We saw them on a couple of white water rafting trips and on the main river at Turangi. The endemic birds are like rare jewels. Everywhere you look in NZ is deforested, there are sparrows, mina birds, black birds and starlings.
The bird extinctions in NZ are a human tragedy. I read once and I'm sure I mentioned it, that one of the first European trips to NZ anchored a mile off shore and the crew came on deck to listen to the bird chorus that reached them so great was the cacophony.
We did a number of walks through their National Parks and the silence is deafening and strangely there are no animal dropping anywhere, whereas in Tasmania there is an animal scat every square foot. The Australian mainland is almost void of any native animal under 10 to 15 kilograms that doesn't climb a tree.
