06 Dec 2017

A Magical Day Spent on Macquarie Island

We arrived at Macquarie Island today, a day early, after seeing a less than perfect weather system approaching. Knowing that we have several days of bad weather on the horizon, the call was made to head to Macquarie immediately in an effort to get a jump on the weather to get the full Macquarie experience.

There are very few places in the world that can compare to Sandy Bay, and I don’t say that lightly. Arriving on an unnervingly serene island, flanked by perfect seas and not a break on the beach in sight, the only difficulty in landing was trying not to kick any wildlife in the process of exiting the Zodiacs - it is simply prolific here. Across the beach were thousands of King and Royal Penguins, and dozens of Southern Elephant seals, huge adults and cute weaners. It’s safe to say that this morning at Sandy Bay is not only a trip highlight, but a life highlight for most.

This afternoon was spent just a skip up the coast at the ANARE station. Constantly manned for decades, the base is steeped in history and we had our own guides through time as we learnt about the workings of the base. We also managed a long stroll around the area surrounding the base finding lots of Gentoo Penguins with cute chicks along the way.

Overall a spectacular day bathed in sunshine. Tomorrow we head to one of the world’s largest King Penguin colonies…