I visited South Island of New Zealand during the month of October in 2006 with my family.
We stayed with friends at Christchurch as well as traveled around for a couple of weeks.
This gallery is only for birds. The seabirds are found in a separate gallery: http://www.pbase.com/peterericsson/seabirds_at_kaikoura

Being a fairly isolated Island it is only natural that the diversity of passerines shouldn't be so great. However, man's impact has been almost totally devastating in many areas and it is very hard to find any native passerines in any big numbers. Thailand have its ricefields. Malaysia their rubber and palm plantations. NZ and especially Canterbury has their sheep farms with resultant cleanly shaven hills. I found this a bit disheartening, bordering to depressing as these mountains is a constant witness to man's inability to care for Creation in a balanced and non-destructive way.
Seeing European Blackbirds inside of native primary forest also wasn't too fun. Aside that, there were many a wonderful opportunity to see unique and intruiging birds. My favorite was the Tui which never failed to catch my attention once out of Canterbury. Crawling on the mud to get close to the Wrybills for some shots was an outstanding experience. Seeing the Keas in the snow at Mt. Hutt was something I only had dreamed of. Watching both Blue and Yellow-eyed Penguins come ashore was truly magic. Finding endemic Shags was a thrill. Best of all was the chance of seeing seabirds in big numbers and diversity.
The list goes on and on.
We had a wonderful time as a family in many ways as the children got to play with snow for the first time and were able to be outdoors for most of the time (at home it is often too hot to stay outside in the daytime). We stayed at comfortable and modern hotels and were almost always treated kindly. The people of SI were generally nice and helpful. In contrast to Australia I found the beer much cheaper and better (Steinlager) but the local wine is not on par with Australia's and the bottle stores are full of their neighbours produce.

Would I go back again? Sure, as it was a great vacation for the family with something for everyone.

Peter

PS. Places visited: ChCh, Akaroa, Kaikoura, Mt. Hutt, Arthur's Pass, Punakaiki, St.Arnaud, Abel Tasman park, Hanmer Springs, Oamaru and Lake Tekapo.