Linda Uemura

My name is Linda Uemura and I live in California, USA. I am sending this letter regarding Mik Peryer’s exceptional Bird Tour. Prior to coming to NZ in August of 2006, I researched tours in the Wellington area. Mik’s website was both informative and interesting with wonderful pictures. I  contacted him by email and he was very helpful in aiding me in scheduling a tour.

He walked us around the lagoon telling us about the native birds and sharing with us his funny and interesting stories. The grand finale was getting to meet the “family” of the 2 swans and goose who live and share their nest together on the lagoon. My only regret was not getting to see their “babies”.This tour was a highlight of our trip to NZ. Mik is a warm, kind, tour guide and a wonderful human being. I told him of my regret of not being able to see the little swans….and you know what? He has been sending me emails with photos of them ever since they were born. This tour was better than I dreamed it could be and I can not wait to return for a second tour next year. Please contact me at luemura1@hotmail.com if you need any more information regarding how much we loved this tour. Sincerely, Linda Uemura

Super leisure Group

We met up with Michael Peryer, who took us on a bird spotting walk around the Waikanae lagoons and estuary, Michael is full of local knowledge, and his love of wildlife shines through. The first bird he pointed out was a dabchick, a very small duck. I must admit I had never heard of this species, so it was quite interesting hearing all about it. Instead of webbed feet the dabchick has loose webs and cannot walk on land as ducks can. As we walked around the lagoon, we stoped often to look at a particular type of bird, and were invited to sit while Michael spun one of his yarns-all true- he assured us. We saw lots of waterfowl, grey ducks, mallard, scaup, teal and shoveller ducks as well as swans and geese. Down at the river we saw a wonderful sight. Elegantly perched upon a dead tree in the river were several species of shags, plus a couple of royal spoonbills. The spoonbills posed while we took their photo, hoping that they would fluff out their head feathers for us, but they were too relaxed for that. After a walk down to the beach to view the various types of gulls we then headed back to the second lagoon. Here we heard a love story about an eternal triangle between Henrietta, a black swan with an injured wing, and Thomas a white goose, plus another black swan, a new arrival. Seems that Henrietta is in fact a Henry, although he had been living with Thomas for many years. These days he is a father and likes to sit on the nest while Thomas helps to teach the young cygnets to fly -talk about a mixed up family. We had a lovely afternoon and enjoyed all the tales that Michael told us. Tish and I bought a copy of Michael’s book Tales of Waikanae Estuary.