Want a top notch birding trip from a New Zealand port - check out the options below and email us at info@wrybill-tours.com to reserve your place now. As well as being BIRDERS, we really know our marine wildlife and take pride in providing a full service trip, from whales, and dolphins, to sharks and other fish.

We have maintained a record of seabirds seen on all pelagic trips to date, and as part of this all sightings are entered into a database. We also submit reports on all unusual/rare birds seen to the Ornithological Society of New Zealand Rare Birds Committee for verification. See the list of birds reported by us to date, with outcomes of those records here.

Phone/Facimile: + 64 6 323 1441

 

See what the pelagic experts have to say abut us...

"New Zealand has a special place in my heart, having experienced its outrageous wealth of seabirds, truly amazing endemics, and spectacular scenery. I have been ‘down under NZ’ several times and am champing at the bit to get back there, especially to soak up more of the pelagic birds - albatrosses gliding effortlessly overhead, pterodromas wheeling around the boat, shearwaters scrapping for chum, prions circling the slick, and storm-petrels deftly dancing with waves as they feed nearby. For those of you mulling it over, ‘shall we, shan’t we?, take a piece of advice from me – stop mulling and get booking.  For the very best experience when you get to NZ, I recommend Wrybill Birding Tours, for their itineraries and quality guides. I have birded with Brent Stephenson several times and can with confidence tell you that Brent is passionate for his birds, skilled in his art, and a special person. Brent has a wide knowledge, communicates with birders of all capabilities, is very approachable, and I find him to be great fun.  I hear first hand that the other guides, not surprisingly, are equally talented. I strongly recommend New Zealand and Wrybill Birding Tours."

Bob Flood, author ‘Multimedia Guide to North Atlantic Seabirds: Storm-petrels & Bulwer’s Petrel’ and leader of seabird tour

 

"New Zealand is widely regarded as “seabirding Mecca”, with its unrivaled variety of albatrosses plus a great assortment of petrels, shearwaters, and storm-petrels, including, of course, the iconic and eponymous New Zealand Storm-Petrel. Besides Kaikoura, on the South Island, which is a must even for the casual seabirder, there are a number of lesser-known pelagic hotspots on the North Island. Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ is the leading pelagic tour operator to these hotspots, and with good reason. They offer good value trips, use the best boats and skippers, and have experienced and passionate leaders who know what they are seeing. I had two great trips with Wrybill on my last visit to NZ, and am looking forward to more next time."

Steve N. G. Howell. Author and Senior Leader, WINGS Birdwatching Tours Worldwide.

 

"What we can expect from kiwi seabirders like Brent Stephenson and Sav Saville...: just 10 years ago while doing my own observations on seabirds in New Zealand and its subantarctic islands I met the younger Brent for the first time, and when he asked me "what kind of camera I can recommend him to use and who and where he should do pelagic trips around New Zealand"; well, now I can regard him as no less than the seabird-master of New Zealand, which already achieved to be a co-finder of the 'extinct' New Zealand Storm Petrel (with Sav), a truly field ornithologist, conservationist and scientist in seabirds, and above all observer and leader with sharp eye with field experience in New Zealand seabirds that is impossible to match with - after witnessing how he operated pelagic trip few years back off the Northern Island! For me they are the best seabird operators in the region and one of the top in the world - I am highly recommend anyone to join their New Zealand trips..., which soon or later I will be on them too..."

Hadoram Shiriahi, Sep 2011

 

 

Pelagic trips out of Houhora and Three Kings - heading north on a stay aboard trip

Date
March 2014 - space available, email us to go on the list - dates to be confirmed soon Approx NZ$1300 per person (cost share)

 

Pelagic trips out of Warkworth - leaving from Sandspit and out into the Hauraki Gulf

Date
6 November 2013 - ALMOST FULL - CONFIRMED NZ$260 per person
13 November 2013 - ALMOST FULL - CONFIRMED NZ$260 per person
15 November 2013 - ALMOST FULL - CONFIRMED NZ$260 per person

22 January 2014 - SPACES AVAILABLE - CONFIRMED

NZ$260 per person
29 January 2014 - SPACES AVAILABLE - CONFIRMED NZ$260 per person
5 February 2014 - SPACES AVAILABLE - CONFIRMED NZ$260 per person

 

Pelagic trips out of Whitianga - Coromandel Peninsula to see Pycroft's petrel

Date
9 November 2013 - ALMOST FULL - CONFIRMED NZ$230 per person
15 November 2013 - ALMOST FULL - CONFIRMED NZ$230 per person
18 November 2013 - ALMOST FULL - CONFIRMED NZ$230 per person
25 January 2014 - SPACES AVAILABLE - CONFIRMED NZ$230 per person
1 February 2014 - SPACES AVAILABLE - CONFIRMED NZ$230 per person
8 February 2014 - SPACES AVAILABLE - CONFIRMED NZ$230 per person

 

Pelagic trips out of the Chatham Islands - both pelagics are part of a confirmed post-NZ extension, the only thing that will stop these trips is weather!

Date
3 - 9 December 2013 - several pelagics planned as part of a 6-night tour to these isolated islands.   TBA - Contact us for more info

 

Pelagic trips out of Stewart Island - half and full day trips out of Half Moon Bay

Date
21 November 2013 - Full day - CONFIRMED NZ$280
27 November 2013 - Full day - CONFIRMED NZ$280
29 November 2013 - Full day - CONFIRMED NZ$280
6 February 2014 - Full day - CONFIRMED NZ$280
13 February 2014 - Full day - CONFIRMED NZ$280
20 February 2014 - Full day - CONFIRMED NZ$280
Half day tours visit the Muttonbird Islands and Wreck Reef, with chumming at Wreck Reef and cruising around the islands. Full day tours do this and then head to South Cape and Port Pegasus, with several chumming stops. This is the best opportunity to see Antarctic terns, 100s of albatross, mottled petrel and possible prions and storm-petrels. The full day option is outstanding value and one of the best pelagics in New Zealand. Contact us for more information, and if the above dates do not suit your plans.

 


Map provided courtesy of Backpack New Zealand

 

Also check out details on 'Our Services', our pelagic trips are just the tip of the ice-berg......how about some pre-trip planning and advice or a birding tour of New Zealand?!