1666: Forgotten Islands of the South Pacific 15 Dec 2016
Day 1: 15th December
Bluff
Position 0800 hrs: 46º35.5’S 168º20.2’E Bluff
Weather: Westerly wind 30-40 knots, air temperature 17ºC
Sea conditions: Four metre swell, sea temperature 14ºC
Nature highlights: Southern Royal, Auckland White-capped and Salvin’s Albatross; Cape, Mottled, White-chinned & Cook’s Petrels; Sooty Shearwater, Spotted and Bronze (Stewart Island) Shags, Red-billed and Kelp Gulls, White-fronted Tern, New Zealand Fur Seal.
Chris and Lisle had met passengers at the Kelvin Hotel lobby in Bluff earlier in the afternoon, from where we bussed to the Professor Khromov (a.k.a. Spirit of Enderby) at 1600 hrs, enjoyed tea and fresh muffins in the bar-library and settled into our cabins before heading down to the lecture room for our first briefing from Rodney, our Expedition Leader and founder of Heritage Expedition.
“I bring you greetings from Captain Dmitri and the crew. And these are our staff: Jenny Williams our Hotel Manager who keeps the show on the road; chefs Connor Arcus and Alain Hauswirth; Dave Chamley ship’s doctor; Lisle Gwynn, Steph Borrelle and Chris Todd your lecturers, guides and Zodiac drivers. We also have Olga Belonovich here with her daughter Vasilisa. She’s a friend and marine mammal specialist from the Commander Islands in Russia. And we have 2 staff here from our Christchurch office; Gill Scott-Douglas with her daughter Abi and Diane Cowan from our subsidiary company Wild Earth. There are also 6 Enderby Trust scholars on the voyage, my contribution to fostering the next generation of conservation leaders; Tess Cole, Robert Vennell, Philip Boersch-Supan, Lizzy Myers, Sarah Falloon and Perry Smith. OK team, come on up and introduce yourselves…And now for the lifeboat drill...”
We set sail for The Snares Islands at 8pm, feeling the lurching roll of the oceanic swell at the harbour entrance, where the helmeted pilot leapt from the ship onto his waiting launch, which peeled off and left us. We sailed south in the lee of the bush-clad Ruapuke and Rakiura / Stewart Islands before heading into the open ocean.
After a sumptuous dinner of lamb-rack or salmon, most of us climbed up to the bridge and upper decks to enjoy the landscapes, seascapes and the see-sawing flight of seabirds long into the evening. Thus began our 8 day voyage to one of the most remote and wild places on earth: the Subantarctic Islands of New Zealand.
Day 2: 17th December
The Snares and at Sea
Position 0800 hrs: 47º45.6’S 167º01.2’E
Weather: SW at 16-20 knots, air temperature 12ºC
Sea conditions: Four metre swell, sea temperature 15ºC
Nature highlights: Gibson’s Wandering, Black-browed, Northern Buller’s and Light-mantled Sooty Albatross; Southern Giant Petrel, Fairy and Slender-billed Prion; White-headed Petrel, White-faced and Black-bellied Storm-Petrels; South Georgian and Common Diving-Petrels; Antarctic Tern.
With 4 metre swells and high wind, the seas around The Snares were too rough for launching Zodiacs. Instead the captain made several passes in the lee of the island, enabling us to enjoy dramatic views of granite cliffs and rock stacks, the tree-daisy (Olearia) - clad hills, and distant hordes of endemic Snares Crested Penguins making their way up rocky ramps between the sea and their nests high in the forest. Small groups rafted close to the ship, their black and white bodies, bright orange beaks and yellow crests a study in contrast. The seas were thick with huge groups of Sooty Shearwaters ‘rafting’ or flying together en-masse, groups of diving-petrels, albatross, prions and petrels.
Photo credit: L. Gwynn
Day 3: 18th December
Enderby Island
Position 0800 hrs: 50º30.3’S 166º16.6’E
Weather: 12 degrees, SW wind at 30+ knots
Sea conditions: Swell 2 metres (inside harbour), sea temperature 13ºC
Nature highlights: New Zealand Sea Lion breeding colony, Auckland Island endemic pipit, tomtit, teal, snipe, shag and banded dotterel; Red-crowned and Yellow-crowned Parakeet; NZ Falcon, Yellow-eyed Penguin, Light-mantled Sooty Albatross formation-flying, nesting Southern Royal Albatross.
We were up for a 0630 breakfast and 0730 briefing from Rodney to make the most of our land-based day. But first a reminder from Rodney about leaving the ship and boarding the Zodiacs,
“When you leave the ship, make sure you turn over the tag with your manifest number so we know who has gone ashore, don’t forget to turn it back over when you return. When you leave the ship, climb carefully down the gangway, stand on the Zodiac pontoon, take the driver’s wrist, step down into the Zodiac and take a seat on the side. Don’t lean too far back! When you leave the Zodiac, slide up to the front, swing your legs over towards the sea and climb out as quickly as you can…”
At last, our first landing! Enderby Island is relatively low-lying, rising gently from a sandy beach in the south to coastal cliffs along the exposed north coast. We had anchored off our landing point at Sandy Bay, where we landed stern first, our bow pointing into a small surf. After clambering off (we soon became more nimble), we climbed the sand-blown hillside and grassy bank above the beach, through low shrubs and onto the boardwalk, which led us under the canopy of an enchanting, low-growing forest of red-flowering rata (Metrosideros), Myrsine and Dracophyllum, punctuated by the rhubarb-looking megaherb Azorella. As we climbed further towards the wind-exposed north coast, the vegetation grew lower and lower until it was a dense carpet of cushion plants, gentians, and tough megaherbs Bulbinella (yellow flowers and strap-like leaves) and Anisotome (huge mauve globes of florets).
Photo credit: G. Scott-Douglas
Endemic Campbell Island dotterels and pipits fed on the ground close to the boardwalk, the latter seemingly oblivious to our presence. At the top huge westerly swells smashed into the cliffs below, atomising in to salt-spray. Small waterfalls were being picked up and blown back over the island from whence they had come. In places the deep coastal peat had been scoured by the wind, revealing layers where trees had once grown. Auckland Island Shags flapped rapidly up and down the line of cliff-line and a pair of Light-mantled Sooty Albatross soared past.
Thirty of us carried on clockwise and eastward above the cliffs, around the eastern coastline and back to Sandy Bay. We caught glimpses of the endemic snipe amongst the tussocks, watched teal diving in the kelp, Red-crowned Parakeets feeding on grass seeds, Yellow-eyed Penguins and sea lions resting, an Auckland Islands Shag colony, Giant Petrels, Southern Royal Albatross nesting and flying over the tussocks, a gull feeding on a dead leopard-seal, and the enchanting rata forest, it’s canopy twisted over by the prevailing winds and floor carpeted with Azorella and ferns. Duncan, who had last been on the island in 1986 when it was still grazed by cattle, was astonished at the recovery of the vegetation.
Photo credit: L. Gwynn
Those who returned via the boardwalk were treated to the sight of sea-lions giving birth to pups on the beach and watching the antics of Yellow-eyed Penguins. The wind picked up as we returned to the ship, until gusts ripped the surface into spume. One of the passenger’s great great grandmother had been born on Auckland Island, which she was writing a book about. Rodney was determined that she should see the place so he and Lisle took Shona for a quick visit to the remains of Hardwicke, the short-lived failed settlement at Erebus Cove in Port Ross. Given the sea conditions, the return trip was extremely wet, but there was a great sense of ‘mission accomplished’ and shared pleasure that Shona had been able to achieve her goal.
Day 4: 19th December
At Sea to Campbell Island
Position 0800 hrs: 50º30.4’S 166º16.7’E Anchored at Port Ross a.m.
Weather: Westerly 36 knots, air temperature 11ºC
Sea conditions: 6-8 metre swell in open sea, ocean temperature 13ºC
Nature highlights: 9 species of albatross at sea; a pod of Southern Right Whale Dolphins; the wild southern swells.
Winds continued to shred the surface of Port Ross, with six to eight metre breakers smashing into the reef beyond our sheltered anchorage. Disappointingly it remained too windy for us to launch Zodiacs to visit Erebus Cove and Hardwicke, so we set sail for Campbell after lunch at 1330, many of us a little apprehensive about the huge seas. The Professor Khromov took the seas in her stride, although not all of the passengers were able to; the numbers at dinner were depleted and the heavy pitching and rolling made bed the safest place to be.
Day 5: 20th December
Campbell Island
Position 0800 hrs: 52º34.0’S 169º16.4’E
Weather: Westerly at 20 knots, air temperature 10ºC
Sea conditions: Sheltered in Perseverance Harbour, sea temperature 13ºC
Nature highlights: Southern Royal Albatrosses gamming, flying over and sitting on Campbell Island; Campbell Island endemic shag, pipit, snipe, teal.
We arrived at Campbell in time for an early breakfast, enjoying the sheltered waters of Perseverance Harbour. All around us volcanic hills rose through Dracophyllum shrubland and tussock clad slopes to rocky crags and ridges. Southern Royal Albatross soared across the higher slopes and we couldn’t wait to get ashore.
Passengers were given the choice of an upper harbour Zodiac cruise followed by a walk up the boardwalk to Col Lyall, or a 16 km return walk over the range to Northwest Bay. Those who chose the former enjoyed close encounters with the flightless endemic Campbell Island Teal, possibly the rarest duck in the world with approximately 130 individuals. The walkers also passed sea lions, Yellow-eyed Penguins and enjoyed Campbell’s spectacular landscapes and megaherbs. As the wind picked up in the afternoon, albatross near the walkway began flying and ‘gamming’ or courting, a mesmerising sight.
Those on the long trip walked from the former meteorological station around Tucker Cove, up and over the range to Windless Bay, lunched at Western Bay Hut and looped back over the range to Camp Cove. The sky was heavy, with low cloud scudding over the tops. We climbed up through Dracophyllum shrubland, Antarctic Terns nesting in the tussocks nearby calling and circling over our heads. Occasionally a sea lion would grunt or loudly exhale from the undergrowth nearby and pipits hopped around our feet. A large area of the saddle was completely covered in megaherbs approaching peak flowering; mauve Pleuriphyllum and Anisotome, bright green Azorella and yellow Bulbinella. Windless Bay was populated by some huge elephant seals and a number of yearling ‘weaners’, skuas feeding on a dead eel and sea lions inspecting us from the water. As we climbed the hillside after lunch we began to see dozens of Southern Royal Albatross, many of them courting or ‘gamming’, a term for their courtship rituals. It is very impressive to be over-flown so closely by an albatross that you can hear the wind whistling around its enormous wings. We stopped to watch group after group high on the hillsides; beak-clacking, wing-stretching, yodeling, head-shaking, neck-arching, co-grooming, and flying low over the tussocks together, reveling in the strong up-hill breeze. A pair of Light-mantled Sooty Albatross flew together in a fine display of synchronised aerial ballet. Campbell at its finest!
Photo credit: C. Todd
Photo credit: L. Gwynn
Day 6: 21st December
Campbell Island and at Sea
Position 0800 hrs: 52º32.9’S 169º09.5’E
Weather: Nor’norwest 12-15 knots, air temperature 10ºC
Sea conditions: 1 metre swell (anchored in Perseverance Harbour)
Nature highlights: Young sea lions playing around the ship, snipe, albatross.
The morning was drizzly with strong nor’west winds forming williwaws out towards the heads. The Zodiac passengers were again treated to sea lions and Campbell Island Teal. Those on the boardwalk enjoyed very bracing conditions, including winds on the col that made it very difficult to even stay on the boardwalk. Even the albatross were determinedly lying low amongst the tussocks.
We set sail for Bluff just after lunch, heading into moderately large seas hitting us slightly abeam and making the ship pitch and roll dramatically at times.
Day 7: 22nd December
At Sea
Position 0800 hrs: 50º09.0’S 168º38.3’E
Weather: Nor’norwest 25 knots, air temperature 12ºC
Sea conditions: Four metre swells, sea temperature 13ºC
Nature highlights: Seabirds making light of the rough conditions.
We kept up a steady 7.5 knots into the head wind, many of us taking the chance to read, sort photos or simply get some rest.
Day 8: 23rd December
Bluff
Position 0800 hrs: 46º35.5’S 168º20.2’E Bluff
We arrived in Bluff in time for our scheduled 0630 breakfast and in time to off-load and depart by 0830. There were many fond farewells for new friends and experiences shared: although the sea conditions had been tough, we had seen the Southern Ocean’s true character, shared some great adventures and had wonderful encounters with its landscapes, seas, plants and wildlife.
