Access to Blumine Island

[Hanyang]

Hi all!

I'm Hanyang, my friends and I are planning to visit NZ in late December. I figured that Blumine Island would be the only place for us to find endemic Orange-fronted/ Malherbe's Parakeet. I searched and looked like it's only to public said the website. However, I couldn't find any ways from the website to go to the island. If anyones knows how to access and would like to help me, please email me! We'll greatly appreciate your help!

[Oscar Thomas]

https://www.e-ko.nz/tours/blumine-islan ... y-delivery

You can also see them in Hawdon Valley and Brook Waimarama Sanctuary in Nelson.

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Brook Waimarama would be the first place I would try. It’s the largest population and readily accessible.

[Jake]

There's a water taxi type boat out of Picton to Blumine too: they can drop you off if you want to camp the night. It leaves before the DOC office opens though, so paying for the campsite prior is impractical.

Agreed that Nelson would be your better bet for seeing this species. Blumine does have South Island Backs though

[Mike Bickerdike]

Brook Waimarama would be the first place I would try. It’s the largest population and readily accessible.

These things are true - and I saw them at Brook Waimarama last year. However, they are quite cryptic there, often located far into the sanctuary and are not guaranteed. The sanctuary staffer I chatted to at the entrance had never actually seen one, despite being there several years! Blumine may be at least as reliable, despite the smaller population.

[Brendan T]

Just to chime in with a few extra things that haven't been mentioned yet, that I wished I'd known about before my recent trip there.

We'd been told the parakeets were pretty much a sure thing on the island. We got them eventually after following the call, which it pays to be familiar with, but they weren't at their regular haunt just behind the toilet block - I had to do a fair bit of hiking up a muddy trail to find where the calls were coming from.

I'm guessing you'd also be eager to see King Shags, which makes going after the parakeets on Blumine a nice double-whammy. The Eko Tours skipper, whose name now slips my mind, might have been Dan, went out of his way to look for the King Shags for us, as they were also playing hide and seek and not in their usual spot.

One slight drawback about taking Eko Tours, which isn't a critique but just something to be aware of, is they only go out if they get enough bookings (like most companies). This meant that although we'd been planning to get dropped off on the morning trip and picked up on the afternoon trip, when they didn't have enough numbers to get out with two trips that day, our time on the island was drastically shortened. We still found the birds, but it was a near thing. I'd 100% recommend them still, but it does pay to be aware of this.