Kaikoura’s special seabirds, Hutton’s Shearwater, nest in mountains!

reposting as updated

Kiwi Travel Writer talks food, travel, and tips

I’m reposting this with new photos after my summer holiday trip to Kaikoura earlier this month.

Here are the new photos of the Hutton’s nesting grounds on the peninsula — read more to learn about how these birds were translocated and why.

The earthquakes of November 2016 wiped out huge numbers of the birds’ mountain colonies and I was pleased to see that this new peninsula one is thriving – including now grandchild chicks ie chicks of new colony-raised birds, being hatched successfully.

But, let’s go back to 2005 and see how it all happened…

Once upon a time, as many good stories begin, I went for a misty morning walk in Kaikoura, New Zealand , with members of the Sierra Club (USA).

We took photos of seals, climbed over styles, and walked around the headland of the Kaikoura Peninsula. At the top we came across an eerie scene…

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Christchurch’s Arts Centre reopening soon – hurrah

I thought I’d repost this piece so visitors to Christchurch know the Arts Centre needs to be on your bucket-list esp. as the Great Hall has reopened. I will be back in the city in a few weeks to check out many events at the WORD Readers & Writers festival and will absolutely be off to the Art Centre which is one of my favourite haunts.

Kiwi Travel Writer talks food, travel, and tips

Over the past five years, returning to the city of my birth, Christchurch, New Zealand, was often like returning to school – but the old three R’s rule of reading, writing and ’rithmetic had been replaced with different R’s – I often had to ask if it has been reopened, renovated, relocated or reduced-to-rubble. Unfortunately, with something like 80% of the inner-city, my old stomping ground, demolished because of quake damage, many were reduced to rubble or relocated.

Of course many of my favourites have another R as they remained-open or have reopened after minor damage was repaired, while a few had to close temporarily while neighbouring buildings were ‘de-constructed’.

A few of my special city-centre places in the remained open (or just closed briefly) category are, The Classic Villa; Canterbury Museum; Botanic Gardens; and The Antigua Boat Sheds.

Two months before the September 2010 quakes, a mayoral candidate said…

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Birds in Florida, USA