The start of a new little adventure, this time to Queensland. I was planning on coming over here around August and doing both the Brisbane and Cairns areas but it started to get a bit stretched out, so I made a bit of a last minute decision to split it into two shorter trips, the first for twelve days to Brisbane, primarily for the Lamington National Park, and the second to Cairns for maybe three weeks, primarily for the Daintree and Atherton Tablelands (that'll be in August). So here I am, in Brisbane (which has a river running through it, funny [View Full Entry]

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New Zealand has a lot of introduced animals. Some were brought here for hunting, like rabbits and deer; some were brought for often-misguided attempts at pest control, like the little birds and ferrets; some were brought for nostalgic reasons, like swans; and some were brought for no good reason at all, like wallabies and frogs. Most of the introduced species are now pests to varying degrees, from the possums that munch their way through an estimated 20,000 tonnes of vegetation every night, to the stoats that kill up to 95% of kiwi chicks every year. But some are to all intents [View Full Entry]

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In the middle of the Wellington Harbour sits Somes Island, also known by its Maori name of Matiu. In former times it was used as a quarantine island, not just for lepers and other diseased immigrants but also for farm animals. Before the arrival of Europeans the island's strategic position in the harbour made it attractive to warring Maori. Today Somes is an island sanctuary for native wildlife. My main reason for wanting to visit was to try and find a Brothers Island tuatara. There are only two species of tuatara in the whole world. The common tuatara is found on [View Full Entry]

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To the northwest of Wellington is the Kapiti Coast, named after big old Kapiti Island which lies just offshore. The island covers 1965 hectares and was once a stronghold for naughty Maori warrior Te Rauparaha. There was also farming on there by the pakeha, which is somewhat difficult to believe when clambering half a kilometre up the steep mountain that covers most of the island. Anyway, Kapiti became a nature reserve way back in 1897 and a number of rare native birds were released there over the years. Huia were discussed but nothing happened about it due to political bickering and [View Full Entry]

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Today I flew into Wellington. I rarely get up to the North Island -- the last time was in 2002 in fact -- so I thought we should make a trip up there and do some of the things that New Zealand's mighty capital has to offer. Its not often anyone states that they are excited to be going to Wellington, but I was happy to say it. On the cards were visits to the Karori Sanctuary, Kapiti Island, Somes Island and other birdy places. Because what else is there to do when travelling? So we picked up a rental car [View Full Entry]

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The Otago Museum in Dunedin has recently opened their new "Tropical World" butterfly house, so Robyn and I took a quick overnight trip down there to check it out. We did a few things that we also did last December when in Dunedin (the albatross colony, the aquarium, yellow-eyed penguins, things like that) so I won't repeat them here but there are photos to follow. What I will cover is the Tropical World, the Cadbury chocolate factory and Landon Creek Bird Sanctuary, but mostly this blog entry is just an excuse to put on a bunch of photos... The Tropical World [View Full Entry]

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The thylacine is known by many names. Tasmanian tiger, Tasmanian wolf...well, I guess that's about all really. Once upon a time it dealt its tigery vengeance amongst marsupials all over Australia. The introduction of the dingo by Indonesian traders about 4000 years ago doomed the thylacine on the mainland and by the time Europeans discovered the country it was restricted to Tasmania. Which is where I have been. Funny that. The last known living thylacine was a female called Benjamin that lived at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart until 1936. A law was passed to protect the species a few months [View Full Entry]

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My last place to visit in Tasmania was Maria Island, about an hour north of Hobart. It was named by good old Abel Tasman in 1642 after Maria van Diemen, wife of the Governor of Batavia (that's Java to us modern folk). Van Diemen himself had already had the whole rest of Tasmania named after him, as Van Diemen's Land. A few hundred years of Australian accents have changed the pronunciation though, so now the island is called Ma-rye-a Island rather than Ma-ree-a Island. Like the rest of Australia, Maria Island started out being used as a convict settlement but it [View Full Entry]

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Just above Hobart is a big mountain called Mount Wellington (everything in Tasmania is named after English nobility). On the lower slopes of the mountain is a tiny little town, or suburb if you will, called Fern Tree. This is quite a popular area for visiting birders, and also popular with your general tourist types too who want to walk up the mountain. Fortunately Fern Tree is well-served by the local bus route. Its a very nice wee place as well. The forest here is filled with tree ferns and huge moss-covered fallen trees. I was here looking for a particular [View Full Entry]

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The bus from Launceston to Hobart took about two hours. Yes, that's how small Tasmania actually is. I stayed the night at Central City Backpackers, which I liked for its apparent hiring policy of only employing hot girls. Renee at the desk acted as my information officer telling me all the bus timetables etc I would need while in the area. In the morning I walked to the Botanic Gardens (being Tasmania there isn't any public transport to get there!), spotting the endemic yellow wattlebird along the way. Yellow wattlebirds are big honeyeaters with long dangly wattles on the throat. Their [View Full Entry]

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