Follow My Journey
Tiritiri Matangi - Part 2
The next three days on Tiritiri Matangi flew by. We recorded amazing numbers of many of New Zealand's endemic forest birds. I saw over two hundred Tui and Korimako, nearly three hundred Pōpokatea, twenty-five Kokako, fifty Hihi, and much more. Birding the island by day was truly amazing, but the island only really came alive at night.
My first night on Tiritiri was one of the best of my life. As I stepped out of the bunkhouse and looked to the sky, I was quite literally starstruck. Even being so close to Auckland, the starscape was one of the most amazing I've ever seen, rivaling the deserts of Arizona and the remote Galapagos Islands. The Milky Way stretched across the night sky and millions of stars were visible in every direction. As I gazed up at the night sky I realized I wouldn't be seeing any of the constellations I had known my whole life: The Big Dipper, Orion's Belt, and Pegasus for the next year and a half. These were replaced by a night sky that was completely foreign to me. I could no longer find direction with North Star, but now with the Southern Cross. I would now spend my stargazing sessions trying to pinpoint Alpha Centauri rather than Ursa Major.
My moment of realization was interrupted by the echoing call of a Little Spotted Kiwi, one of the species I'd most been looking forward to seeing on this trip. Kiwis are notorious for being tricky to spot and these were no exception. I spent several minutes trying to pinpoint it to no avail before continuing my walk. I spent the next half an hour slowly wandering through the forests of Tiritiri Island listening to the distant calls of kiwi and ruru while gazing up at the stars when suddenly I heard something rustling in the brush just a few feet from me. Thinking I had struck gold I turned my light towards the sound and came face to face with..... a duck. Pāteke (Brown Teal) is an endangered and endemic species in New Zealand and also happens to be primarily nocturnal. This particular Pāteke didn't seem too happy with me, and as I looked closer I could see why. Next to this gorgeous duck was a tiny ball of fluff, a baby Pāteke. After taking a quick photo I quickly moved on as I didn't want to stress out this already threatened species.
While kiwis were obviously one of the biggest targets of this nocturnal excursion, there was one other species I had in mind. The class Reptilia consists of four orders and approximately ten thousand species, three of which are known by almost everyone on the planet, turtles/tortoises, lizards, and snakes. The fourth order contains only one species, which can only be found in New Zealand. The Tuatara is essentially a living fossil, evolving into existence 150-250 million years ago, sometime in the Jurassic or Triassic periods. Unfortunately, in the millions of years since, Tuataras only remain in the wild on a few islands off of New Zealand, with Tiritiri being the most accessible.
I began my Tuatara search walking very slowly down a path that had been recommended to me the day before, peering into the undergrowth hoping to spot one of these dinosaurs searching for a meal. As I was nearing the bottom of the trail, where it meets the ocean, I spotted my first sign of life. It wasn't a Tuatara, but a Little Penguin that had been wandering down the trail before I scared it into the bush. It was quite apparent how these seabirds are not built for agility on land as I watched the penguin running through the woods, tripping and stumbling every couple of seconds before disappearing into the forests of Tiritiri Matangi for good.
Little Penguin at night.
I think the penguin may have been a good luck charm, as just a few minutes later I spotted my first of three Tuatara of the night. Seeing them in person made me realize how different they really are. I've observed nearly forty species of lizards in my life and this was like nothing I'd ever seen before. With their bumpy skin and spikes running down their spines, they really do look like the dinosaurs that they shared the earth with hundreds of millions of years ago.
Tuatara seen the following day.
As I began my return trek, I had another realization. This was the first day where I really felt like I was in a different world altogether. From the penguin to the dinosaur-like Tuatara to the gorgeous night sky, it was all so foreign to me. As I arrived back at the bunkhouse I took one more long look at the Southern Cross before calling it a night and getting some sleep.
About Me & My Journey
Now I embark on the next chapter of my life, leaving home to spend over a year on the other side of the world with the end goal of reaching 15,000 species by the time I leave Oceania.
Beginning in early 2022, my obsession with seeing as many species as I possibly could was taken to the next level. I was constantly trying to find new species around my yard and by June had swapped my telephoto birding lens for a macro I could use to more easily photograph insects and plants. While I was becoming more and more obsessed, I still needed one more big push to send me over the edge and become what I am now. In July of 2022, I attended Victor Emanuel Nature Tour’s Camp Chiricahua in Arizona. These twelve days were some of the best of my life. I, along with five other amazing young naturalists and two amazing guides saw over 1,500 species including some incredibly rare orchids, snakes, birds, butterflies, beetles, and much more. In the year and a half since then, I’ve travelled to Trinidad and Ecuador in search of those countries’ rare and endemic species, doubling my life list to nearly 5,300 where it stands today.
Now I embark on the next chapter of my life, leaving home to spend over a year on the other side of the world with the end goal of reaching 15,000 species by the time I leave Oceania. I’ll be throwing away my comfortable way of living to spend every night in a car, eat beans and rice for almost every meal, and spend every waking hour searching for some of the world’s rarest species. It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make, and it’s necessary if I’m going to hit my end goal of 100,000 species by the end of my life.