Rainbows and Birdies on the North Island

Brilliant Rainbow over Auckland 

Fruits &cold cereals were more
 in line with my idea of breakfast

Today started with Ila and I 'going for' the Ibis hotel's ₤22 NZ  continental breakfast. The buffet had soooo very much food it made it hard to pick what to eat.

There was even an area that had Japanese breakfast - soups and white rice, but I decided to skip the Asian food and I can tell you that was a first.

Kinda, sorta a New Zealand breakfast

There was the usual fruits, porridge and pan cakes (extra fee).

And there was the usual European breakfast stuffs: cold cuts, salami, cheeses, green peppers, tomatoes, etc. that my American palate associates more with lunch than as breakfast fare.  

I stuck with the fruits, cold milky porridge stuff (which I still don 't what it is called, but I love it) and of course, pastries.

Oh yeah, almost forgot there was not only Vegemite, but Marmite too. Yum! Not joking, I actually like the stuff. Both these famous concoctions are the yeast and stuff left over from brewing beer. Nice on toast or crackers. As Uncle Matt likes to joke, 'It'll make you beautiful: put hair on your chest!'

Breakfast concluded, we got our stuff, then climbed into the barge... I mean the SUV. Soon I realized the GPS wasn't working. After two hours of more or less driving in circles we eventually hit the Wellington Airport. There at the car rental place we got a functioning GPS. Whew! From there it was four hours to our next stop, Napier.

The coolest thing was we ran across was a  rainbow filled sky that glittered over sheep filled meadows. A zillion photos had to be taken of said rainbow.

Then, as we drove through lovely countryside, I had some incredible birding luck, spotting a meadow with BIRDIES!  I deserted - temporarily - Ila, and with camera crossed a road to a farming pasture with horse and several busy little Pukekos meandering about, feeding on bugs and such.

Pukekos rummaging in a horse pasture by a farmhouse

Fairly primitive looking fowl is the Pukeko aka New Zealand Swamphen) 

Masked Lapwing with yellow face

Then, I was near floored when I spotted another couple of birds for which I had zero idea of what I was looking at! They had black caps, a black necklace band, and strange yellow skinned faces. They made the Pukekos look bland by comparison.


The strange little birds were Spur-winged plovers aka Masked Lapwings.

Masked Lapwings hunting bugs in the pasture

Australian Magpie

There was a nice Australian Magpie in the meadow as well. I'd seen many magpies since the start of the trip on the south island, but this was my first chance to photograph any. Not great resolution as the bird was far enough away to challenge my poor little Lumix camera's telephoto range.



And, as they say, 'that's not all folks!' When I finally tore myself away from the beautiful birds, we traveled only a few kilometers when I spotted a marsh, down below the road, that was filled... I mean filled with beautiful black splotches... Australian Black Swans - be still my heart.

The black blips are Black Swans as far as the eye could see

The swans were busy grazing on the grass

White-faced Heron

And the birder joy kept coming. Overhead a harrier flew by, followed by a beautiful White-faced Heron.





So a few birdies to view and photograph and the day was MINE, YAHOO! Our final stop for the day was the small town of Napier. There is no obvious tourist trap type places in Napier, so it was mostly just a place for us to be down for the night. We stayed at a small motel, that didn't have a restaurant. So for dinner, we went downtown, and there walked around looking for a place to eat. We ended up having a modest Asian meal at a small, deli style spot. You could have fed me hay tonight though, and I'd have hardly noticed - because I was still agog over the cool birds I got to see and photograph today.