Motuara Island

Motuara island is a magical little place in the Queen Charlotte Sound, right at the edge of the Cook Strait. The lookout at the top provides spectacular views of the over the Sounds, and often all the way to the North Island. It's also a life raft for a variety of endangered birds (and other New Zealand wildlife) that have been released onto the island to save them from extinction.

Yellow-crowned parakeet

South Island robin

Saddleback - almost like a ghost in the forest

Grey warbler

New Zealand wood pigeon/kereru

New Zealand fur seal

Silvereye

Juvenile bellbird

Views out the the outer Queen Charlotte Sound

Bottlenose dolphins in New Zealand

There are only a few populations and sub-populations of bottlenose dolphins around New Zealand's coastlines. A small population of maybe as few as 200 dolphins sometimes visits the Marlborough Sounds at the top of the South Island. They are usually a delight to watch, as they are known for their impressive acrobatic displays. They can quite easily leap more than their body length vertically out of the water!

Hector's dolphins in the Sounds

Hector's dolphins are small dolphins that are only found in coastal waters around New Zealand. I've been lucky to see these rare and endangered dolphins in a few places, but none as good as in the Queen Charlotte Sound. In other parts of New Zealand I've experienced these dolphins to be quite shy and elusive, but in the Queen Charlotte Sound there is a small population of Hector's dolphins that are curious and even playful and times. One individual that stands out is a very curious female who seems to to enjoy the odd scratch against stationary boats. We called this curious dolphin Georgina.

A curious dolphin called Georgina

Exploring Picton's wildlife

Some of the local wildlife in and around the Picton township:

Juvenile bellbird

Chorus cicada

New Zealand woodpigeon/kereru

Fern frond

Silvereyes

A walk in Waikawa

My current home - Picton in the Marlborough Sounds. This was just another day, going for a walk along the marina to check out the birds the bees, and the boats on this stunning sunny Marlborough day.

Black-billed gull. One of the rarest gull species in the world

New Zealand fantail

Bellbird feeding on a kowhai flower

Routeburn Track - a great walk

The Routeburn track is one of the 10 great walks in New Zealand and often the highest rated. This great walk is located in Fiordland National Park, one of the most wild remaining areas of New Zealand. The area is well known for its high rainfall and changeable alpine weather. We started and ended the three-day trip with rain but got lucky right in the middle of it when the views were the most stunning on day two!

Hooker Valley visit

The Hooker Valley track is a short and easy walking track in Mt Cook National Park. Luckily on this beautiful spring day the very popular track wasn't too busy, so we could enjoy mostly uninterrupted views over the Mueller Glacier and Hooker Lake with Mt Cook as the backdrop.