We get ourselves ready for a zodiac cruise.
It was wet.
Later in the trip we watched an amazing video on the Antipodes mice eradication - a great documentary, here it is if you have time.
This is what we saw, two years later.
Erect Crested penguins.
Parakeets.
Waterfall.
Lichen on the rocks.
More geology.
Antipodes Islands speak ...
"I am a remote and windswept biodiversity hot-spot and I have been formally declared mouse-free, after one of the most sophisticated pest eradication projects in the world (Herald March 2018). I was once home to about 200,000 mice that preyed on my bird chicks and eggs, invertebrates and plants. I observed mice eating alive large seabird chicks in their nests. Thanks to the "Million Dollar Mouse" five year project I can now see 21 species of breeding seabirds, more than 150 species of insects, 21 uncommon plant species and four unique and endemic land birds thrive."
Did you know more than 100 of New Zealand's 220 large islands are now pest-free, which the Predator Free 2050 initiative aims to replicate across the mainland by the middle of the century. If you can look after one small island you can look after them all. When biodiversity is looked after everywhere all humans are looked after too.
Next it is on to the Bounty Islands.