A quest for this quintessentially antipodean family of birds uncovers the withering tree of life and the vanishing landscapes of Australia and New Zealand.
From the UK and a Singapore stopover, the traveller journeys to a week around Perth. Then two months in a campervan from Adelaide to Cairns, Queensland. He learns how the tree of life connects the whole globe and how vulnerable it is to our human onslaught.
As if the natural world were fighting back, the route also skirts floods and cyclones. A fortnight in Tasmania and Victoria, with its fatal fires, concludes this far from straightforward quest for the 73 honeyeaters. Finally, New Zealand offers a coda with its own branch of the family.
It’s not just about birds: it's a last chance to witness other survivors from the Triassic before they succumb to this mass extinction.
