Ulva Island - Te Wharawhara

Like Tiritiri Matangi Island near Auckland, Ulva Island is an open sanctuary which means that anyone can visit this natural island. The seven minute boat ride is only $25, both cheaper and shorter than our 90 minute ride to Tiritiri. Guides can be had for another $70 so we decided to try it on our own. Our hotel shuttled us down to the taxi landing and we were off for our four hour visit to Ulva Island.

Blue Penguin on the water. Out only picture of this tiny creature.

Ulva has a series of trails for visitors and we are required to stay on those trails, so in a sense a guide is superfluous. The advantage is that they will recognize the bird calls, but we still have to actually see them and given that there are only about 15 birds that live on Ulva Island, they are relatively easy to identify once heard and found. We are pretty good at that so we opted to guide ourselves.

Trails are well maintained for easy walking

View from Post Office Beach

We had no more than landed when we were accosted by a weka. These chicken-like birds are not at all shy and will actually attack anything you have looking for food. If you stand still for a minute, they will give your shoes a try. As we stopped for a break on one bench, I had one peck at my hand. It was a hard peck, but the beak is too rounded to break the skin.

Weka attacking our pack

After this initial encounter with the weka we headed off on our first trail across the island to Boulder Beach. A short way up this trail we found a “Nature Trail” that wasn’t on the map. Only about 200 metres long, this trail has signs naming and describing the many trees on the island. We walked it both ways and had our first exciting bird sightings. Three Yellowheads entertained us for several minutes. Jeff, our hotel host, told us he had to visit the island several times before he saw his first Yellowhead. We also had some good views of the Kaka, one of New Zealand’s endemic parrots. This large bird is easily identified by its raucous calling across the forest. Several of them together almost drown out the other birds. They are also aggressive. Rhondda told us they will even come into our hotel room if we leave the door open for them. We also saw a group of six Brown Creepers feeding in the trees on this trail. These birds have an interesting breeding pattern. The dominant male and female mate and they are helped by several other birds caring for the chicks.

Kaka

Yellowhead

After about an hour we reached boulder beach where we met another weka. This one came running across the beach toward us as soon as we emerged from the forest. Even though we had no food to offer (and wouldn’t offer it if we did) he kept up with us as we crossed the beach to the trail to East End Beach. It was on this trail that we found the elusive Kiwi, New Zealand’s iconic national symbol. They actually have six different Kiwis, but this is one place where it is relatively easy to spot them. We were hoping since we had decided to pass on the $200 per person kiwi viewing tour after dark. The problem with finding them is that they are nocturnal and emerge from the their dens only after dark. They are noisy when feeding and tend to be unafraid, so seeing them isn’t supposed to be really difficult at night, but you still have to be in the right place at the right time. I had walked up to a spot near the hotel where they are often seen, but after standing in the wet grass until after midnight and watching the other people flashing their lights again and again, I gave up. So seeing this bird during the day on Ulva Island is a very rare treat. They do forage here during the day because the food here is more scarce than on the larger Stewart Island, but still less than one person in twenty will actually get to see one here. Jeff told us that the number has lately been closer to one in fifty.

Kiwi

Kiwi running down the trail

Kiwi entering its den

As often happens, Linda had walked ahead around a corner when I heard some rustling in the brush right beside the trail. I had hopes for a Kiwi, but expected that it was just another Weka. Then I saw the long beak of the Kiwi and hoped she would stick around long enough for me to call Linda. The bird came out onto the trail and rain about 30 meters along the trail in front of me before turning back into the forest. I caught up and called Linda thinking she might make it back in time to catch a glimpse. Fortunately, the Kiwi turned back towards the trail offering us some great views and giving Linda a chance to shoot a video. After watching for about five minutes more, our girl ducked into her den only a few feet from the trail. We suppose there are chicks in there. Perhaps if we had waited she would have reappeared, but who knows how long. So we headed on down the trail to the beach where we ate our sandwiches for lunch.

Saddleback. Note the red on the back.

On this trail to Sydney Cove we had our final good viewing of a special bird. South Island Saddlebacks are also a rare sight on this island. We had seen them on Tiritiri, but this one is genetically different even though they look the same. Overall we saw all the birds we wanted to see with one exception, the South Island Tomtit. It’s hard to complain though when we saw all those other birds including the elusive Kiwi without a guide to help us.

South Island Robin

Bellbird

On our return to Stewart Island, we began sharing our good fortune. Everyone we told seemed as excited as we were to have had such good looks at the Kiwi during the day. We do love being here in New Zealand with these wonderful people and the wilderness with its many birds.

Foliage is also interesting

A nurse log. Hemlock are the usual nurse logs in our Northwest forests.

This fern grows babies on its own leaves instead of casting spores into the winds.
Those that land right side up will grow up. The others die.