Day 29: Lake Hawea to Glenorchy
Monday 10 February 2014
80 °F
Today my family and I traveled from our wonderful hotel on the shore of Lake Hawea to our...um...cozy (to say the least) backpacker's lodge near Glenorchy. It is fairly clean, at least, which makes it a couple notches better than our abode in Christchurch.
Our first stop of the drive was at an old mining town nestled in the mountains. Just before the California gold rush set in, this town experienced a huge gold rush in the nearby mountains, temporarily boosting the economy. Chinese people flocked to this town, seeking a fortune, but sadly the other settlers treated them extremely condescendingly and were very racist as prejudiced towards them. We saw many small shacks (including the one in the picture below) in which the Chinese were forced to live:
Before a quick lunch in town, I spotted this lovely, albeit nonnative COMMON CHAFFINCH:
Our last stop of the day was at a lookout beside the highway. I love the mountains in New Zealand.
After we arrived at our "cozy" backpackers' lodge, I birded a little and found the species pictured below as well as introduced finches from Europe like YELLOWHAMMER and EUROPEAN GOLDFINCH.
AUSTRALASIAN HARRIER:
NEW ZEALAND FANTAIL:
NEW ZEALAND BELLBIRD:
The last birds of the night were a nice pair of very outgoing PARADISE SHELDUCKS:
Wifi will be very spotty for the next three days, so I don't know how frequently I will be able to post in the near future.
Whatever the case may be, keep watching the blog for further updates, and as always, good birding!
Henry
World Life List: 513 Species (no new life birds today)
Posted by skwclar 16:05 Archived in New Zealand
