1864: Beyond Fiordland 12 Dec 2018

Day 1: Wednesday 12th December
Port of Bluff, At Sea

Heritage Expeditions guides Chris Todd and Matt Vance, with Radio Officer Yuri, arrived at the Kelvin Hotel at 2pm, checked through our luggage and sent it ahead to our cabins. We followed by bus 20 minutes later to where the Spirit of Enderby (Professor Khromov) was waiting at the wharf, with its white superstructure and deep blue hull. We climbed the gangway, were directed to our cabins and had a short time to explore the ship and have a cuppa and muffins before attending a briefing on emergency evacuation procedures. This was followed soon after by a lifeboat drill, which involved putting on bulky life-jackets, clambering into the lifeboats, closing the hatch and starting the motor: Not an experience to repeat unless you really had to.

Formalities over, most of us went up to the top deck to watch our departure from Bluff Harbour. A few hundred metres outside the harbour entrance, the pilot used ropes to jump back aboard the pilot launch, which left in a shower of spray. It was a beautiful sunny evening, the ship rolling in the swell, large numbers of Sooty Shearwaters and Cape Petrels taking advantage of a stiff breeze to stream across the white-caps, along with a couple of White-capped and Royal Albatrosses.

An hour before dinner was ‘bar time’ and a chance to get to know fellow passengers. Bar time was followed by dinner downstairs in the dining room; a choice of salmon or lamb-rack from chefs Ed and Damien. Unfortunately a good number of passengers were absent owing to the swell.

Day 2: Thursday 13th December
At Sea to Campbell Island

We awoke to a calm sea, warm air and brilliant sunshine; unexpected in this part of the world. After breakfast Chris gave a lecture called ‘Mysterious Megaherbs and the Lost Continent of Zealandia’; explaining what the megaherbs are, why they are so big, bright and hairy, and how they got to live where they do. This was followed by a rigorous quarantine session; checking all of our gear to make sure that we don't bring any unwanted organisms to the islands. The ship’s shop was also open for an hour selling souvenirs, warm clothing, cards and books.

Matt gave a lecture after lunch on the ‘Great Southern Ocean’, explaining global patterns of wind and oceanic currents and their importance for the functioning and equilibrium of the earth’s climate. Aaron followed this later in the afternoon with a briefing on Campbell Island, our plans for tomorrow, and the use of Zodiacs: How to get off and on, how to use the life-jackets, and the protocols and behaviour around wildlife. In between times, most people spent as much time as possible watching the birds and the sea out in the sunshine.

Day 3: Friday 14th December
Campbell Island

We awoke surrounded by the dun-coloured peaks of Campbell Island in Perseverance Harbour, weak patches off sunlight highlighting here a patch of water, there a tussock-clad hillside. Twenty-five hikers set off on a poled route up the hill through low, spiky Dracophyllum shrubland, with spongy sphagnum moss underfoot, spiked with gentians, black-eyed daisies, beak orchids, cushion plants (Phylacne) with tiny white flowers, and everlasting daisies (Hell’s Bells - Anaphalioides bellidioides).

Antarctic Terns screeched overhead to warn us off their colony nearby. Just below the summit ridge megaherbs grew and flowered in profusion, made even more exotic by the enormous white albatrosses nesting amongst them. We admired the view from the ridge: The craggy tops of Mt. Dumas to our south, magnificent limestone cliffs defining Northwest Bay to our west, and Dent (as in ‘tooth’) Island to our NW. We descended the limestone cliff-tops to Northwest Bay, the last section of descent a scramble and slide down through head-high tussocks, and finally a deeply incised creek-bed which deposited us on the rocky shoreline, where a big sea-lion huffed at us to let us know who owned the beach. After eating our packed lunches, we climbed up a steep track through tall tussock and Dracophyllum, up an old line of fence posts (from sheep-grazing days) and back onto the tussock-clad tops. Southern Royal Albatross nests were dotted across the hillside, their white feathers in stark contrast to the dull browns and yellows of the tussock. Their nests were constructed from a combination of grass, moss and peaty mud, tamped down by their bills.

We eventually descended a long spur, past a beautifully sheltered cave surrounded by windswept shrubs, before dropping down through Dracophyllum shrubland to Garden Cove where Yuri arrived by Zodiac to ferry us back to the ship; muddy, tired but very happy.

Meanwhile the remainder of our party went for a Zodiac cruise up the harbour, the highlights a large breeding colony of sea lions amongst the tussocks; Campbell Island Shags diving amongst the kelp; grey-brown Light-mantled Sooty Albatross on mud nests cemented to ledges just above the spray line; beautiful columnar basalt, some of which had fallen off onto the foreshore and looked for all the world like Roman ruins. We crossed the choppy harbour to the other side and cruised back in the lee along the kelp-line, stopping to admire a group of Brown Teal chasing each other about amongst the kelp and boulders.

After lunch we headed up to Col Lyall, through Dracophyllum forest and on up through wind-shorn Myrsineand Coprosma, with 4 species of tiny flowering ground-orchids beside the lower boardwalk. The giant mauve and purple daisies (Pleurophyllum), bright yellow Bulbinella and Anisotome were in full bloom, a wonderful sight and scent en masse near the saddle.

We sat and watched the albatrosses, which were very active owing to the strong winds; hearing the whoosh of their wings as they soared low over our heads, watching them soar and swoop. The younger adults were ‘gamming’ or socialising and courting in groups of 3-6, nibbling each other’s breast feathers, putting their heads back, shaking them from side to side, yodelling and beak-clacking; spreading their wings high and wide in display; touching the sides of their beaks together. Their tenderness is all the more touching when you reflect that each has been gliding alone around the Southern Ocean for the past year or two.

We set sail as soon as we returned to the ship at 6.30pm, in order to reach the Auckland Islands tomorrow morning.

© Heritage Expeditions
Day 4: Saturday 15th December
Enderby Island – Auckland Islands

We had an uneventful steam overnight to Enderby Island, the northernmost of the Auckland Islands. Soon after 09:00 on a beautiful morning, the Zodiacs began the short run in to the boat landing, a convenient break in the rock platform, 75m west of the beach. There, we spotted our first Auckland Island Flightless Teal (Anas aucklandica) zipping about foraging in the kelp just a couple of metres away. We stepped ashore and made our way along the beach, past a couple of sleepy male sea lions, up to the old boatshed where we were able to stow our boots and lifejackets in bins before setting off along the boardwalk for the day’s walks around the island.

From the Boatshed, we walked up through lush pasture grasses bordered by the white flowered Hebe elliptica, past the small A-framed ‘Stella” castaway depot, erected in 1880, toward the start of the boardwalk taking us to the northern cliffs of Enderby Island. The now luxurious Poa aucklandica tussocks and pasture grasses, disguised the fact that only 30 years ago these grasses were reduced by cattle, introduced by the aspiring farmer Moffett in 1895, and mown to bowling green perfection by the legions of English silver grey rabbits released in the 1880s, to feed shipwrecked sailors. We began our walk up the boardwalk at the edge of the rata forest. Bellbirds, Red-crowned Parakeets, Auckland Island Tomtits and Auckland Island Pipits were flitting about through the contorted Rata trees (Metrosideros umbellata), heard more often than seen. As we walked up the boardwalk the Rata trees gave way to stunted, wind-shorn rata, Cassinia bushes and the odd Dracophyllum. After about 15 minutes we emerged onto the open moor-like top of Enderby Island characterized by great swathes of golden yellow Bulbinella rossii,recovering Poa tussocks and between them clumps of Gentians ranging in colour from white to deep purple. Royal albatrosses were nesting nearby and a couple of Banded Dotterels were seen close to the boardwalk doing a ‘broken-wing display, pretending to drag an injured wing and entice people away from their nest. A feature of Enderby Island is the recovery of megaherbs since the removal of the cattle and rabbits in 1992 by shooting and aerial drops of poison pellets respectively. Now, the Pleurophyllum, Stilbocarpa and Anisotome plants, once almost eliminated by grazing cattle, are flourishing. The boardwalk ends at the rugged, windblown, northern cliffs of Enderby Island. with spectacular views westward to the northern coast of Auckland Island. Here walkers could choose whether or not they would walk east around the Enderby coastline or take a leisurely return to Sandy Bay. The two groups walked east along the northern cliffs to view and photograph four nesting Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses conveniently clustered along one 15m. long cliff ledge, a preferred nesting site used by these birds for many years.

Soon the long-walkers pressed on, heading for Derry Castle Reef where, in March 1887, the iron barque “Derry Castle” ran ashore with the loss of 13 lives. The grave site was originally marked with the ship’s figurehead which is now in the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch. From there, they worked their way around East Bay, pushed through the now chest-high tussock to Southeast Point and on to Teal Lake. From there, a narrow track winds through the Cassinia to the east end of Sandy Bay and the landing point for Yellow-eyed Penguins. Between 4-5pm the penguins had been coming ashore regularly and climbing over the large sand dune en route to their nest sites in the forest.

Meanwhile, the short-walkers had turned about and wended their way, at their own leisurely pace along the boardwalk, back to Sandy Bay. We made a fruitless search for nesting falcons in the edge of the rata forest before walking to the sward edge above the beach where the outstanding attraction is the colony of breeding New Zealand or Hooker’s Sea Lions Phocarctos hookeri. From the end of November into early December the large (up to 4.25m, 450 kg) chocolatey-brown males gather along the beach to stake out their territories. In 7-14 days the full-term pregnant females arrive and within a few days begin to give birth to their 5-7kg pups, one only, never twins. Seven to ten days after giving birth females are receptive and mate with the dominant males, after which, the mothers get on with the important business of pup rearing and will keep their pup at foot, or flipper, for almost a year. We were lucky to see what we did. Pupping had only just begun and we were able to watch four pups being born and bonding with their mothers as the pugnacious males rampaged about defending their territories. Peak pupping, that is when the maximum number of pups have been born is around 16 January. At that time the pups are tagged and the annual population trend is calculated. Today Martin’s sea lion count at Sandy Bay resulted in: 105 males; 38 females and 15 pups – with many more to come.

The irrepressible Yuri made lightning fast work of running the shuttles back and forth from the vessel to Enderby Island. and all passengers were back aboard by about 19:30. Tomorrow we are heading to Carnley Harbour.

© Heritage Expeditions
Day 5: Sunday 16th December
Auckland Islands – Carnley Harbour

After a blissfully quiet night in Sandy Bay, Enderby Island, Captain Dimitry weighed anchor at about 0400 and set a course south, along the east coast of Auckland Island, for Carnley Harbour. We made our way through the entrance at about 05:45 and steamed quietly between the soaring, rata covered north side of Adams Island and the equally impressive southern side of Auckland Island, toward our anchorage just west of Magnetic Bay, in the centre of the shipping channel.

Thirty minutes later Aaron gave a final briefing regarding the day’s activities. Passengers had the choice of either climbing onto South Cape and viewing the albatross colony from above, or taking a Zodiac cruise around the Western Arm of Carnley Harbour and, seas permitting viewing the albatross colony from below. Whichever activity one chose, time is restricted as we have to depart some time between 10:30 and 12:00 for points north.

At 07:30, Martin and Matt dropped the South Cape climbers at their landing point just north of Monument Island on the main island then motored out through the passage between Monument Island and the main island to assess the feasibility of taking Zodiacs to the albatross colony. A fierce tide and high, short sea pushed by the northwesterly wind, was running through the two passages and the decision was made to abort that part of the cruise.

Musgrave Inlet

Musgrave Inlet is a deep, navigable inlet on the east coast of Auckland Island about halfway between Carnley Harbour and Enderby Island. Above the head of the inlet, Lake Hinemoa is connected to the sea by a stream about 1km long. We arrived at the inlet a little after 14:00, Captain Dimitri anchored and all the Zodiacs left for a short cruise. The northern side of the inlet has spectacular cliffs with vegetation growing from every available ledge, perfect landing and nest sites for the Light-mantled Sooty Albatross that are found close to the entrance. On the large tumbledown rocks at the base of the cliffs along the tidewash, rows of Rockhopper Penguins gathered to view us as we puttered along making good use of every photo opportunity. From the north side of the inlet the Zodiacs swung across to the south side to visit the caves where a few sea lions were pottering about along the kelp clad shore. We then moved around the point to the location of the two large caves which two are quite different. The first has a relatively low roof and astonishingly long echo, ideal for budding singers. The second ‘cave’ is beautiful. Motoring through the entrance we arrived in a large geomorphological pipe. At some time in the very distant past, the roof collapsed allowing the light to flood in. The rock strata exposed in the walls are variously coloured in beautiful shades of red ochre and sandy yellow. From the rim at the top, long pendulous stalactites of peat covered roots moss and fern hang down into space, reminiscent of the ‘space islands’ in the film ‘Avatar’. The sea within is about 5-6m deep and crystal clear.

As time was running out and the wind freshening we had to leave. All passengers were back aboard the ‘Professor Khromov’ and the Zodiacs secured for sea by 16:00. The anchor was lifted and a course set for The Snares.

At 16:30, Martin gave a lecture entitled “Sea lions of Enderby Island” which described the genesis of sea lion research at the Auckland Islands, animals status, natural history, threats and prospects for the future. This was followed one hour later by Aaron’s comprehensive introduction to The Snares.

© Heritage Expeditions
Day 6: Monday 17th December
The Snares

At 07:00 we were off The Snares, jogging in to the teeth of a rapidly rising NW’ly which was pushing up an unpleasant sea. Within 30 minutes the wind was gusting over 30kts with driving spume and horizontal rain, the swell was 1.5m to 2.0m. Conditions for a Zodiac cruise were unpleasant, to say the least. Wisely, Aaron decided to abort the cruise and Captain Dimitry set our course for Stewart Island. It seemed the only things enjoying the conditions today were a pod of three Dusky Dolphins leaping about in the high swells and the Professor Khromov’s bow wave. The weather and seas were by now “proper southern ocean weather”, the ship was rolling along in its customary fashion and most passengers had forsaken the upper decks and disappeared into their cabins or the Bar/Library.

By 15:30, Big South Cape, the bottom corner of Stewart Island and, incidentally, the place where ship rats were first observed getting ashore in the 1960s, was abeam to port. The ship rolled sedately northward, now comfortably in the lee of Stewart Island. Soon after 19:00, we passed Lords River and came to anchor off The Neck.

Local maritime regulations require vessels like Professor Khromov to take a pilot onboard before entering any of the fiords. First thing tomorrow morning we must go to the Bluff Pilot Station to pick up our pilot before proceeding to Ulva Island, Oban and then Doubtful and Dusky Sounds.

Day 7: Tuesday 18th December
Rakiura / Stewart and Ulva Islands

At 05:00 we were off the Bluff Pilot Station and the Pilot clambered aboard, the vessel then returned to Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island.

Passengers made the very civilised dry landing at the Ulva Island wharf. Ulva Island is a predator free island, a bird sanctuary with superb mature trees and lovely vegetation. It is a small 267hectare island about 3.5km long. Upon landing we were met by a couple of Wekas and Ulva Goodwillie, the local guide who took parties around the well maintained loop tracks. Bird song was everywhere and walkers got to see, or hear, Ruru (Morepork), Tieke (Saddleback), Tomtits, Silvereye, Kaka, Fantail and Kereru. At 12:30, all returned to the ship which then moved to anchor off Kaipipi, the site of the Rosshavet whaling company’s shipyard in the 1920s-30s. Zodiac’s dropped the walkers who were to make their way over the island independently to Halfmoon Bay ashore at Kaipipi. Spirit of Enderby then proceeded to Halfmoon Bay and its anchorage off Oban. After arriving in Oban from our various walk there was time to take in the sights, and the pub, with the last Zodiac returning in the rain at 17:30 after a most successful day ashore.

© H. Dohn
Day 8: Wednesday 19th December
Doubtful Sound, Fiordland

We arrived at Doubtful Sound at 08:30 after a down wind run through Foveaux Strait, which turned, into a lumpy night going around Puysegur Point. The views of the Doubtful Sound were spectacular and we had a small group landed on the southern shores of Secretary Island for an imposing looking walk to Lake Secretary, which is over 700m above sea level. A hard steep climb rewarded this brave group with spectacular views of both Thompson and Doubtful Sounds.

With conditions too rough in the strong southeasterly wind the Spirit of Enderby steamed along the narrow Thompson sound to the open sea where an intrepid group were ferried ashore to an unnamed beach crossing a river bar and penetrating inland up an unnamed river to intersect the trapping line trail that would take our group over a saddle to our pick up point on the other side. A small group took the option of retreating to the Zodiacs as they cruised the river narrowly escaping the quickly dropping tide.

The walking group was introduced to typical Fiordland hiking conditions of mud and exposed roots, which slowed the party down. A late lunch was enjoyed by some tired souls before we embarked on a short Zodiac cruise in the calm waters between the sounds. The Secretary Island walkers returned with some great stories and images of their epic ascent.

© Heritage Expeditions
Day 9: Thursday 20th December
Dusky Sound, Fiordland

Our transition between Sounds over night was blessed with calm seas and excellent sleeping conditions. We awoke to our spectacular anchorage at the intersection of Breaksea Sound and the Acheron Passage. After a grand breakfast we enjoyed the spectacle of transiting the Acheron passage and had great views into Wet Jacket arm along the way. A short Zodiac cruise into Sportsman’s Cove was completed with no sign of the ballast stones of the Endeavour, which was the first recorded shipwreck in New Zealand.

After lunch the Spirit of Enderby moved anchorage to Cascade Cove where we were shuttled to the well-appointed Alpine Helicopters barge to begin our aerial adventure to Mt Pender. The views from the helicopter were breathtaking as the true extent of the glacial past that has formed these Fiords became apparent. Touching down on Mt Pender we're greeted by local identity Ken Tustin who shared his immense knowledge of the area and of the alpine environment we found ourselves in. The return flight took us alongside Cooper Island and down Cook Channel before return us by Zodiac shuttle to the ship. A day few will forget was capped of with a swim off the gangway in warm sunny conditions and an excellent lecture from Lindsay on the ecological restoration projects of Fiordland.

© H Dohn
Day 10: Friday 21st December
Dusky Sound, Fiordland

A cooler cloudier day greeted us after a luxurious sleep. A pre-breakfast cruise to Pigeon Island took us to the site of the home of Richard Henry who did pioneering conservation work relocating Kakapo to Resolution Island in the late 1800s. After a short relocation by the Spirit of Enderby to the north side of Anchor Island we went ashore for a short cross Island walk with great views of the central lake and the odd Saddle Back and a resident New Zealand Fur Seal at our pick up point.

After lunch we were able to Zodiac cruise the Many Islands and visit Luncheon Cove that is the site of the first ship built in New Zealand. After our disembarkation briefing and our farewell dinner we were treated to spectacular views of the southern sounds and Puysegur Point as we enjoyed our last night together as an expedition.

Day 11: Saturday 22nd December
Port of Bluff

After a calm night sail around Puysegur Point and Foveaux Strait we arrived at the Port of Bluff at 07:00. After breakfast we departed with a lifetime of memories, experiences and a long list of new friends.