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An urban spyhole for shorebird watching Just a little north of the Goldfields Shopping Centre at the carpark on Brown Street is Thames’ best kept little secret that will make anyone’s walk or bike trek a little more interesting. The Karaka Bird Hide. This enticing little Hobbit hut is reached by walking through shrub ‘tunnel’, clomping over a wooden boardwalk, and voila!...a mangrove shoreline hugging the Firth, and well above the estuary muck, and shorebirds galore, all viewable from the inside windows of the protective hide.
Best times to view shorebirds? 2 hours before and after high tide.
Access to the hide is via a boardwalk from the coastal walkway parallel to Brown Street, Thames. The hide is located on a mangroves tidal shore only about 150 metres from the road.
The Firth is one of the major stopping points for thousands of shore and migratory wader birds. “One of the three most important coastal areas for shorebirds in New Zealand.” In spring, see godwits and knots arriving from Siberia and Alaska; in the autumn they head north again. Pied oystercatchers and wrybills are native birds traveling from other parts of New Zealand.
Boardwalk to hide wheelchair accessible
Typically a wheelchair user who can walk a few steps.
Great access for young children traveling in pushchairs.
