Based on advice from Nick, we decided to go into the mountains, the day was overcast and cool and there was no rain predicted. All I can say is that I am really glad we had a four-wheel drive vehicle as a rental. This was not quite the terrain of Ecuador's mountains but close. The road was great but with the slight rain we were having there were some rocks on the road (small ones) and there at had been a couple of landslides recently as they were still there surrounded by caution cones.
We laughed as Colleen looked at the side of a road with a steep cliff and we could see the roadway had separated a bit and Colleen said "That;s not good" needless to say, I drove faster... Anyways, it was exciting and fine, there was plenty of traffic and we were fine. One had to be careful though. And guess what, we got the KEA!!!! The Kea is a large dark green parrot that is beautifully and subtly marked on the outside but when it flies the underwings are red and there is some browny/tan bright colours and it is beautiful. It has become used to tourists and will come and see them. They are a bird with personality and a lot of it. There are signs everywhere telling tourists not to feed them but the first one that we saw a busload of tourists was feeding it with peanuts! Obviously, they can't read! We took our photos and had lunch and drove off to look for a Blue Duck and Tomtit and NZ Robin and Rifleman Bird (male) -- NOT, no luck!
We stopped at Dead Man's Lookout and it was fantastic and a Kea flew in and walked around looking for handouts and then started chewing on the rubber of a car window (apparently they are vindictive also). We had gone through Arthur's pass and beyond and another two hours we would have been on the west coast. We had our target bird and headed home with some additional stops suggested by Nick to look for the other birds, with no luck.
The scenery on the drive was fantastic and just like one would expect of NZ, high snow covered mountains (we were in ski country), narrow roads and a bit like going through the Banff to BC highway.
We were thrilled to see everything and see the Kea.
We picked up a seafood mixture and had this and vegetables and tomatoes and NZ wine for supper tonight. We have to get an early bedtime tonight as we are going on a pelagic on the NZ coast for pelagic birds (do I sound apprehensive??) tomorrow and we have a two hour drive to get to Kaikoura.
After the boast we have a 2.5 hours drive to Picton where we will stay the night.
Colleen got some lovely photos today of the Kea and the scenery. We were fortunate with the weather and the mist and the fog that we didn't get heavy rain up in the mountains. Another great day!
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