New Zealand Photo tours

visiting the North, South, and Stewart Islands

There is nothing as stealthy as a bird photographer! If getting up close to New Zealand birds and wildlife is your aim, as well as making the most of stunning scenery with a camera, then get in touch with us about our Photo tours.

Brief

This Photo Tour is designed first and foremost for photographers who are interested in capturing as much of New Zealand’s wildlife, particularly the endemic and native birds, and scenic beauty as possible. Therefore, we will be up earlier, out later, and spend longer in fewer locations per day to maximise our chance of capturing incredible images.  If you are a keen photographer, and want to also encounter great photographic opportunities with New Zealand birds, marine mammals, and scenery then this is the tour for you!  If you feel this tour might be a little too oriented towards photography and your focus is more on general wildlife and scenery with a dash of Maori culture, then ask us about our Wildlife Tour itinerary.  Likewise, if birding is your primary passion, and you want to absolutely maximise the number of endemic and native species you see, then ask us about our Birding Tour itinerary.

Where

Start in Auckland, travel through the North, South and Stewart Islands visiting some of the wildlife and scenic highlights New Zealand has to offer. Finish in Christchurch on day 21.

Number of participants

Limited to 8 people per trip, with a single guide (unless specifically requested).

Cost

Please email us for pricing on this trip.

Description

This guided tour, leaving from Auckland and ending in Christchurch has a slightly different focus compared with our other tours – being very much photo-centric. Your guide will be Brent Stephenson, who has been travelling New Zealand with camera in hand for over 25 years.  We have structured the tour so that we have enough time to see and photograph the things we want to, without a hectic pace, but that said our days will be long!  What else would you expect on a photography tour!  The itinerary also includes several pelagic seabirding boat trips to see and photograph seabirds and possibly marine mammals.

This tour still aims to still see many of our special bird species, including members of the six endemic New Zealand families – the kiwi (aiming at two species), the New Zealand parrots (Strigopoidea, aiming at both kaka subsp. and kea), the New Zealand wrens (aiming for one, possibly both of the two extant species), the New Zealand wattlebirds (aiming for all of the three extant species), the stitchbird in its own family, the Notiomystidae, and the New Zealand creepers, the Mohouidae (all three species).  On top of that we also hope to photograph both New Zealand fur seal and sea lion, both dusky and Hector’s dolphins, and a chance to see Sperm whale (if you chose that option on Day 11).  We will also look for tuatara, a very special reptile endemic to New Zealand.  This tour will see around 55 endemic breeding bird species, with around 25 tubenose species, plus the mammals mentioned above.

Time of year?

To maximise photographic opportunities, especially when birds are in their best plumage during the early part of the breeding season, we have targeted this tour for November. This is late Spring and gives us our best chance with our target bird species, gives us slightly cooler days to be out taking photographs, and still means great periods of light in the early morning and evening.

Itinerary

A detailed itinerary is available upon request, please email us to express your interest. Or perhaps you like the look of this tour but would like to change dates or make adjustments to the schedule, we are more than happy to make such changes, where possible, upon request.