16 Jan 2016

Pacific Black Duck!

The wind began to build as we approached Carnley Harbour on the southern end of the main Auckland Island at 0700hrs. It funnelled down the steep sided fiord and it was pretty obvious that we would not make our planned landing at Tagua Bay, so after breakfast we cruised up the North Arm inspecting the historic sites of the 1864 Grafton wreck and Erlangen clearing. It was at this site in 1939 that the crew of the German coal powered freighter cut wood for fuel to sail home, having slipped out of New Zealand just hours before war was declared with Germany. With a slight ease in the wind we launched five Zodiacs to inspect the 1877 castaway depot at Camp Cove and discovered a Pacific Black Duck!

In the afternoon we headed out and back up the coast to Musgrave Inlet where we took a truly spectacular Zodiac ride exploring some magnificent cave formations and then one of the largest of the Rockhopper Penguin rookeries on the island. There were smiles all round as the teams re-boarded the Spirit of Enderby after that little adventure. Now we will secure the cabins as we head off towards Macca into a solid head wind and steep seas!