Earlier this year Great Barrier Island was awarded Dark Sky Sanctuary status. It is one of only three sanctuaries in the world, and a step up from Lake Tekapo's Dark Sky Reserve status. What this means is that Great Barrier has brilliantly dark skies with little light pollution and super bright stars, making it an astronomers, and astro-photographers dream. I was invited to spend a week on GBI to discover everything the island had to offer. It went a little like this. 

I worked 6 and a half days at the shop this week so I was getting incredibly restless. The weather here certainly hasn’t helped and with more rain forecast I wasn’t keen for a kayak even though the sounds were flat. Marlborough Tour Company were running one of their fabulous Salmon and Songbirds trips so I jumped on board for an afternoon out on the water.

It has taken me so long to write this blog, mainly because I was hoping to get back to D’Urville Island this year to explore more. Sadly, with work and other adventures, I have conceded that it will be 2018 before I am back on the island, so consider this blog a teaser, a small taste of what this incredible island has to offer.

Often I read stories about other bird nerds and how they had found their passion early on, they owned binoculars at the age of 5, and could tell the difference between a parrot and a pigeon before they could write their name.