First, three photos of the New Zealand Alpine parrot, the Kea. The first two were taken at the top of Avalanche Peak above Arthur's Pass. The second one is probably my best photo to date! This was taken from about 10 yards away. The third photo shows just how tame they really are - this one is eating an apple left by some "kind" tourist in the car park at the base of the Fox Glacier.
Three photos of oystercatchers taken late afternoon on a beach near Warkworth, which is a little to the North of Auckland.
The New Zealand equivalent of our blue tit - known as the fan-tail. This was taken on a coastal stretch of the walk around the Abel Tasman National Park.
Random small creatures - the first two were taken on the spit to the south of Melbourne whilst the dragonfly was taken on the walk down from Avalanche Peak - about an hour after the first two kea photos.
Dolphins and seals on Milford Sound.
Onto the best wildlife bit - Oamaru, which was about 200 miles south of Christchurch. First, the shags which congregated on a jetty immediately to the left of the viewing area of the Little Blue Penguins (see bottom).
this one I took as it hurtled past the viewing hut on Bushy Beach.
From that hut I took the six photos below. The first one is of
the whole beach - the headland is about a kilometre distant. The
sea-lion appeared quite close to the hut - probably about 100
yards distant. The first two penguin photos are a bit poor - but
they were 200-300 yards distant and photoshop has come in handy
to get anything vaguely worth showing!
The last few photos - first of one of the yellow-eyed penguins waddling ashore. Then three of it in its nest, which was in the bank at the top end of the beach, just 5 or so yards from the walkway that led from the car park to the viewing hut. The last photo is actually just a zoom of the penultimate one.
Last of all - the Little Blue Penguins coming ashore a little after sunset to meet up with those who'd been housekeeping for the day. The sound of these penguins "talking" is superb - something like a comedy snoring sound probably best describes it!
