Last week, while watching for migrants near the coast, I spotted one swimming in a dune lake. It swam to the shore and I watched for 20 minutes as it slowly staked the sparse reeds until it wandered into a thick bed of raupo. Middle of the day, and although I was 500 meters away it was a fantastic sight!
And more useful to everyone, over the last three days I have had a regular sighting (once each day while I drive past on my way to town) of a bittern out in the open. Each of the last three days it has been only 50-100 meters from the road, standing out on flooded pasture. On the first day I was stunned, watching only 80 meters from it as it staked over the grass and eating worms (easy to see with 16x bino's) - but I forgot me camera. Well the next day it was there too, and yesterday also... Although maybe 200 meters from the car this time, and managed to get some grainy photos with a 10x digital.
It might be worth a shot for anyone local to have a crack. My impression is that it will stay there while the grass remains sodden. 34km down Pouto Road from Dargaville, on 'Grovervaks Flat'.
-36.1905, 174.0375
Shane