Birdzones

Kinloch Road looking towards Mt Aspiring National Park

The remains of a cottage overlooking the river on Kinloch Road

On the long journey from Dunedin to Glenorchy, we amused ourselves counting harrier hawks. We stayed at Routeburn Farm Cottage situated at the head of Lake Wakatipu, 6kms from the start of the Routeburn Track and close to both the Dart and the Rees Valleys.

One of several, very friendly robins

The following  morning, on a fence post by the house, we saw a robin the first of several during the day. On an overcast and wet day we walked through the beech forest to Lake Sylvan, staying fairly dry amongst the beech trees. We heard, and could see shapes of riflemen in the tops of the trees, as they darted around in the canopy. Robins, tomtits, fantails, grey warblers, brown creeper accompanied us on our slow amble to the lake.

The orange triangle on the trunks show you're on the right track

Part of the flock of Canada Geese

Returning home, we passed a large flock of canada geese in a paddock near to the cottage, and then we sat and watched a New Zealand falcon. The geese we saw several times during our stay, but the falcon only once.

A hawk hovering above the swollen Dart River

Arcadia

Driving along the road to Paradise, some 15km northwest of Glenorchy, Arcadia came into view. This impressive house was built around 1908 by Englishman Joseph Fenn. The sometimes-noisy paradise shelduck, gave its name to this area.