I took my time on the walk in as I wanted to check the Awapoko River New Zealand Dotterels. There is a nationwide survey going on as we speak and I wa spriveleged to have bneen given a few beaches to check. The dotterel is shown in one of the pictures below. They are endemic to the North of New Zealand and numbers are down to 1500. They nest just above the tideline and so are at the mercy of 4WD cras, dogs plus the usual rampage of introduced predators. So their numbers are in decline on most beaches except for the most remote or those where they are given special protection. They get neither on the Awapoko as cars drive down it fairly regularly.
I watched the birds for a good hour and rekon that there were 3 pairs in the area. Not a bad number. Here's hoping that they successfully breed this year.
I took some pictures along the walk. The shot of the sun through the tress is a kiwi classic photo. The tree is the Pohutakawa or NZ Christmas Tree, so named because it has bright red flowers at Christmas time. They are the most amazing twisted gnarly trees that favour coastlines. There are some fantastic specimens growing on the walk along to Puketu Island.
When I finally caught up with the fisher folk, Chantelle had landed a medium sized kahawai. I had never seen the water so calm at Aurere. We came last week and the onshore swell was so high that I was worried for Eric's safety on the same rocks. The wind had dropped and we were all enjoying a lovely evening when someone spotted a school (?) of orcas or killer whales coming towards us. We had fantastic views of a small group of perhaps 6 whales including an adult with a calf. Unforgettable!
Chantelle has put some video footage on her FB page if you want to see what we saw.
