Cliffs and Gannets

New Zealand is home to several large gannet colonies. One of them is at Cape Kidnappers .. and that was the one I visited. Usually gannets breed in the most inaccessible parts of steep cliffs. With this strategy they avoid predators to find and eat their chicks. However, NZ is an island on which originally were no predators. That is the reason why this islands are home to several flightless birds like the kiwi and weka .. and also the reason why these birds are so rare nowadays. During colonial times settlers have brought all kind of foreign animals to the islands, among others cats, stoats and many other small hungry predators the local fauna was not able to deal with.
The interesting thing with those gannets is that they breed "just like that" on even ground on the cliff in a quite accessible part. I think the reason is that they did not have to care about predators.

Nowadays, predators would do huge damage to the colony if the NZ Department of Conservation (DOC) would not have fenced the whole peninsula to make it safe from predators. However, always some stoats etc. manage to get around the fences. Therefore, the DOC has to see constant effort of putting out traps and catch away those "enemies" to keep the gannet colony safe.

To reach the colony, you can get onto an organized tour which takes you there overland in a bus or along the coast with a tractor. Or you walk along the cliff like I did .. a trip of 15 - 22 km (depends on who you ask; long at least - I was quite tired afterwards). There is a certain time period when the tide is low enough to allow you walking along the cliffs.

 The interesting part when walking is that you can see all possible kind of fossil shells in the sandstone of the cliffs. Some 5 million years ago this land has been quite much lower than nowadays and was covered by the sea. Later on, the land and sediments started to be lifted up preserving some shells.
But then - to the colony!

 First, I was all alone at that place and sat quietly down just at the place where the gannets where coming in and landing to take some flight pictures. Some noticed me just in the last minute and managed to avoid a collision :-)

Eyes shut and sleeping a bit during a hot day .. After about half an hour, other travelers started to come. First only a few, later on when tractors and bus arrived, huge amounts of people flooded the area. The gannets did not really care about all those people roaming around in the area. Everybody also kept outside of the little fence around the colony - this way gannet tourism seems to work just fine!

When starting to walk back, tide was low and there was an astonishing amount of traffic along the cliff: The tractors of course, motor bikes, all terrain vehicles. All in all bit too much for my taste ..