Evening Eco Watch / Kiwi Spotting

3 hours Tour:  Enjoy our introductory talk on kiwi, their special characteristics, behaviour and habits , with time for your questions.  Then depart for our kiwi spotting adventure by mini-van, stopping for short, slow walks, searching very quietly for kiwi. We may hear their shrill calls in the night, or the lovely sound of the morepork on still nights. Gaze at the magnificent southern stars on clear nights. This tour may be extended at the discretion of the guide until we find a kiwi. After our tour, we provide a courtesy transfer back to your accommodation.

2 hours Tour: This tour starts approx. 1 hour later than the 3 hours tour.  We limit our introductory talk to 15 minutes for a brief explanation on how to behave around kiwi.  We then depart by vehicle in search for kiwi.  This tour is not extended unless clients wish to pay the cost of our regular tour.  After our tour we provide a courtesy transfer back to your accommodation.

Only the 3 hour or 2 hours tour can run in one evening.  We recommend our 3 hours tour for a quality experience.

How much Walking is Involved
Generally our guide does all the searching and you only need to do limited walking (often less than 100 - 250 metres). The terrain is generally flat, alongside formed roads or paths. The guide will brief you if there are any uneven areas or if we have to change our location for searching due to weather or other consideration. 

Tour Start Times: Our tours start times vary due to changing daylight hours:
April to October - from approx. 7.30 pm  to 8.30 pm
November - from approx. 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm.
December to January - from approx. 9.30 pm to 10.15 pm
February to March - from approx. 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm 

Photography Opportunities: Any photography or video recording is at the direction of our guide.  The reason for this is so kiwi are not disturbed, run away and hide.  Flash photography is not allowed.  Camera shutters can be noisey and disturb kiwi.  We often recommend videos but cameras may be used if you have a quiet shutter or at the direction of our guide.  Please always follow our guide's instructions - we want everyone on the tour to get good views of kiwi and their behaviour.

Important 1: We respect our nature and kiwi are wild and highly sensitive birds. We do not practise marketing tactics of money back guarantees to draw you into our tours at the expense of genuine nature experiences and a true appreciation of our very special kiwi bird. Our guides work extremely hard to try to locate kiwi and as a small business, operating personalised small group tours we hope you will understand why we and others like us, who pride ourselves on genuine natural history tours, do not operate money back guarantees.

location

This tour operates in and within the surrounding area of Oban, Halfmoon Bay and on some of our nearby walking tracks.

birds seen

Our primary focus is on kiwi. Depending on the sighting we may view kiwi from several minutes to 45 minutes plus.  We may see one to three kiwi. As a wild and mainly nocturnal bird, we do not guarantee sightings, but we do our best to show you a kiwi.
During the past season have seen kiwi on around 95% of our tours.

Wear and bring

We recommend sneakers rather than hiking boots, raincoat, warm clothing. We discourage rain trousers as they are noisy. We use our own special torches to view kiwi. You may wish to bring your own torch for your personal use.

Special Offers

Please also see our Gift Vouchers & Special Offers page for combined tours that include our Ulva Island Birding tour.