours (I had a kiwi peck my boot on the latter) which were extremely good value (the fishing was great). The birding is excellent on the island - you can either walk around the town or catch the boat over to one of the release areas. Not certain if they are still there but they have released Yellowheads in the past and that is now a hard bird to track down anywhere.

Good luck.

Cheers,

Peter

---

From: Birding-Aus <> on behalf of Kirri Hardy via Birding-Aus <>
Sent: Friday, 7 December 2018 10:08 PM
To:
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Stewart Island NZ

 

Hi there
Just another quick question

My family of 4 will be on Stewart Island in NZ in Beginning of January..

Does anyone know the best/comfortable/affordable place to stay there for two nights??

And any bird location info would be GREAT

THANKS
KIrri 😊

Sent from my iPhone

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