04 Apr 2017

The South West Pacific Odyssey Begins

1st April

Today (1st April) around 2pm all passengers arrived for the South West Pacific Odyssey expedition which includes visits to Norfolk Island, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and PNG. After everyone embarked the Spirit of Enderby and got acquainted with each other, Matt Vance, the expedition leader, gave a word of welcome and introduced the whole staff. Around 4pm we left the port of Tauranga, with some beautiful weather, ready for our trip north. The upcoming days will be spent on the sea, before we arrive to our first stop at Norfolk Island.

2nd April

The second day on the sea was greeted excitably by the arrival of the Grey Turnlets, despite the drizzly damp conditions everyone was eager to get a sighting. Moving further north the birders sighted the Black / Parkinson Petrels and the recently discovered New Zealand Storm Petrels. This was also a great chance to carry out some very slow open ocean donuts with the ship, which gave some fantastic views of the NZ Stormies. Around 40 Storm Petrels were spotted, showing a true increase in numbers over the last 10 years. For the rest of the day we enjoyed the sun on the deck chatting, and sighting a very southerly White Necked Petrel, along with Bullers Shearwaters, Cooks and Grey-Faced Petrels.