Between November 2023 and March 2024, Natural History curator Colin Miskelly is walking the length of Aotearoa New Zealand on Te Araroa Trail – counting every bird seen or heard along the way. In this ninth blog in the series, Colin describes birds encountered between Taumarunui and the township of National Park.
Hikumutu Valley
From Taumarunui it is a short 22 km drive southeast on State Highway 4 to reach the small settlement of Ōwhango. Te Araroa Trail follows a less direct route – 5 km longer – along the Hikumutu River west of SH4.
The trail follows Hikumutu Road as it climbs through dairy then sheep farms to deer and goat farms on the steeper slopes.
At the head of the valley we walked past a logging gang on their lunch break, who generously shared their lunch of smoked marlin.
42 Traverse
From Ōwhango, Te Araroa Trail takes a second bulge to the east, following the 42 Traverse multi-purpose track then the Waione-Cokers Track through Tongariro Forest to join the eastern end of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.
This is another section of the trail that is skipped by most Te Araroa walkers. The only people we encountered in the 32 km between road ends were a Department of Conservation track maintenance team, and we saw no fresh footprints before our campsite beside the Mangatepopo Stream. In fact, we met no other Te Araroa walkers during the entire section, emphasising how few ‘Every Last Inch’ walkers there are this season.
Tongariro Crossing
The spectacular Tongariro Crossing is frequently described as New Zealand’s best and/or most popular day walk. Mount Tongariro stood out sharply against a clear blue sky as we set out (on foot of course) from Tongariro Holiday Park 7 km from the trail head – and 18 km from the highest point of the crossing.
Te Araroa Trail makes the Tongariro Crossing from Ketetahi (north-east) to Mangatepopo (south-west). Day-walkers are encouraged to walk the track in the opposite direction, and it was soon evident that the vast majority were from continental Europe or the United States. Each nationality has a tendency to walk on the same side of a pavement or trail as they drive on a road. The entire crossing was an exercise in brinksmanship over who would blink first regarding which side of the trail to walk on.
Mangatepopo Hut to National Park
Te Araroa Trail continues west from Mangatepopo Hut to Whakapapa, then follows the Round-the-Mountain Track and Mangahuia Track to rejoin State Highway 47 before the last 6 km road-walk to National Park Village.
Much of this walk is through low heathland vegetation dominated by Dracophyllum, mānuka, hebe, and tanglefern, with taller mountain beech forest in gullies and on lower slopes.
Birds of the Hikumutu Valley
The farmland birds of the Hikumutu Valley were much the same as the rest of rural New Zealand – dominated by species introduced from Europe (e.g. 209 house sparrows | tiu, 187 chaffinches | pahirini, 174 goldfinches | kōurarini, and 124 starlings | tāringi).
The birds became more interesting in the upper valley, including in the pine forest that was being felled. Highlights included 16 shining cuckoos | pīpīwharauroa, 11 tomtits | miromiro, 10 whiteheads | pōpokotea, 8 North Island robins | toutouwai, and 2 New Zealand falcons | karearea.
Birds of the Tongariro Forest
Our walk east from Ōwhango started with a major highlight – a pair of whio | blue ducks with two small ducklings on the Whakapapa River. I watched them for more than 40 minutes as they worked their way up the river edge to their evening roost site just below the bridge.
The Tongariro Forest had a diverse bird community dominated by endemic species. The most common species were whitehead | pōpokotea (159) and tomtit | miromiro (119), with the introduced chaffinch | pahirini in third place (102). Other prominent endemic species included bellbird | korimako (100), North Island robin | toutouwai (71), tūī (54), New Zealand fantail | pīwakawaka (53), grey warbler | riroriro (34), and long-tailed cuckoo | koekoeā (30).
Tongariro Forest was the first site where a detailed research programme showed that aerial application of 1080 baits was an effective way to suppress the main predators of kiwi, and resulted in a healthy growth in the kiwi population. We heard one North Island kiwi | kiwi-nui from our campsite beside the Mangatepopo Stream, and saw much sign of their presence – i.e. fresh droppings on the track. Kiwi faeces are of distinctive appearance and odour, but we have yet to figure out how to include odours in Te Papa blogs.
Birds of the Tongariro Crossing
There weren’t any. Actually, I exaggerate. A solitary southern black-backed gull | karoro insisted on being included in both of the highest-altitude 2 km transects, but the following two transects through the barren lava fields of the upper Mangatepopo Valley both scored the first Perfect Zeros of Te Araroa Trail.
As explained in Birds of the Tongariro Northern Circuit, recent volcanic activity makes great scenery but poor bird habitat.
Birds of the Whakapapa heathland
The heathlands east and west of Whakapapa Village contained a bird community that is characteristic of this low, shrubby vegetation. During the first 7 km west from Mangatepopo Hut I counted 17 grey warblers | riroriro, 11 fernbirds | mātātā, 2 tomtits | miromiro, and one New Zealand pipit | pihoihoi (all endemic), along with 9 silvereyes | tauhou (native but not endemic, also found in Australia), 17 chaffinches | pahirini, 14 common redpolls, 9 dunnocks, 6 Eurasian blackbirds | manu pango, 3 skylarks | kairaka, and 2 yellowhammers | hurukōwhai (these last six species were all introduced to Aotearoa from Europe).
I also found a kiwi feather on the track, showing that North Island brown kiwi | kiwi-nui use this habitat too.
Birds of the Whakapapa Forest
The beech forests around Whakapapa do not receive sustained predator control, and so have low numbers of most endemic bird species. In 10 km of beech forest, I found the bird community dominated by grey warblers | riroriro (43), silvereyes | tauhou and chaffinches | pahirini (both 35), tomtits | miromiro (24), and Eurasian blackbirds | manu pango (21). Notable species included 6 whiteheads | pōpokotea, 4 each long-tailed cuckoo | koekoeā and riflemen | tītitipounamu, and 2 bellbirds | korimako. I did not see or hear any yellow-crowned parakeets | kākāriki or North Island robins | toutouwai, which should be present if predators were under control.
Bird species added since the previous section
Whio | blue duck.
Summary statistics for section eight
Cumulative totals for Te Araroa sections completed are given in parentheses.
- Days on the trail = 5 (48)
- Kilometres travelled and surveyed = 129 (1245.6)
- eBird/Atlas checklists completed = 72 (686)
- Number of bird species = 46 (94)
- Total live birds seen or heard = 2595 (49,101)
- Most abundant species = chaffinch | pahirini (430)
- Most abundant native species = silvereye | tauhou (277)
- Most abundant endemic species = whitehead | pōpokotea (208)
- Most frequent species = chaffinch | pahirini (89.6 % of checklists), followed by Eurasian blackbird | manu pango (82.1 %)
- Most frequent native species = silvereye | tauhou (76.1 % of checklists)
- Most frequent endemic species = grey warbler | riroriro (65.7 % of checklists), followed by bellbird | korimako and New Zealand fantail | pīwakawaka (both 64.2 %)
- Endemic bird score = 55
Other blogs in this series
- Every Last Bird – the Birds of Te Araroa Trail
- Birds of Te Araroa 1 – Cape Reinga to Kaitāia
- Birds of Te Araroa 2 – Kaitāia to Kerikeri
- Birds of Te Araroa 3 – Kerikeri to Whangārei Harbour
- Birds of Te Araroa 4 – Whangārei Harbour to Auckland
- Birds of Te Araroa 5 – Auckland to Hamilton
- Birds of Te Araroa 6 – Hamilton to Te Kūiti
- Birds of Te Araroa 7 – Te Kūiti to Taumarunui
- Birds of Te Araroa 9 – National Park to Whanganui
- Birds of Te Araroa 10 – Whanganui to Palmerston North
- Birds of Te Araroa 11 – Palmerston North to Wellington
- Birds of Te Araroa 12 – Cook Strait to Havelock
- Birds of Te Araroa 13 – Havelock to St Arnaud
- Birds of Te Araroa 14 – St Arnaud to Boyle Village
- Birds of Te Araroa 15 – Boyle River to Rakaia River
- Birds of Te Araroa 16 – Rakaia River to Twizel
- Birds of Te Araroa 17 – Twizel to Wānaka
- Birds of Te Araroa 18 – Wānaka to the Te Anau Highway
- Birds of Te Araroa 19 – Te Anau Highway to Bluff
- Birds of Te Araroa Trail – Every Last Word
This is a very interesting article. We regularly carry an article in our news paper, Sri LankaNZ, on trekking and touring in New Zealand.
This current article has some info about the birds. I hope it will be in order if we publish a small write up on birds with your photos in a future issue.
I always look forward to seeing your blogs arrive in my inbox Colin ! So good to be kept up to date with your progress and of course your all-important bird count. A great effort – all the best for the rest of the journey.