A Forest Sanctuary - finding sanctuary at Bushy Park

2020 has turned out to be a year in which we've all had to find sanctuary at home. Even once lockdown restrictions lifted we've continued to seek out sanctuary close to home rather than farther afield. With this in mind, I set out to Bushy Park - Tarapuruhi near Whanganui, about 2-3 hours drive from my home.

Bushy Park 

Bushy Park has long been a Forest and Bird reserve, but perhaps what's less well known is that it has been a fenced sanctuary since 2005. (Fenced sanctuaries have pest proof fences around them which are designed to keep out possums, stoats, rats and other introduced pest mammals.) Sanctuaries are often thought of as safe havens for endangered birds and other native animals, however, a standout of the Bushy Park experience is the ancient lowland forest and its spectacular trees.

A giant Northern rata loaded with epiphytes

Treasures to be Found at Butterfly Creek

Butterfly Creek is one of the most popular and well known walks in Wellington, but despite that I still meet people who have never been. It's perfect for a weekend picnic with the kids or grandkids, or a quiet 'pick-me-up' walk mid-week.

Picnic area at Butterfly Creek - cool on a hot day

First thing you need to know - and tell your children to avoid disappointment - the creek is not full of butterflies! In fact, we rarely see any butterflies there. I've been told that the creek used to look like a butterfly from a particular viewpoint but haven't been able to confirm that. But we do see all sorts of other plant and animal treasures.

Forest, Fungi and Whitebait - West Coast Stories

The West Coast of New Zealand's South Island is rich in history and rich in nature's wonders. So it's no wonder that I enjoyed taking part in the week long Storylines National Festival Story Tour of the region. The tour started in Hokitika, where the sea comes crashing in against the beach and surging up the river - sometimes it rained, sometimes the sun shone.

Driftwood sign on the Hokitika shore

Our team drove up the coast visiting schools, libraries and early childhood centres. Everywhere we went we met with a friendly welcome.

Schools visited on day 1

Some schools had book displays, others had books for me to sign, all had children keen to learn about being an author. Here are some of the Greymouth schools...

Autumn Nature Walk - a splendid kohekohe year

Kohekohe flowers

Cascades of blooms signal a splendid flowering year for the kohekohe. It's time to get out into our lowland coastal forests and enjoy the flowers and marvel at their abundance. They are already flowering now and should go on flowering through into June.

An Easy Hike - the Cobb Valley and Fenella Hut

I love hiking in the Nelson region. My favourite place to visit is Blue Lake in Nelson Lakes National Park. This year I hiked in the Kahurangi National Park. It's probably best known for the stunning Heaphy Track. Less well known but much easier are the tramping opportunities in the Cobb Valley.

I set off with two friends to hike to Fenella Hut and back. To get to the start of the track is about two hours drive from the centre of Nelson, it might look shorter on the map, but the roads are winding and a good length towards the end is unsealed road.

The Cobb Valley

 From the road end, the track headed up the valley at such a gently gradient it was hard to believe we were gaining altitude. Much of the track is across grassy meadows.

Experiencing Nature with Kids - their way

It was all about being hands-on at the Koraunui Bioblitz this week. Schools in Stokes Valley took part in an amazing day of exploration on organised by Dianne Christenson of Koraunui School and supported by scientists and experts. Did I have some pre-conceived notions of a Bioblitz? Maybe, but I agreed with a fellow expert that this one should be led by the children's interests and observations.

My first eager group had bounce in their step as we headed along a small path among some new plantings at Horoeka Scenic Reserve.

Picturing Ancient New Zealand - using clues from science

In conjuring up an image (in words and pictures) of Ancient New Zealand in From Moa to Dinosaurs, we used scientific clues as the basis of each double-page spread. Check out the "How do we know?" boxes in the book to find out what clues we used.

Pages 12 and 13, illustration by Ned Barraud

The pages in the illustration above describe New Zealand 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. Long before people arrived here. The mountains were formed through tectonic plates pushing against each other, starting about 5 million years ago, then came the ice ages. On this page the text sets the scene "Icy glaciers were shrinking after an ice age 20,000 years ago came to an end. As the ice retreated, grass and scrub grew, covering the mountainous area above the edge of the forest."

How did we know what animals to depict on these pages?

When I was researching for the book, I remembered a visit many years ago to the Ngarua Caves near Nelson.

Percy Scenic Reserve - Explore nature in the city

Explore nature in Hutt city, suitable for everyone from kids to botanists. Pathways take visitors through (mostly) native plantings up to a waterfall and beyond, along the way are many diversions to help keep kids interested in their outdoor adventure.

Percy Reserve Waterfall

Here are some tips for your visit.

Birds at the Beach - vulnerable and at risk

Red-billed gulls - tarāpunga
Nationally Vulnerable

Solitary stalkers, noisy pairs or squawking flocks - we rather take our shore birds for granted. Gulls in particular seem to be ever present, squabbling over a dead fish on the beach or trying to steal our fish and chips. So it came as a surprise to realise that red-billed gulls (tarāpunga) are considered to be 'nationally vulnerable'. The second surprise was that of all the birds in the bush-clad seaside village of Pukerua Bay, the ones that are under threat are almost all shore birds rather than those that live in the bush.

Return to Rakiura - Kiwi

Rakiura - Stewart Island is a special place, it's wild, it's mostly National Park, it's home to many native animals. Best of all it is one place in New Zealand where you can see kiwi during the daytime.

Kiwi are generally nocturnal, they have poor sight and hunt by smell. It is thought they evolved to be nocturnal to avoid the (now-extinct) Haast's Eagle.  I've heard lots of theories about why Tokoeka (the Stewart Island kiwi species) come out during the daytime as well as at night. One is that the summer nights are so short they also need to feed during the daytime, another that because they live in family groups they all get a different shift off the nest. Whatever the reason it makes this the best place in New Zealand to see kiwi.

On my first trip, I was tantalised by hearing calls at night and, in the morning, a beach covered in footprints.

Kiwi footprints on the beach

Return to Rakiura - Stewart Island

Sunrise from Fred's Camp

Rakiura means 'glowing skies' and the soft pastel colours in the sky around Stewart Island on my recent visit showed again and again the appropriateness of this Maori place name. Views like this sunrise above were nearly enough to turn this writer to taking up water-colour painting!

Visiting the Wildlife Capital of New Zealand - Dunedin

Dunedin lays claim to the title 'Wildlife Capital of New Zealand'. And while I'd like to think Wellington could compete for this title, I have to concede Dunedin has the edge on us. First, there's a concentration of rare native animals across a range of habitats, all within easy reach of the city.  And secondly, the ratio of people to wild animals is much lower here than in Auckland or Wellington. The landscape of hills and harbour dominate the tiny city. This gives Dunedin a sense of being all about the wildlife.

I started my early spring visit to the wildlife capital with a walk along remote Allan's Beach on the Otago Peninsula. At first it could have been any south facing beach in New Zealand on a spring day - a few human footprints in the wide expanse of sand, shrill oyster catchers, rocky headlands at either end. Then as we walked along, the large mounds in the sand came into focus, several pairs of New Zealand sea lions - mothers and pups were dotted along the beach slumbering in the spring sunshine.

New Zealand sea lion - whakahao

The Escarpment Walkway - a new challenge on Te Araroa

Local walkers are out in their hundreds walking the new escarpment track between Paekakariki and Pukerua Bay, which is great news for Paekakariki cafes and the shops in Pukerua Bay. The new track allows Te Araroa walkers (people walking the length of New Zealand) to avoid a long pavement walk alongside busy traffic on Centennial Highway. Instead they climb many, many steps up to about 220m and walk above the traffic and railway line. The views from the track on a good day, are stunning, with the South Island off to the distance and Kapiti Island much closer. Bits of Te Araroa are popular day walks and this will surely become one that many (but not all - see below under vertigo!) Wellington walkers will enjoy.

Return to Blue Lake - More Blue Ducks

Last month I returned to Blue Lake. I'd visited the lake a year ago and blogged about it in Trouble In Paradise after witnessing an attempted attack on an endangered blue duck or whio by a rat. I'd told my tramping companions about the blue ducks we'd sighted last time, so we had high expectations of seeing some beautiful whio again - and we were hoping not to have a repeat of the rat incident!

Mountains and clouds reflected in Blue Lake

Encounters with Toutouwai, the New Zealand Robin

Just how rare are Toutouwai - New Zealand Robins? Until last week I'd only ever seen South Island robins in the wild.  In remote and beautiful places like the Kahurangi National Park and the Waitutu forest, these robins hop trustingly up to trampers, they'd sit on my boot or scratch around on the path that I'd just walked along. But to see a North Island robin (yes they are a little different) I thought I'd have to take a trip to a sanctuary like Mana Island or Zealandia.

So I was blown away to discover these delightful birds living in the wilderness in Whanganui National Park.

Behind the Scenes - Nature at Te Papa

Usually I'm out and about exploring nature - outside. But recently Wellington's 150th Capital Anniversary provided a special opportunity to explore nature indoors. An open day at the museum - Te Papa Tongarewa - was a unique chance to see some of the treasures stored there.

The day started with a guided behind-the-scenes tour of the Botany collection. Te Papa's curators had carefully selected some treasures to show us, from plants collected by Solander on Cook's 1st voyage 1768-1771

Solander's collection orchid and tree fern

to the now extinct Cook's scurvy plant

A Cool Visit to NIWA's Sea Critter Collection

Ned (illustrator of the 'explore and discover' books) and I were excited to be invited to NIWA along with the wonderful people from the Wellington Storylines Family Day committee. There we met with Sadie Mills, a deep ocean specialist who is in charge of the NIWA Invertebrate Collection.

Sadie telling us about the collection

Visiting New Zealand's Forest Giants in Waipoua Forest

White skeletons stand out starkly among the green of the Waipoua Forest - they are dead kauri trees. As if the tree-felling, milling, gum collecting and land clearing weren't enough to put this giant tree in danger, sadly they are now succumbing to a silent fungus-like disease called kauri die-back.

White branches indicate kauri die-back

A long overdue visit to the far North, meant that it was close to 20 years since I last visited the forest giants Tane Mahuta and Te Matua Ngahere as well as the Four Sisters. Because kauri only grow in the north of the North Island they seemed exotic to us, rare beings, even then there were only a few giant specimens standing. Still the forest appeared lush and the kauri mighty.

Today the giant Tane Mahuta (52 metres high) and Te Matua Ngahere are still impressive.

Beautiful Blue Ducks at Blue Lake - but there is trouble in paradise

The poster in the hut on the Travers-Sabine trail asked for sightings of rare birds and animals - weka, blue duck (Maori name whio, pronounced 'fee-o'), kea, kaka, black-eyed gecko, rock wren. Being observant trampers, it was with high hopes we set off to record sightings. The rushing mountain streams seemed a likely place for whio.  After three days and not a whio whistle, we came to Blue Lake or Rotomairewhenua (land of peaceful waters), surely the highlight of any tramp in this area.

Blue Lake - Rotomairewhenua

Gannets at Muriwai - day trip from Auckland

The gannet is a beautiful bird, snowy white, with black-tipped wings, yellow head, blue eyes.

 I often see one or two from my window, gliding, beak pointed downwards eyeing the sea below. If I watch long enough I'll see the bird suddenly dive at startling speeds.

These impressive birds feature on the first pages of Under the Ocean, where Ned has illustrated them at all stages of their diving.

They don't nest around here, but I've seen them nesting near Cape Kidnappers, we walked for a few hours along the beach to see them, leaving as the tide was going out and returning before it came back in again.