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 sixteenth blog in the series, Colin describes birds encountered while walking through Lake Sumner Forest Park, Arthur’s Pass National Park, Craigieburn Forest Park, and down the Harper River to Lake Coleridge and the Rakaia River.
A brief visit to the West Coast
We took a ‘zero’ day at Boyle Village as the rain fell and the Boyle River ran high. It was still raining when we departed the following morning, and so we took the wet weather bypass down State Highway 7 to Windy Point, as the Boyle River and Doubtful River remained impassable.
From Windy Point, Te Araroa Trail follows the traditional Harper Pass Track up the Hope River, across Kiwi Saddle to the head of Lake Sumner, up the Hurunui River to Harper Pass, then down the Taramakau River to the Otira River and State Highway 73 north of Arthur’s Pass.
The 40 kilometres between Harper Pass and Goat Pass (up the Deception River from the Otira River) is the only section of Te Araroa Trail that crosses the Main Divide to the West Coast.
World famous in New Zealand
The international fame of Te Araroa Trail brings thousands of visitors to our shores, each determined to walk more than 3,000 km from the north of the North Island to the South Island’s south coast (or vice versa). None of the foreign Te Araroa walkers we spoke to had heard of an equally iconic coast to coast endurance event that is held annually in early February from Kumara Beach on the West Coast across to Sumner Beach near Christchurch.
The mountain run section of the Coast to Coast multi-sport event follows the same route as Te Araroa Trail for about 37 km up the Deception River, over Goat Pass, and down the Mingha River to Klondyke Corner near the Waimakariri River. We walked this section only a few days before the annual race, and temporary signage was already in place to guide the stampede of uber athletes and weekend warriors destined to follow in our footsteps.
Elite athletes can run this section of the Coast to Coast in about 3 hours. We took a more sedate 24 hours, but that included staying overnight in Goat Pass Hut. Te Araroa athletes have to pace themselves, as their event is more than 12 times longer than the 243 km Coast to Coast.
Waimakariri River to Rakaia River
It took only 3 days to pass through mid-Canterbury, via Lagoon Saddle, down the Harper River to the head of Lake Coleridge, then along Harper Road to Lake Coleridge Village. Rakaia River is considered too hazardous to attempt crossing, and is treated as a natural break in the trail. From Lake Coleridge Village it is 60 km by road to the trail head on the south side of the Rakaia River.
Birds of the beech forest
There is a marked difference in the forest vegetation each side of the Main Divide. On the high-rainfall west side, there is a high diversity of tree species, dominated by kāmahi, southern rātā, and rimu. On the drier eastern side the forest is almost pure beech, dominated by mountain beech on the slopes and red beech in the valleys. Beech trees don’t produce nectar or fleshy fruits, and so cannot support the full range of New Zealand forest birds.
Based on food supply alone, you would expect the more diverse forests of the West Coast to support a greater abundance and diversity of birds than beech forest – but it is not that simple. Diverse forests support much higher numbers of introduced predators, including ship rats, stoats, and possums. There are several endemic bird species that would thrive in diverse ‘broadleaf-podocarp’ forests, but are now mainly found in beech forests, simply because there are fewer predators there.
We walked through 62.3 km of beech forest and 25.4 km of broadleaf-podocarp forest between Boyle Village and the Rakaia River. A few bird species (including silvereye│tauhou, tomtit│ngirungiru and bellbird│korimako) were common in both types of forests. Bird species found more often in beech forest included riflemen│tītitipounamu, brown creeper│pīpipi and yellow-crowned parakeet│kākāriki.
For those interested in actual numbers, these are the twelve bird species that I encountered most often in beech forests between Boyle Village and the Rakaia River (the numbers in parentheses are ‘birds per kilometre’, allowing comparison with the birds counted in West Coast forests listed in the next section): silvereye│tauhou 214 (3.43 birds/km), tomtit│ngirungiru 207 (3.32), chaffinch│pahirini 197 (3.16), bellbird│korimako 177 (2.84), blackbird│manu pango 67 (1.08), New Zealand fantail│pīwakawaka 62 (1.00, with 2.3 % black morph = a single bird), South Island robin│kakaruai 47 (0.75), rifleman│tītitipounamu 31 (0.50), grey warbler│riroriro 26 (0.42), brown creeper│pīpipi 23 (0.37), song thrush│manu-kai-hua-rakau 20 (0.32), and yellow-crowned parakeet│kākāriki 10 (0.16).
Birds of the diverse West Coast forest
Endemic forest birds that feed predominantly on fruits and nectar cannot thrive in beech forest. Birds that we found only (or predominantly) in the Taramakau and Deception Valleys included kererū│New Zealand pigeon, kākā, tūī, and weka.
The 14 most abundant forest birds in these valleys were: silvereye│tauhou 132 (5.2 birds/km), tomtit│ngirungiru 90 (3.54), bellbird│korimako 87 (3.43), kākā 50 (1.97), chaffinch│pahirini 35 (1.38), South Island robin│kakaruai 22 (0.87), tūī 19 (0.75), kererū│New Zealand pigeon 18 (0.71), New Zealand fantail│pīwakawaka 16 (0.63, with zero black morph), weka 14 (0.55), blackbird│manu pango 12 (0.47), and grey warbler│riroriro, brown creeper│pīpipi, and song thrush│manu-kai-hua-rakau (all 5, 0.20).
Birds of the subalpine passes
Our brief forays above the bushline on this section provided encounters with two iconic endemic birds – and it was a close call which to select as the feature image for this blog.
Five kea visited us at Goat Pass Hut at dawn, with two of them thumping about on the hut roof. I wonder what they make of the annual stream of lycra that pours over the pass.
There was fresh sign of great spotted kiwi│roroa on the track at both Harper Pass and Goat Pass (see image of kiwi dropping – but no odour – in Birds of Te Araroa 8 – Taumarunui to National Park), and I heard several calling before dawn below the bushline at the appropriately named Kiwi Hut on the Taramakau River. Roroa are confined to the north-west of the South Island (with Arthur’s Pass their southern limit) and are the most elusive of the five kiwi species. I have heard them many times, but have seen them only twice in 48 years of bird watching.
Iconic wetland birds
There are only a handful of lakes along this 207 km section, but they added two further species to the trail list. A solitary kōtuku│white heron was feeding at the head of Lake Sumner. This is a rare bird in New Zealand, with just a single colony of about 50 pairs on the Waitangiroto River, north of Okarito Lagoon on the West Coast. It is likely that this bird had recently departed the breeding colony and had flown north then through Harper Pass before stopping for a snack on its way north.
We had a howling Canterbury nor’wester at our backs as we walked past Lake Selfe and Lake Evelyn on the final day of the section. Even with the ruffled water we were able to find a pair of Australasian crested grebes│pūteketeke on both lakes – one pair with two large juveniles, and the other with a smaller downy chick.
We expect to see more of these gorgeous birds in the McKenzie Basin and particularly on Lake Wanaka.
Bird species added since the previous section
Great spotted kiwi│roroa, Australasian crested grebe│pūteketeke, kōtuku│white heron, cirl bunting.
Summary statistics for section fifteen
Cumulative totals for Te Araroa sections completed are given in parentheses.
- Days on the trail = 8 (95)
- Kilometres travelled and surveyed = 207.4 (2,446.6)
- eBird/Atlas checklists completed = 117 (1348)
- Number of bird species = 47 (105)
- Total birds seen or heard = 3,858 (83,858)
- Most abundant species = silvereye│tauhou (671), followed by chaffinch│pahirini (497)
- Most abundant endemic species = bellbird│korimako (400), followed by tomtit│ngirungiru (387)
- Most frequent species = chaffinch│pahirini (81.8 % of checklists)
- Most frequent native species = silvereye│tauhou (70.9 % of checklists)
- Most frequent endemic species = bellbird│korimako (70.0 % of checklists), followed by tomtit│ngirungiru (61.8 %)
- 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 8 – Taumarunui to National Park
- 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 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
Wow what an achievement. I so enjoyed reading your account of the walk as much as I would love to do it realistically I have probably left my run too late at 69 years of age.
Great to hear that the birdlife is more abundant this side of the main divide. Awesome Colin!