The fauna of Aotearoa

Whenua me te moana

Feb 03, 2025

Last month I was lucky enough to relive one of the greatest experiences of my life: whale watching in New Zealand. My partner and I spent the trip of a lifetime driving around the North and South Island, a month we haven’t stopped reliving just yet. Almost 10 years ago, I lived in New Zealand for a short while and so had visited the whale capital of the country, Kaikōura, once before. Here I witnessed sperm whales, dolphins, and even an albatross, and so special was the experience to me that I was adamant we return. This time, I also decided to try my luck in the Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana as well, another coastal park teeming with marine life, with some recognisable species and others native to Aotearoa.

As anyone who has been to New Zealand will know, the level of respect shown to the natural world, while not perfect, far exceeds that of many countries. This gives way to frequent encounters with the unique birdlife here, opportunites to see rescued penguins and kiwis, and sightings of Bryde’s whales, a critically endangered species in New Zealand.

Moments spent in the company of these incredible animals were some of the best from our trip and so I’d love to share a few of the photos I managed to capture. I hope you enjoy them.

Fur seals napping with the 155-metre-high Stirling Falls in the background.

One of three keas we came across on our early morning drive out of Milford Sound.

A particularly playful pod of pilot whales greeted us in Kaikōura.

A rescued blue penguin living at the International Antarctic Centre.

While waiting to drive through the Homer Tunnel, this lovely kea perched itself by the traffic lights to wait with us.

An albatross gliding on the winds above Taiaroa Head, Otago Peninsula.

A Bryde’s whale of the Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana.

This duckling and its family were enjoying the water lily lake of Pukekura Park in New Plymouth.

A sperm whale spout. When the warm air from the whale’s lungs meets the cold outside air it condenses into a cloud. It also includes mucus and any seawater that may be covering the whale’s blowhole.

Taiaroa Head is the only mainland colony of albatross in the Southern Hemisphere.

Pilot whales got their name as it was believed they were ‘piloted’ by a leader, showing the closeness of a pod

Sperm whales are easy to spot close to shore in Kaikōura as they take advantage of the 2 km deep Kaikōura Canyon which runs right up against the coast and allows them to deep dive.

Bryde’s whales have a nationally critical status in New Zealand as there are only around 140 of them left in the northeast coastal region.

The healthy pilot whale pod we met even had babies on board.

A sperm whale tail shot. These giants will dive for up to an hour and surface for around 10 minutes, making them fairly easy to spot.

Here at Beached we are building a community that can put our brains and resources together to highlight and fund solutions to the problems facing whales, dolphins, and birds. I hope you’ll join our humble community and click subscribe for free or support our work by purchasing the paid subscription.

All Beached posts are free to read but if you can we ask you to support our work through a paid subscription. These directly support the work of Beached and allow us to engage in more conversations with experts in the field of marine conservation and spend more time researching a wider breadth of topics for the newsletters. Paid subscriptions allow us to dedicate more time and effort to creating a community and provide the space for stakeholders to come together, stay abreast of each other’s work and foster improved collaboration and coordination.

One day Beached hope to donate a large percentage of the revenue from paid subscriptions to marine conservation organisations and charities to support their work too. Working together, we can reverse the degradation of our oceans.

Amie 🐋

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?