Wellington

Quick Trip to Wellington

This week Mike and I visited New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. Our primary reason for going to Wellington was to spend our anniversary birding at Zealandia. I was not disappointed with 8 lifers. Here are some highlights from our quick three day trip to the North Island.

Wellington is located on the southern tip of the North Island.




Day 1 - birding Foxton Beach

Upon arrival at the Wellington airport, we drove approximately 1.5 hours north to check out the bird scene at Foxton Beach.

Walk along the Foxton Beach estuary

Bird List - Foxton Beach, August 10, 2016:

• Red knot (1);
• Wrybill;
• Bar-tailed godwit;
• Black-backed gull;
• Royal spoonbill;
• Sacred kingfisher;
• Fantails;
• Blackbird;
• Rock pigeon;
• Pied stilt;
• Caspian tern;
• Gray warbler;
• Mallard;
• Welcome swallow; and
• House sparrow.

Day 2 - birding Zealandia

Unfortunately, many New Zealand endemic bird species have either already gone extinct or face imminent extinction. One of the main contributing threats to native birds, especially flightless and ground-nesting varieties, are exotic mammal predators, such as rats, feral cats and weasels. Introduced Australian possums also compete with native birds for food, eat eggs and nestlings. The government of New Zealand has ambitiously declared the country will strive to become predator free by 2050.

The 225 ha fully-fenced urban ecosanctuary, Zealandia, provides a refuge for native species to thrive. This is an excellent place to see many of New Zealand's native species in their natural environment. We enjoyed about 2.5 hours of lovely hiking in the native bush, whilst being serenaded by the beautiful songs of native birds. This is the natural New Zealand we have been looking for!

View of the reservoir at Zealandia

Unidentified bracket fungus

Tranquility at Zealandia

Bird List - Zealandia, August 11, 2016:

• Mallard;
• Large black shag;
• Pied shag;
• Brown teal*;
• Yellowhammer;
• Dunnock;
• Blackbird;
• House sparrow;
• Starling;
• Chaffinch;
• Song thrush;
• Bellbird;
• Tui;
• Gray warbler;
• Fantail;
• North island saddleback*;
• Stitchbird*;
• North island robin*;
• Kaka*;
• Whitehead*;
• Takahe*; and
• Red-crowned parakeet*.

(* denotes life-list birds)

Here are some of the beautiful bird photos Mike captured during our time at Zealandia. For more epic nature photography please visit www.mikeashbeephotography.com.

Brown teal (posted with permission www.mikeashbeephotography.com)

Kaka (posted with permission www.mikeashbeephotography.com)

Stitchbird (posted with permission www.mikeashbeephotography.com)

Zealandia is also home to many other cool creatures, including the Wellington tree weta, Cook Strait giant weta, tuatara lizards and a variety of native geckos. We did find some cave weta  as well as a native bush cockroach (pictures below). I would like to go back again to try and get looks at a tuatara and tree weta.

Cave weta

New Zealand bush cockroach, Celatoblatta sp.

Day 3 - Downtown Wellington / Mount Victoria Lookout

Our final day in Wellington was soggy, so we did a bit of shopping and eating around Cuba street. This is a funky part of town, with lots of hipster shops and kitschy restaurants.

I am not really a food blogger, but I will say that we had an amazing brunch at Fidel's Cafe. I enjoyed the rustic decor, which pays homage to the Cuban dictator. I had halloumi cheese on delicious multi-grain toast, which brought back memories of my trip to Cyprus when I first tried this amazing fried cheese. Fidel Cafe's home-made chili jam added just the right amount of sweet heat to the dish...highly recommend.

Cypriot halloumi fried cheese!

After lunch we took a drive up Mount Victoria to check out the view. The roads were extremely steep, narrow and winding up to the scenic lookout. On this particular day, it was quite gray and foggy, but I would imagine the view would be spectacular if the weather was fine. 

A gray day in Wellington - Mount Victoria lookout.

Unique memorial on Mount Victoria, Wellington.

Check out the cool Lord of the Rings displays found at the Wellington airport. I think there is more to explore in Wellington....until next time!

**~~**~~**~**~~**~~**~~**~~

Home                  Previous