For once the bird on this blog isn’t a New Zealand species (it is a Grey-Crowned Crane). We have just returned from what should have been a trip of a lifetime – a 30 day tour of South Africa. We spent 5 days in Kruger, and toured the country which is a superb destination for birders. We got 92 species on our first day, and after 3 days had done 200 species. At the end of the trip we had 514 species, which isn’t bad considering there are only about 854 species in South Africa and the best birders have trouble breaking 700. We had a good birding guide, but we weren’t impressed with Rockjumper. The logistics of the tour left a lot to be desired, and this detracted considerably from what would have otherwise been a wonderful birding holiday. We won’t be doing a Rockjumper tour again, and in future we are likely to do shorter tours and employ local guides rather than these international tour operators.
NZ Birding 