We are now leaving Australia and returning to New Zealand territory, so we have another biosecurity check. We vacuum our day packs, and look for little twigs. This is Doug and Niall doing their thing.
I decided to explore the ship today . This is Dr John's 'surgery'.
He has the only bath on the ship in his quarters!
He is your perfect doctor, people friendly, and we all have so much confidence in him.
He also loves photographing birds.
This is Bek and Rob, the cooks.
Bek and Rob.
Bek took me for a tour around the ship. In my time with her I learnt she wants to become a guide. I can see her like Judd. Judd cooked for 6 years on boats like this before becoming an expedition leader of the ship. Here is where the food gets craned on to the ship.
Then it is put in a lift to go down below to the kitchen . . .
. . . and put in fridges and stores.
This is the bridge.
Here is the A team (guides, Dr John, and Heidi) who run day to day operations for us. They meet each day over breakfast I have noticed.
This afternoon we have Judd's Campbell Islands briefing. The ship will moor in Perseverance Harbour.
We are travelling 389km north to Campbell Island. It is the southernmost New Zealand sub-Antarctic Island, 700km south of Bluff. It is the second largest island, with an area of 11,300 hectares (a little bit bigger than Waiheke). Campbell Island and its satellites are the eroded remains of a shield volcano 6-11 million years ago. Sea erosion has dismantled the western side of the volcano. The island has an ancient basement rock which is 450 million years old. In the last 2 million years the ice ages have left peat deposits in most of the land. It averages 650 hours of sunshine a year. It has a steady temperature of 6 degrees (Celcius).
Campbell Island speaks ... "I have six species of albatross here and the Campbell Mollymawk breeds nowhere else. I have around 26,000 pairs of mollymawks. Southern and Northern royal albatross breed here and their numbers are very low."
"Then I have a circumpolar light mantled sooty albatross."
"I was discovered in 1810 by Hasselburg, who named me after his employer. I was a new sealing ground, then a stepping stone to whaling destinations. Four people were discovered on the island who had been left there for 4 years. Then in 1896 sheep farming started. In 1900 Tucker brought his family from New Zealand to farm, and his daughters refused to get off the boat! Around 1910, 13 right whales were taken and 10,000 sheep arrived. It was 1929 and no ship came to resupply the lease, and the island's farming ceased. From 1942 to 1958 there was a coast guard and meteorological work was carried out. In 1984 Sheep and cattle removed. In 2001 the then biggest rodent eradication project in the southern hemisphere was started. The rats had decimated my wildlife. The project involved 19 roving people, 5 helicopters and at a cost of $2.6 million the island was eradicated of rats and cats. Today I am thriving."
This is Tucker Cove.
The island’s endemic species are:
Campbell Island teal (thought to be extinct until 25 were found in 1975 and a captive breeding program took place).
Giant petrel and Northern giant petrel. (Because they are aggressive predators and scavengers they earned the name “stinker” from whalers.)
Southern Rockhopper penguin. Their population has declined by 1/3 in the last 30 years .
Yellow-eyed penguin
Sooty shearwater
Southern Royal albatross
And Sub-antarctic snipe (Hokioi).
We will climb Beemans Hill to see the Southern royal albatross.
After the briefing we do some chumming. From Wikipedia: "Chummimg is the practice of luring various animals, usually fish such as sharks, by throwing "chum" into the water. Chum is bait consisting of fish parts, bone and blood, which attract fish, particularly sharks owing to their keen sense of smell. The first phrase coined for chum was "offal", meaning rejected or wasted parts of killed animals including their internal organs." We are luring birds.
There is plenty to see when chumming starts.
Mollymawks coming in.
Southern royals and petrels.
Grey-headed albatross.
Southern Royal.
Mollymawks and Southern Royal on right.
Then to dinner, with drinks in the bar first. I am with Jessica, Don and Bill.
