02 Mar 2025

Soaking in history at paradisial Fiordland

Our New Zealand Coastal Odyssey adventure got off to a fantastic start in Fiordland! This morning, we walked the predator trapline on Secretary Island from Grono Bay to the Department of Conservation Gut Hut. Many of us observed traps set at intervals along the track for rats and stoats -introduced predators threatening the native birds living in the beautiful stands of the forest we walked through. It was difficult to believe that foreign pests had penetrated these beautiful, yet remote, old-growth forests filled with New Zealand Falcons, black Weka, and the other native birds we were fortunate to observe along the way.

The predator threat was brought even more into focus later in the afternoon when we visited the almost shrine-like site of what remains of New Zealand’s first conservationist, Richard Henry, house on Pigeon Island. Richard lived on the remote, tiny, bush-clad Pigeon Island for 14 years beginning in 1894. 

For the first 6 years of his stay, Henry rowed between the islands of this sound, capturing the rare giant flightless Kākāpō parrots – over four hundred of them in all, and transported them to the comparative safety of Resolution Island, where he believed they would be safe from the harm of stoats. Unfortunately, Henry learned too late that stoats could swim out to the island, and the herculean effort failed, and Henry finally left in despair. But his work and the legacy of his records and observations inspired others. In the 1970’s, a renewed effort to rescue the birds was successful, largely inspired by Henry’s original attempt. 

After soaking up the region's incredible history and beauty, we returned to Heritage Adventurer for a delicious dinner.

Images © C. Finch, Heritage Expeditions