New Zealand Birding Tours

New Zealand Birding Tours

We offer two trips to New Zealand every year:

1)  The Middle-earth 12-day tour is a birding tour, but we also visit the movie set of Hobbiton.  This tour starts on the North Island in Auckland and travels to Christchurch on the South Island.  We will be taking the ferry in between islands.  There is also a boat trip to the Tiritiri Matangi Scientific Reserve. This birding tour moves at a nice slow pace and is excellent for photographers who want the time to get great shots of all the birds. 

2)  The South-North tour focuses on New Zealand birds and endemics.  This 15-day tour starts in Christchurch and travels to the southern tip of New Zealand, with a 3-day visit to Stewart Island.  There is also a boat cruise through Milford Sound. From Queenstown, we fly to Auckland and travel to the northern parts of the island, including Cape Reinga, birding the entire time.

Ian "Sav" Saville:  Sav was born and brought up in London. He started birding in the early 70s and was fairly active in the British twitching/birding scene from then through to the late 80s – building a British list of just on 400 (which was quite a lot in those days!).

Sav moved to New Zealand in 1989 and stayed for nearly 3 years, before having to return to UK in 1991. In late 1993 he went to Saudi Arabia for 2 ½ years (during which time he was a regular contributor to “Birding World”) and then arrived back in New Zealand in 1996.

Sav has been the Ornithological Society of New Zealand (OSNZ) Regional Recorder (c.f. County Recorder in UK) since 1996 and was the OSNZ Regional Representative for the Manawatu Region from 2000-2011. He was then appointed to the OSNZ Rarities Committee. Sav moved to Hawkes Bay in early 2014, with the Ahuriri Estuary and surrounds now being his ‘local patch’.

Sav was also a key player in the rediscovery of the supposedly-extinct New Zealand Storm-petrel, being on the trip in January 2003 when the species was initially resighted and being the first person onboard to see the bird.