Pelagic day trips

New Zealand has a special place in my heart, having experienced its outrageous wealth of seabirds, truly amazing endemics, and spectacular scenery. I have been down under NZ several times and am champing at the bit to get back there, especially to soak up more of the pelagic birds – albatrosses gliding effortlessly overhead, pterodromas wheeling around the boat, shearwaters scrapping for chum, prions circling the slick, and storm-petrels deftly dancing with waves as they feed nearby. For those of you mulling it over, shall we, shan’t we?, take a piece of advice from me – stop mulling and get booking.  For the very best experience when you get to NZ, I recommend Wrybill Birding Tours, for their itineraries and quality guides. I have birded with Brent Stephenson several times and can with confidence tell you that Brent is passionate for his birds, skilled in his art, and a special person. Brent has a wide knowledge, communicates with birders of all capabilities, is very approachable, and I find him to be great fun.  I hear first hand that the other guides, not surprisingly, are equally talented. I strongly recommend New Zealand and Wrybill Birding Tours.

New Zealand is widely regarded as seabirding Mecca, with its unrivaled variety of albatrosses plus a great assortment of petrels, shearwaters, and storm-petrels, including, of course, the iconic and eponymous New Zealand Storm-Petrel. Besides Kaikoura, on the South Island, which is a must even for the casual seabirder, there are a number of lesser-known pelagic hotspots on the North Island. Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ is the leading pelagic tour operator to these hotspots, and with good reason. They offer good value trips, use the best boats and skippers, and have experienced and passionate leaders who know what they are seeing. I had two great trips with Wrybill on my last visit to NZ, and am looking forward to more next time.”

What we can expect from kiwi seabirders like Brent Stephenson and Sav Saville…: just 10 years ago while doing my own observations on seabirds in New Zealand and its subantarctic islands I met the younger Brent for the first time, and when he asked me “what kind of camera I can recommend him to use and who and where he should do pelagic trips around New Zealand”; well, now I can regard him as no less than the seabird-master of New Zealand, which already achieved to be a co-finder of the ‘extinct’ New Zealand Storm Petrel (with Sav), a truly field ornithologist, conservationist and scientist in seabirds, and above all observer and leader with sharp eye with field experience in New Zealand seabirds that is impossible to match with – after witnessing how he operated pelagic trip few years back off the Northern Island! For me they are the best seabird operators in the region and one of the top in the world – I am highly recommend anyone to join their New Zealand trips…, which soon or later I will be on them too…

I want to thank Brent and Sav for their tremendous hospitality during the New Zealand portion of this venture. They went out of their way to be helpful and graciously facilitated key aspects of this adventure including pelagic day trips to the Mercury Islands and the Huaraki Gulf.
Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ has built a strong international reputation for their peerless knowledge of birding in New Zealand. This combined with flawless logistics, and a fun and enthusiastic approach make them the overwhelming first choice for birding tours in New Zealand . Their now extremely popular (and often sold out) “21-day tours” are undoubtedly the best way to see all the (possible) wonderful New Zealand endemics. This comprehensive tour includes a remarkable 4-5 pelagic trips and they regularly find 25-30sp. of tubenoses.
If you want to do some fantastic seabirding get in touch with Brent or Sav. They will go out of their way to make your birding experience in New Zealand a success.