Hapuka Estuary Walk

Signposted 15km from Haast on Haast-Jackson Bay road, is the gentle half hour Hapuka Estuary Walk. An excellent walk in spring when kowhai trees are flowering and attract many birds. You can see or hear bellbirds, tui, kereru, fantails and grey warblers in the bush, and oystercatchers, bitterns, pukeko and pied stilts on the estuary. Panels give information about whitebait, tiny transparent fish, once abundant in the area. They are even more highly prized now they are harder to catch. In spring people line the river banks of South Westland with their nets, ready to scoop up the fish as they flood in from the sea. The track takes you through coastal forest to the estuary, then through rimu forest to a lookout to the Open Bay Islands. A Maori Reserve, the islands are a breeding place for Fiordland crested penguins and fur seals.

Reservoir Birds 1.2 by Brad Novak