Some of the rarest wildlife in the world!

Luckily we didn't have much rubber on show for the Kea to rip off. He still found a couple of unprotected bits, though it was well worth getting so close to a brilliant bird.



This Kea loved Lee's Canon Eos 350d. They are very intellegent birds and after hearing about the blog he let Lee get some good shots.


The Black Stilt is the rarest wader in the world. There were quite a few juveniles so here near Mt. Cook is their strong hold. All birds carried transmitters and are colour ringed to aid in the recovery project.

Sunset on Mt. Cook. We didn't have the correct gear to climb it but the view from its base was fantastic. Out of frame to the left was Huddleston glacier.

A Hookers sea lion on the beach on the Otago peninsular. This is also the rarest sea lion in the world. It was very cold and windy on the beach with sand blowing everywhere, though this juvenile bull was just waking up and having a stretch in comfort.

Yellow-eyed penguins are moulting at this time of year and spend more time ashore to replace all their feathers at once. This bird had a brown back and a very faint yellow eye stripe, unlike the blue back and strong eye stripe. Oh yes and this is the rarest penguin in the world!