return journey, seven birds in New Zealand were tagged with surgically-implanted transmitters and tracked by satellite to the Yellow Sea in China, a distance of ; the actual track flown by one bird was , taking nine days. At least three other bar-tailed godwits also appear to have reached the Yellow Sea after non-stop flights from New Zealand. One specific female of the flock, nicknamed "E7", flew onward from China to Alaska and stayed there for the breeding season. Then in August 2007 she departed on an eight-day non-stop flight from western Alaska to the Piako River near Thames, New Zealand, setting a new known flight record of . This L. l. bauri female made a 174 day round-trip journey of with 20 days of flying. In 2021, a male bar-tailed godwit, 4BBRW, set a new record for non-stop migratory flight with an 8,100 mile (approximately 13035km) flight from Alaska, USA to New South Wales, Australia. The same individual held a previous record in 2020. In 2022, a godwit numbered 234684 left Alaska on 13 October and flew non-stop to Tasmania, the first time a tagged bird has flown this route. It flew a minimum of in 11 days 1 hour: a record non-stop distance. To fuel such long journeys, L. l. baueri birds in New Zealand deposit much more fat for their body size than other subspecies, allowing them to fly to . Both Australasian subspecies head north to their breeding grounds along the coast of Asia to the Yalu Jiang coastal wetland in the north Yellow Sea, the most important staging grounds for godwits and great knots (Calidris tenuirostris) in their northern migration. Baueri birds rested for about 41 days before continuing approximately on to Alaska. Menzbieri spent on average 38 days in the Yellow Sea region and flew an additional to high Arctic Russia. Birds will often depart early from New Zealand if there are favourable winds; they seem to be able to predict weather patterns that will assist them on the entire migration route. Birds that had nested in southern Alaska were larger and departed New Zealand earliest; this pattern was repeated six months later, with birds departing Alaska in the same order they arrived, and over the same span of days. Birds in southern New Zealand departed on average 9–11 days earlier than birds in more northern sites. Godwits arrive at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in