Visiting Some Gannets
✒️ Written by: James
Below illustration by John Busby
Before we left Napier, we embarked on a tour with Gannet Safaris Overland. This took us through the Cape Sanctuary nature reserve to the Cape Kidnappers’ renowned gannet colony, which is the largest mainland gannet colony in the world!
Cape Sanctuary is the largest privately owned and funded nature reserve in New Zealand. It started out as a sheep farm but luckily its philanthropically-spirited owner saw value in preserving and restore native wildlife in the area (seabirds included). They've since spearheaded a lot of conservation and restoration projects in the area. See this page for more info.
We started at "home base" down the road and then were driven up through the reserve on a minibus. 20 minutes into an approximately 50 minute drive, we stopped to look across the cliff edge. We were told a little about the geology of the area as well as a harrowing story in which a couple of tourists were almost killed in a landslide at the bottom of the cliff we were looking at. The event was captured by someone who was on the very same gannet colony tour at the time. We were both on edge and away from the edge after hearing the tale.
We then continued on to the colony itself - our 20-seater lumbering along sheer drops, through streams, and in and out of valleys. The suspension sounded like it hadn't quite been designed for this use case.
One minute you're looking at the ocean and a coastal clay cliff and the next - BAM - you find yourself face to face with 20,000 gannets, all of whom are seemingly oblivious to the minibus screaming up the hill in first gear towards them.
It's definitely a "wow" moment. For both the eyes and the nostrils.
This is one of two close yet seperate colonies (otherwise known as "gannetries") in the region, with the other sitting downhill on a small peninsula jutting out into the sea. There used to be a walking path which took you down, but that has since been shut off by the Department of Conservation due to a significant landslide.
I was really surprised by how close we could get to the colony. Normally I lament at my lack of a super-pricey super-zoomey camera lens in my arsenal (particularly when there are birds on the opposing side of my viewfinder) but this time that wasn't a problem! It also helps that these Australsian gannets are big with a 1.8m wingspan.
We were at the colony for 45 minutes which flew by (pardon the pun). It was just enough time to get some photos and to just observe and appreciate the birds.
Here are some of the photos I got. I've also added some to this page on my personal site.
While these birds are very graceful in flight and on the ground, the way they land has all the elegance and polish of a rotisserie chicken being booted down a flight of stairs. As they make contact with solid ground, they keep the momentum going and do a sort of faceplant. It's quite the sight to behold.
I loved observing the way they interacted with each other - there was plenty of that greeting thing they do where they clack beaks on alternate sides (which I've since learned is called "mutual fencing"). Here's my favourite photo I took on the day, which shows this behaviour:
Lots of biting, preening, and fighting in the crowd; it was very animated. Mostly displays of affection or territorial behaviour from what I understand.
Nearly all of the chicks had fledged and flown off by this time of year, although there were one or two late bloomers in the gannetry which still remained. We were told that these would be unlikely to make it.
They served us tea, coffee, and biscuits from the bus which was nice.
One we had seen and photographed our fill, we hopped back on the bus and made our way back through the reserve to the tour company's home base, from which we got the shuttle back into Napier.
Good sights, good weather, good day out.
P.S.
I'm currently writing this on an InterCity bus from Lake Tekapo to Christchurch. The seat backrests have all the comfort and concavity of the Rosetta stone and they feel like they were installed at perfectly measured 90° angles from the floor. Also, the seatbelts feel as though they've been possessed by the spirits of boa constrictors.
I hope, dear reader, that you read this post from somewhere really comfortable, and that you appreciated it.