You get to truly explore Ulva Island by Land and Sea.

This tour includes a 1 hour scenic tour in a water taxi, where you get to see our majestic sea birds and often adorable marine life, all surrounding Ulva Island before being dropped off for a 2.5 hour guided walk on predator free Ulva Island.

Ulva island has an abundance of native, rare and endangered birdlife, bringing the podocarp forest alive with bird song.

The focus of this tour is to show our guests the wonders not just on Ulva Island but around it too.

Please note that a booking made online will be a reservation

One of our staff members will contact you directly after the reservation is made to confirm the tour. As we co-organise our tours with another business, we need to make sure the reservation will fit in with their current schedule before we can fully confirm a tour.

Duration

3.5 hours

About

You get to truly explore Ulva Island by Land and Sea. This tour includes a 1 hour scenic tour in a water taxi, where you get to see our majestic sea birds and often adorable marine life, all surrounding Ulva Island before being dropped off for a 2.5 hour guided walk on predator free Ulva Island.

Ulva island has an abundance of native, rare and endangered birdlife, bringing the podocarp forest alive with bird song.

The focus of this tour is to show our guests the wonders not just on Ulva Island but around it too.

What happens on the day

Meet our guide at Golden Bay Wharf 10 minutes prior to departure time where we board a water taxi for the 1 hour scenic boat tour. After the scenic tour we will get dropped of onto Ulva Island Bird Sanctuary.

An experienced local guide will take you around this amazing island and not only tell you about the birdlife, flora, fauna you see but they will help you spy some of New Zealand’s rarer birds.

After your guided walk through ancient forest on Ulva Island we then board the water taxi back across Paterson Inlet to Golden Bay Wharf where the tour ends.

Price Includes:

1 hour scenic water taxi tour Return water taxi fare between Stewart Island and Ulva Island An experienced local guide for the duration of your tour Department of Conservation concession fees

Who this tour is great for:

Bird watchers Nature lovers Botanists Families, couples and singles

Level of fitness required:

A moderate level of fitness is needed. Guests must be able to walk unassisted for 2.5 hours and be able to manage steps with very few hand rails, and beach walking.

Birds you will likely see around and on Ulva Island

SEABIRDS AROUND ULVA ISLAND

Sooty Shearwater Foveaux Shag Pied Shag Little Pied Shag Spotted Shag White Fronted Terns White-capped Mollymawk Buller’s Mollymawk Salvin’s Mollymawk Little Blue Penguin Fiordland Crested Penguin Yellow Eyed Penguin Red-billed Gull Black Backed Gull Variable Oyster Catcher BIRDS ON ULVA ISLAND

Bellbird – Korimako Brown Creeper – Pipipi Fantail – Piwakawaka Grey Warbler – Riroriro Morepork – Ruru Red and Yellow-crowned Parakeet – Kakariki South Island Kaka South Island Saddleback – Tieke South Island Tomtit – Ngirungiru Stewart Island Robin – Kakariwai Stewart Island Weka Rifleman – Titipounamu Wood Pigeon – Kereru Yellowhead – Mohua Tui If you are extremely lucky you may see a Kiwi – Tokoeka

Marine life you might see:

Bottlenose Dolphins and NZ Sea Lions (formally Hooker Sealion) may also be sighted.

Native trees you might see:

Rimu, Totara, Miro, Southern Rata, and Kamahi are the trees which make up the Ulva Island forest canopy.