Gannets (and Terns) Galore

We've sailed in Scotland quite a bit and it was always a treat to see gannets in action, diving en masse, head first into the sea, at speeds of up to 145 kph. In Scotland, the birds usually nest on remote islands and you could only view them from a great distance. So, we were pleased to find that not only do gannets breed here in NZ, but, there are two mainland colonies of them where it is possible to get quite close to the birds without disturbing them.

On the east coast we first visited the colony at Cape Kidnappers. Although the birds are accessible once you get there, it's quite a hike, 20km return, along a beach at low tide to get to the breeding area.

Once there, we thought we were back on the Isle of Wight in the UK, with this remarkable view of what could be confused with Alum Bay and the Needles.

Up a long, final hill to the top and the colony was spread out in front of us. The estimate is  there are around 8,000 birds breeding here. There is a low fence around the birds, but, you can get to within a few feet of them.

A few days later, we visited the colony on the west coast, just north of Auckland, at Murawai Beach. This was a lot easier to access, just five minutes from the parking lot. The view of the birds here was just as dramatic, if not more so, as they were both on the mainland and on a large rock pinnacle just offshore surrounded by a wild sea. It was very special to stand with the sun shining brilliantly, a strong, warm, wind blowing and the birds wheeling overhead. We didn't see any diving and feeding behaviour as the eggs were still being incubated and the birds were on the nests, but, it was spectacular nonetheless.

Let's not forget the terns. At both gannet colonies, there were small populations of terns nesting just to the side of the gannets.

Luckily, these weren't like the vicious arctic terns we encountered in Svalbard, Norway which divebomb your head and actually will take chunks of flesh while you're just walking along. These white-fronted terns were content to just sit on their nests and tend to their chicks.

Murawai Beach is a volcanic, black sand beach and interesting in itself. The sea was wild on the day we were there.

A walk on the beach brought us to this natural sea cave that you could walk right through.

We also came across a few of these items that glowed with a beautiful, iridescent, pearly, blue/purple/pink colouration. They looked like pieces of Venetian blown glass highlighted on a black sand background. In reality, this is some weird kind of jellyfish!