Hi all,
First I want to warn you all, it became a quit story, so if you don't want to read, then don't and just watch the pictures
My girlfriend started talking about a doing a thesis in New Zealand, so we started thinking about traveling through the country. I was ‘lucky’ they didn’t renew my contract at work, so I was free to go: during March and April we would travel around. Then I started to search for opportunities to do some herping. I found out that herping on the ‘mainland’ is very hard. A lot of species in New Zealand suffer from the introduction of all kind of mammalians. So there are only a few places left, or you should go to some of the pest-free islands. Furthermore the locations on the mainlands are well protected and most of them are kept secret.. So driving around, spot nice habitat, search and find a few species, that doesn’t work out. Thanks to Dave Boyle, who put me in touch with some researchers that should go to Stephens island in May. Stephens Island is home to 7 lizard species, 1 species of frog and about 40.000-50.000 Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), so that sounded like a dream to me! The Tuatara was absolutely my number one wanted species. Unfortunately I heard on the day of our arrival that the trip got cancelled because of money issues.. A real pity..
There are a few pest-free islands where they did introduced Tuatara, so that would be the way.
As there already are pictures on the forum of the great views, landscapes, birds and seamammels, I won’t bore you with that.
The first days we stayed around Whangarei, at the house of my girlfriend her family. Sometimes their cats bring in some gecko’s, including green ones (Naultinus sp.). I searched a lot for anything coldblooded but without success.
My first reptile that I found was a Rainbow skink (Lampropholis delicata), an invasive skink from Australia. I found a few of them in some gardens around Orewa. They are expanding their spreading quite fast, for New Zealand terms they breed fast and have more offspring.
Tiritiri Matangi was the first pest-free island we visited and also home to the Tuatara. Loads of birds but no reptiles.
The second pest-free island we visited was Somes island in the harbour of Wellington. 8 species of reptiles, include Tuatara, so we choose a sunny day and went for it.
After a severe biosecurity check (to check if you don’t bring any unwanted seeds, weeds or mammals) I found within a few minutes Spotted skink (Oligosoma lineoocellatum). These medium sized skinks where found all over the island, especially next to the trail.
The next species was a Copper skink (Oligosoma aenea), which has a more secluded live. I did manage to find at least one individual.
We also found some Northern grass skinks (Oligosoma polychroma). This species seems to be one of the most common species of the North island.
After the skinks it was finally time for some real work. There was a guide showing around some little children but he probably saw me looking for lizards, so it was like: He guys, you wanna see a Tuatara? Uh… Yeah sure! So he showed us the burrow of a Tuatara, close to the trail and left us with the message: He probably will come out the sooner or the later. So we wait for about 20 minutes before I saw the head peaking out. Like Tuatara’s do, very slow, he came out, centimetre by centimetre..
After some more searching for green gecko’s it was time to leave again. Close to the harbour I found a small rock to flip, first flip, first gecko! Raukawa gecko, also known as the Common gecko (Woodworthia maculata). Some fast pictures, while the ferry was coming in.
The day after we went to Zealandia, a big sanctuary in Wellington, also known as the Kaori reserve. You can discuss about how wild some animals are over there. They released some Tuatara’s in a special Tuatara research area (fenced) but they also released some in the reserve. But it is nice to see different Tuatara’s in length, colour, pattern and size.
After that it was a long time without herps. We also made the cross to the Southern Island. We did some searching but it just didn’t work out. Then we got close to a spot where Jewelled gecko’s (Naultinus gemmeus) should live. We stayed around for 3 nights, but on the day we should leave, they forecasted sun after 3 days of rain. So we rescheduled our travel plans, and it paid off! Jewelled gecko’s are a very popular species to poach and most of the time it are Germans that get caught with it.. I think they are still worth a few thousand euros in Germany? But I can imagine why they are so popular, they are quite easy to find. Within half an hour I found 4 of them, 2 striped forms and 2 jewelled forms. But because of the poaching al the well known areas are monitored quit good by rangers. You definitely don’t want to get caught with a gecko in your hand over there. So I made some in situ pictures and we left the scene.
At another place I got some help with searching lizards. This egret was helping me with the Southern grass skink (Oligosoma polychroma clade 5)
In the inlands I found some Southern alps geckos (Woodworthia ‘Southern Alps’).
In the same area I also found McCann’s skink (Oligosoma maccani).
Habitat. The scree skink should also live here, sadly I missed on that one..
After that we made the cross again to the Northern island. My girlfriend started her thesis and I had 3 weeks to fill. I teamed up with Trent a herpetologist who runs a business called EcoGecko consultants. I got involved in a project where they catch Ngahere gecko’s (Mokopiriraukau sylvestris) from a location that will get deforested for money making business, but the gecko’s will get a new nice home on Mana island.
One of the used methods is artificial covers, as the Ngahere geckos are arboreal it are just some foam covers nailed on a tree.
One I had to make photographs of his dorsal for the individual recognition. The pattern of this one was amazing.
For some work to prepare the translocation for the Ngahere gecko they had to go to Mana island, well known for the high abundance of reptiles, so I was glad to join.
The Raukawa geckos are very common over there. The first one we found was in the sink of the bunkhouse, after that we found many hunders..
In the afternoon we searched along the beach and found, Raukawa gecko, Northern grass skink, Copper skink and Spotted skink. This was their habitat.
Later that day walked to a place for Duvaucel’s gecko, also came across a good spot for Goldstripe gecko’s (Woodworthia chrysosireticus), but my pictures turned out crap.. But the Duvaucel's gecko (Hoplodactylus duvauceli) made the day. Absolutly stunning species, the specimen we found was almost up to 30 cm. We took some measures for research and also took some bites, they are quite nasty..
In the same habitat we also found McGregor's skink (Oligosoma macgregori), very cool and quite big skinks.
During our stroll along the beach searching for gecko’s we also stumbled on this Blue penguin. Which other place in the world you could find penguins while searching for reptiles?
The day after we should go back to shore, but the sea was to rough, so we got stuck and had to wait another night for the sea to calm down.
While flipping stuff for lizards I found this Giant weta. To compare the size a little bit, have a look at the geckos around it..
As we had to stay another night I also had a chance to try and take better pictures of the Gold stripe gecko’s. I really like them, very nice looking and fun behaviour. They also jump quite wel, so sometimes when you think to have a nice shot, they suddenly jump away and disappear in the flex and they are so good camouflaged in that stuff.
So I ended with 14 species in almost 3 months. Compared to other countries it isn’t that much.. But in the end I managed to see more species than I first thought. Especially the Tuatara was very cool. Hope you enjoyed.
1. Rainbow skink (Lampropholis delicata)
2. Spotted skink (Oligosoma lineoocellatum)
3. Northern grass skink (Oligosoma polychroma)
4. Copper skink (Oligosoma aenea)
5. Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus)
6. Raukawa gecko (Woodworthia maculata)
7. Jewelled gecko’s (Naultinus gemmeus)
8. McCann’s skink (Oligosoma maccani).
9. Southern alps geckos (Woodworthia ‘Southern Alps’).
10. Southern grass skink (Oligosoma polychrome clade 5)
11. Ngahere gecko (Mokopiriraukau sylvestris)
12. Goldstripe gecko (Woodworthia chrysosireticus)
13. Duvaucel's gecko (Hoplodactylus duvauceli)
14. McGregor's skink (Oligosoma macgregori)