Sat. Dec 14 - Albatross!!

We got up at seven and walked down the street three doors to the Albatross Encounter center where we are to start our boat trip this morning.  Cleverly they also have a café and do a brisk business feeding people before & after their swim-with-dolphins or albatross trips.  We had a good breakfast of whole wheat crepes with cherries for me and a “baby kiwi” breakfast for RRZ: only one egg, sausage, bacon, tomato, mushrooms and toast, and muesli for Hil!  Kiwis are crazy for good coffee everywhere and we had strong decaf flat whites (cappuccinos).

Boarding the boat

Cape Petrel

Wandering Albatross

Northern Giant Petrel

Salvin's Albatross

Wandering Albatross

11 foot wing span!

Westland Petrel

At 8:50 Gary, our captain, picked us and four others up in a van and drove us to the south side of the peninsula where we found our boat up on a trailer.  We climbed a ladder and boarded the boat before a tractor guided the boat into the water.  I’ve never boarded that way before, but it seemed to work!

Gary revved up the motor and we dashed out into the ocean, bouncing violently up and down for about 20 minutes when he cut the engine and threw out a rope mesh bag full of fish liver.  Several birds - pretty black and white Cape Petrels - had been following us as they knew what to expect!  Six large dark Northern Giant Petrels flew up and began fighting over the fish, and then a very large white bird with a 11’ wingspan landed and took over - a Wandering Albatross!  Gary told us that she was a nesting female collecting food for her offspring probably on the Auckland Islands about 800 miles south - so the poor lady was justified in fighting off the others!

Food fight!

Two more Wanderings came in but they were not nesting (their bills were pale as the first one’s was bright pink signifying a rush of nursing hormones) and just hung around picking up scraps from the feeding frenzy near the fish guts bag.   Then two different Albatross landed: smaller, less aggressive, members of the “Shy Tribe”, Salvin’s and White-capped.  These are lovely birds with shading around their eyes like eye makeup and colorful bills.

Then a fin appeared in the water that Gary said was a Blue Shark, a small shark that didn’t even frighten the birds but managed to get some scraps.

We headed back in for some close ups of fur seals and then headed back to the boat ramp and were pulled ashore and unboarded on land.  A really great pelagic birding trip!!  And nine more birds for Bob’s list - up to 42 now!

We had mushroom soup at the Encounter Café, and then returned to the south side of the peninsula and found a wonderful walking track that curved up onto the cliff tops and eventually connects with our trail of yesterday.  More wonderful views and wild flowers and brilliant Yellowhammer birds, but not the Cirl Bunting which looks almost identical to the Yellowhammer, but has so far avoided Bob’ life list.  We returned at six (it stays light until 9:30) and drove past our apartment to a roadside van that is supposed to sell the best, and hopefully cheaper, local crayfish (spiny lobsters).  He had gone, probably sold out on a Saturday afternoon, so we’ll try again tomorrow. The restaurants sell a whole crayfish for $80-100, which even in NZ$ is outrageous!  

Yellowhammer

Marlborough Daisys

We changed and made a booking at the Green Dolphin and drove the short ways there to a pleasant restaurant which was jammed full of Christmas revelers and had pappardelle with lamb for Hil and me and really fresh delicious fish with roasted root vegetables for RR.  Home at 10 and to bed.