Other areas outside Britain to visit for wildlife, New Zealand

New Zealand is a long way away from other land masses even Australia. The north Island is most similar to the UK although the climate is somewhat warmer and wetter. There are flat areas and hilly areas but also mountains, volcanoes, hot springs, fine coastal scenery and some native forests. The south Island is divided into two distinct regions; the eastern part between Christchurch and Dunedin is generally intensively farmed and looks like parts of Britain especially eastern Scotland and has many of the same plant species, the rest of south Island is much more mountainous and has large areas of native vegetation. The far south west (Fiordland) has spectacular scenery, is little explored and gets many metres of rain and snow each year.

North Island

Mt. Taranaki (Mt Egmont) is one of the highest volcanoes (2518m) on the north Island. It has a beautiful distinctive cone which can be seen above the relatively flat surrounding peninsula from at least 100 miles away. However the prevailing westerly winds mean that the mountain is nearly always covered in cloud (it was clear for 20 minutes one evening but I was in the chip shop so missed the picture, New Zealanders do very good fish and chips in huge portions although other take aways such as Indian are less pleasant). On the mountain's highest slopes dense cushions of moss and several species of higher plants pack close to the ground with just clumps of the native Chionochloa grass braving the strong winds and cold. Lower down there is an amazing podocarp/Cordyline indivisa forest [picture above] absolutely brimming with mosses and ferns.
Rotorua geothermal area is a must on most people's itinerary. There are many locations to visit for hot springs, geysers, boiling mud pools etc., it is too commercialised for my liking but still worth a visit. Going south from Rotorua there are volcanoes which occasionally erupt. When they are calm the area is used for skiing and mountain walking. Just to the east of these volcanoes is the 'desert road', a highway through an area of volcanic ash with low rainfall. There are a number of low cushion like plant species.
The Coromandel peninsula is little visited even though it is fairly close to Auckland, New Zealand's main city. There are plenty of tree ferns, still a few huge Kauri trees left in the forests and excellent bird watching especially round Thames. On a short section of coast road north of the town I saw over 30 kingfishers sitting on a wire over the incoming tide, waiting to catch their breakfast I suppose. In town a new supermarket was built right up to the seashore by some mangroves, this did not seem to deter the thousands of waders [below] too much and there was a birdwatching hide next door!

South Island

A circuit round the island starting at Christchurch on the east coast, going north to Abel Tasman national park, then right down the west coast, cutting across central Otago in the south to Dunedin and eventually back up the east coast towards Christchurch.

Christchurch - a pleasant rather English city. To the east a short bus ride away is Crater Rim Walkway with fine views of Lyttleton harbour and patches of native scrub vegetation.
Kaikoura - on the east coast. Famed for whale watching. Many operators take boats, planes and helicopters out although of course it depends on the time of year and weather so allow extra days here if you want to be sure of seeing something. There are also nice walks along the limestone cliffs and beaches which often contain sealions (New Zealand fur seals) and a variety of seabirds.
Abel Tasman national park- on the north coast. The main town is Takaka a very laid back place with a variety of interesting wholefood cafes. There is good walking in the hill forests which contain plenty of epiphytes and tree ferns including the national plant - silver tree fern with its huge fronds. Some of the tracks come out at deserted [in March] white sand beaches. Possibly my favourite area especially since there was an earthquake (5.9 on Richter scale) one morning as we were having breakfast outside the tent. There were also several of purple gallinules (picture right) marching up and down the campsite more or less oblivious of us and the shaking ground.
Pancake rocks (Punakaiki and the Paparoa National Park) Low layered limestone sea cliffs with many blow holes and caves. Popular with visitors. A walkway leads from a small car/coach park and cafe through native bush to the coast but access is generally limited. There are other inland walking tracks in the national park.
Arthur's pass/Lewis pass Mountainous areas with many good walks through native woodland and alpine meadows. In March there were white gentians in flower near Arthur's pass and several other native species of plants in fruit, slightly further down there were spectacular orange lilies also in full flower although these were introduced aliens.
Glaciers There are several glaciers in the Westland National Park. Fox glacier and Franz Josef glacier are the main ones flowing west. They are extremely mobile with many long distance advances and retreats recorded through recent history due to the very high rain/snow fall in this area. It is possible to walk up the valleys and see many typical glacial features although it is rather unusual to see rainforest growing so close to the ice. Glaciers are best seen from the air and there are swarms of helicopters and planes waiting to provide the white knuckle ride.
Haast There are some beautiful beaches along this section of coast and fine sand dunes with native species of sand binding grass and sedge. There are also fine native forests much of the way along the west coast. Some of the trees have up to 40(?) species of epiphyte growing on them which is even more than in tropical forests. Picture right suggests endless blue sky and indeed you can be lucky with the weather but the image below of Milford sound is a much more usual reflection of the situation.
Milford Sound Reached by a long and winding road through spectacular scenery. Milford Sound itself is a 22km long fjord with towering mountains rising directly from the sea and numerous waterfalls cascading over tree clad cliffs. The area gets 6 metres of rain per year to keep the waterfalls going and the rainforest luxuriant. However biting sandflies are a major problem in this area and indeed over most parts of the west coast. They can make walking and camping at lower levels miserable.
Fiordland in general is an unspoilt wilderness, there are several different types of forest, alpine areas, rich marine life and some of the last remaining strongholds for native bird species.
Queenstown A base for west coast trekking and any kind of dangerous sport.
Central Otago Much drier than the west coast, an extensive area of sheep grazing often with native grass species (rather than the intensively grazed pastures in other areas).
Dunedin and Otago Peninsula Several good sites for wildlife including penguins and seals. There is also a colony of royal albatross, which starred in David Attenborough's 'Trials of Life' TV series. These amazing birds have a 3 metre wingspan but only tend to fly if there is a strong wind blowing.
Omarau Colonies of little blue and yellow eyed penguins [right] close to town. Some penguin species including these two are only visible on land for a short period of the day (or/and year) so you need to check before hand (to avoid 10 hours of staring at an empty beach then leaving the hide for 10 minutes only to find they have walked from the sea to their nests and are not visible again!)
Also near Omarau are the Moeraki boulders, remarkable septarian concretions which are being eroded out of the mudstone cliffs. They look like huge marbles.

Other pictures

Guide books

There are many guide books on New Zealand but they are often tricky to get hold of in the UK e.g. it took 9 months for an interlibrary loan copy of volume 4 of the standard NZ flora to arrive. Places to look include large or specialist bookshops, the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley, Surrey and Kew gardens both have a good range of natural history books and floras. There are also on-line services such as the Natural History Book Service which are searchable.

Lonely Planet Guide, New Zealand. (1994). Wheeler, T., Keller, N., Williams, J. 770p. Very useful guide book which includes some natural history and walking data. One slight criticism is that it is difficult to locate information in the book
Flora of New Zealand vol I. (1961). Allan, H.H., Government printer, Wellington. [native gymnosperms & dicots]
Flora of New Zealand vol II. (1970). Moore, L.B. & Edgar, E. Government printer, Wellington. [native non-grass monocots].
Flora of New Zealand vol III. (1980). Healy, A.J. & Edgar, E. Government printer, Wellington. [introduced non-grass monocots, and natives in the same genus].
Flora of New Zealand. vols IV. (1988). Webb, C.J., Sykes, W.R., & Garnock-Jones, P.J. Botany Division, D.S.I.R., Christchurch, New Zealand. 1365p. [naturalised pteridophytes, gymnosperms, dicotyledons].
Edgar, E. and Connor, H.E. 2000. Flora of New Zealand Volume V: Grasses.
Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln, N.Z.

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