Three birds for the price of one...?!!

There was some blue sky when we woke up, so initially we felt a bit miffed that the shuttle transport for the Tongariro Crosing hike had been suspended for bad weather. However the blue was shortlived and most of the rest of the day has been very wet and the clouds have been down low. The locals know best!!

So we did two lower-level hikes of about 7km each, well wrapped up in cagoules & overtrousers.

In the morning we walked to Silica Rapids: the views of the rapids were quite dramatic but this lovely little bird pecking grubs off a branch ended up as my main blip. We didn't know what it was until we got back and looked it up in a very useful book on NZ wildlife given to my Editor in advance of our travels by Son#2. Seemingly it's a Silvereye (aka Tauhou, Waxeye, White-Eye or Zosterops lateralis if you're posh). It wasn't easy to get a good shot but I was pleased with the way the Olympus performed even at high ISO with a tight crop.

In the afternoon we walked to Taranaki Falls - see the first extra. I had a real treat - if you look carefully you'll see the second "bird" of the day: a young "Mermaid" decided to bathe starkers under the waterfall just as we arrived. I had to do a little tweaking in Photoshop to ensure that the photo wouldn't offend the blip police - my Editor has sanctioned it now so it must be OK...

The 2nd extra shows my 3rd "bird" of the day: my Editor on the walk back from the waterfall. It sums up today's weather nicely - very British!

So there you have it: 3 birds for the price of one. Lucky me :-))