Even though seeing Grizzly bears in Alaska up close and personal was amongst my most amazing moments in nature ever, the lack of apex predators was one of the best things about New Zealand. When waking up in the middle of the night to gaze at the Milky Way, we could just open the RV's door, step outside and walk into the woods without having to look out for bears or other large creatures.
During many of the hikes we did we were all alone on the trail. In forests, on beaches as well as on high mountain peaks we did encounter lots of New Zealand wildlife. As you might know the wildlife over there mainly consists of birds, lots of them. Not being accustomed to natural predators they behave in a rather remarkable fashion - as opposed to the birds we are used to in Europe (or the US for that matter). It was only when the Europeans - after coming to the beautiful islands - introduced rodents that the birds first had an enemy. The introduction of rodents and humans for that matter has caused a decrease in the number of many birds, but I will not get into that now...
It was mostly on the South Island that we had close encounters with our feathered little friends. First they seem to behave like "regular" birds, but when we remained still and quiet for a while they come closer and just don't seem to be bothered by humans. Larger birds like the Weka just wander around looking for little small shellfish and other sea creatures to feed on.
On other ocassions we encountered Fantails and Tomtits. Escpecially the Fantails are active little bastards, but the funny thing was, when we stopped on a trail and waited for a Fantail to come closer and try and mimic their sounds they actually came very close. It was very cool to see the birds' behaviour and of course I tried my best to capture some nice shots of them, which turned out pretty good actually.
But of course the coolest of them all is the Kea. Once notorious for killing many sheep - by eating the fat of the backs of live sheep - in the late 18th and 19th century, these days they are know as the Clown of the Mountain. The cheeky Kea these days will try and steal unguarded clothing or shoes and will tear pieces of rubber from cars if you're not careful. Of course your food is never safe for the Kea.
We came across the beautiful alpine parrot on multiple occasions. We could hear them flying above our heads in Arthur's Pass while their laughter echoed across the valley, a couple of them were messing about with an old shoe at the tunnel near Milford Sound and as many as six of them were putting on quite a show during our ascend of Ben Lomond about half way through the top. It looked like they were deciding who was allowed to sit at the top of a rock, but by the way they acted it almost looked like an act - maybe it was a bit...After all, they aren't called the Clown of the Mountain for nothing
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