Fantail or Piwakawaka, my absolute favourite native New Zealand bird. So many of these at Wilks. Love 'em.

Koru, New Zealand Mehr

Nightingale Island & Inaccessible Island are remote points of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean

Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world, securely and privately show content to your friends and family, or blog the photos and videos you take with a cameraphone.

Pohutukawa at Long Bay beach, Auckland, The North Island, New Zealand

New Zealand Kea by Ed Janwattana

For awhile I had a New Zealand Tea Tree (Leptospermum scoparium) growing in a large pot in my back yard. Several varieties of this species can be found in the nursery trade. This dark red variety is my favorite, and it is quite popular in California. Later on, when I visited New Zealand, I was able to actually walk through a forest of wild tea trees, which the New Zealanders call "manuka" trees. But all of them, even the ones in cultivation, had white or pale pink flowers.

The South Island Kowhai is just one of eight varieties of the native tree - NZ

'Phormium tenax Flax' by Tony Foster. Phormium tenax New Zealand Flax Harakeke

South Island Saddleback (Philesturnus carunculatus carunculatus), Te Wharawhara Open Sanctuary, Rakiura National Park, Ulva Island, New Zealand

Pohutakawa Tree The New Zealand Christmas tree

Last Friday I visited a spot on the river a little further down than my usual post. There was a couple of shags fishing and after I sat down to observe a few more arrived. Two were Little Shags (with white on them) and three were Little Black Shags. The Little Black Shags arrived singly but teamed up to hunt as a group which was interesting to watch. The Little Shags were more independent and one quickly made himself known as the boss and privvy to the best spot on the rock, pushing the…

Christmas in New Zealand storybook for kids. New Zealand is on the southern hemisphere. Our winter is their summer, so New Zealanders celebrate Christmas ...