15 Jan 2016

Helicopters on Enderby

As we altered course for the final approach to Enderby Island in the early hours this morning we encountered bigger than normal seas on our Port Quarter and there was much debate over the breakfast tables over how far a 30 degree roll really was! At 0600 the wind was still blowing 35/40kts but fortunately it had dropped to 25kts by briefing time so we launched the Zodiacs and went ashore for our big day on Enderby Island. Unfortunately a passenger managed to break her ankle within 10 metres of the start of the track so two helicopters had to be summoned from Dunedin for the medivac.

Twenty five hardy souls from our group made the seven hour trek around the island in typical "four seasons in one day" Subantarctic weather. The rest of the group enjoyed the northern cliffs experience, which included seeing nesting Royal and Light-mantled Sooty Albatross. A research team is currently stationed on the island surveying and tagging the New Zealand Sea Lions and noted there were good numbers of pups playing on the beach this season. At the end of the day we watched some precision helicopter flying as 20 drums of aviation gas was offloaded from the Spirit of Enderby in a cargo net. This helicopter is currently stationed on the island so the researchers can take aerial photographs of the Sea Lions and we had brought the fuel south to replenish the emergency fuel supply maintained on the island.