Diane

We anchored overnight at Macquarie Island and in the morning we did another zodiac landing at Sandy Beach to enjoy the penguins and seals.

After returning and having lunch, the ship cruised down the lee side of Macquarie Island and we enjoyed the views and the swimming/porpoising penguins. It was especially interesting to see the penguins swimming under the water- the water was so clear you could see them from the ship.

Photos from the zodiac landing at Sandy Beach:

Views and swimming/porpoising penguins on the ship cruise:

What a day today- so many penguins, so many different species of penguins, so much activity, such an amazing time.

This will be a photo rich entry as the morning adventure was as good as a full day and the afternoon adventure was as good as another full day!

In the morning we went on a zodiac landing at The Istmus. It’s part of the Macquarie Island World Heritage Site. We had a nice walk to see the Gentoo Penguins, the Elephant Seals, a few Royal penguins and a walk up the hill for a great view.

In the afternoon we went on a kayak, or at least we tried to go on a kayak. About half the group loaded onto their kayaks and started paddling. One went off to the left and Kate, the guide, kept calling to them to head towards the beach. One went off to the right and Kate kept calling to them to head towards the beach. Tibor and I headed out to the ocean and Kate kept calling to us to head to the beach. At that point Kate called everyone back to the zodiac and cancelled the rest of the kayak. The wind was pushing us all over and could have pushed us past the point into rocks.

After we got back to the ship and changed clothes we went on a short zodiac cruise to see the Eastern Rockhopper colony and then landed at Sandy Bay to see the King and Royal penguins as well as Skuas, Giant Petrals, a Megaherb bloom and Elephant Seals.

While we were having dinner, there was a sighting of an Orca. Everyone jumped up from their dinner table and rushed to the windows. It was pretty dinner to see everyone run from side to side and outside to see if they could see it. I just caught a glimpse of a fin- not the best view.

Photos from morning adventure at the ithmus:

Photos from kayaking:

Photos from the afternoon cruise:

Photos from the afternoon landing:

Back on ship- photo taken during dinner:

Today we got to rest and learn. It was a sea day so no excursions. Instead we had a number of presentations and got to watch the albatross and birds flying on the open ocean. It’s 300 nautical miles to our next stop- Macquarie Island.

Random info from presentations:

• Frigate birds can fly for months without landing- they napp in the air and can shut down half their brain at a time
• King penguins can dive 500+ meters deep and they can hold their breath for 20+ minutes
• One penguin can turn off it’s stomach processing so it can bring back unprocessed food for their chicks
• Today we past south into Australian territory
• 2-3 million penguins were boiled/killed and rendered into oil between 1810 and 1918. 2000 penguins a day could be ‘processed’ and with better equipment up to 3500 per day could be processed

Tibor went kayaking today but I was so tired from yesterday’s kayaking that I did a zodiac cruise. Originally the kayakers were going to leave at 7am and return at noon. They ended up going from 8:30 to 11:30- a much shorter time and distance than yesterday. I was still glad I took the zodiac cruise to Musgrave Inlet because I saw and photographed many Eastern Rockhopper penguins and the endemic Auckland Island shag. We also took the zodiac into a dark cave and an open lava tube.

After lunch and after the ship repositioned to Carnley Harbour, Tibor and I went on a zodiac ride. It was the first time we had typical Southern Ocean weather- it was a bit windy, chilly and rainy. We were happy we went on the zodiac ride except that Tibor’s video camera stopped working- it no longer even powers on.

Afterwards the ship did a short cruise up to Figure Eight Island to see the historic ship wreck sites. The book “Islands of the Lost” was recommended. It’s the true story of the shipwreck of the schooners Grafton and Invercauld. Captian Musgrave’s crew (Grafton) built tools, a cabin, and escaped, while the Invercauld crew collapsed into chaos and cannibalism and only three survived. 

We watched the seabirds around the ship as we sailed to Enderby Island. When we anchored I was so happy to see so many Yellow-eyed penguins on an nearby island. We didn’t zodiac or kayak near that group but we saw a few of them elsewhere.

Today Tibor and I got to go kayaking. We ended up going quite a bit longer than we expected and we were both tired by the time we finished. We were out about 4 hours and had kayaked over 11 kilometers. The sad part for me was that I couldn’t photograph the penguins. I didn’t bring my big camera because I was afraid it would get wet and my GoPro can’t zoom in.

It’s a good thing I didn’t bring my camera because the first thing I noticed after Tibor and I were in the kayak for a little while was that my dry bag had fallen off the kayak. Luckily there wasn’t too much in it and it was floating. If my camera would have been in it, it would have sank. The ocean was also pretty calm so we could see it and we used the time to figure out how to steer the kayak. The kayak used pedals to turn. I never did get the hang of it but we did retrieve the dry bag.

We had a seal follow us for a bit and another seal charged one of the other kayaks.

One zodiac takes the kayakers out to the kayak spot and a second zodiac takes the kayaks. The kayakers load into the kayaks from the zodiac and then it returns to the ship. The other zodiac follows the kayakers around. If you get tired you can rejoin the zodiac and follow the other kayakers. Once kayaking is finished, a zodiac comes back out for the kayakers and the kayaks are pulled behind the other zodiac.

We got back after the official lunch was over but they kept the dining room open for us.

Right after lunch we had the opportunity to take a zodiac to the Enderby Island landing spot where we could take a walk on the boardwalk. It was such a fun walk- we had good birds along the way and saw a Southern Royal Albatross on a nest just a short distance from the boardwalk. At the end of the boardwalk (on the other side of the island from the landing spot) we took a short trail to an overlook where we saw the Light Fronted Dusky albatross on its nest. There were lots of albatross flying around too.

The plants along the trail were beautifully colored. We saw the Megaherbs- which I thought were huge plants that were herbs but nope, they are really plants with colorful (maybe large) flowers!

On the way back I surprised a Yellow-eyed penguin on the boardwalk. I was super excited to see it up close but it was just a glimpse since it left the boardwalk almost immediately.

There are regulations and trail cameras to stop folks from walking up the beach or across to the trail when there are penguins present. There was no concern about sea lions. The first zodiacs to land had to wait for a while for penguins to leave before they could disembark and start walking. We didn’t have that problem.

There were lots of sea lions (Big males, smaller/paler females and tiny babies) on the beach at the landing site. The males were snorting and charging at other males to defend their territory. The sea lion population has decreased rapidly in recent years- some of it is because of a bacterial infection. They are doing a study to see if pups can be vaccinated against it. The pups that have had a vaccination shot are marked with a ‘little cap’. There are a couple of pups in the photos below that are wearing the ‘cap’.

I didn’t go back on the zodiac immediately as I was hoping to see the yellow eyed penguins walking around and I got lucky- one came just as we were ready to leave.

Our first stop of this cruise was Snares Islands and I was hoping to see the Snares Crested Penguin.  First thing after we arrived about 7:30am I went outside to see if I could find the penguins.  I was in luck- someone told me where to look and there they were!  At quite a distance, I saw many white bits that turned out to be penguins walking up and down the mountain.  Seems like such a strange spot for them.

Same as last cruise, we signed up for a group but since Tibor and I were kayaking, our group was predefined.  We’re actually part of two groups- the kayakers and the Sea Lions.  We had a kayak meeting to cover more details.  We did not end up going kayaking today as the conditions were a bit too rough.

I was happy to go on the zodiac cruise instead because I got to see the penguins close up.

After the zodiac, all passengers went thru bio security where all dirt, seeds, weeds, and other bits were removed from any gear (clothes, jackets, pants, hiking boots, walking sticks, tripods) that would end up touching the ground.  The only area I had trouble with was the Velcro on my water resistant pants.  I had gravel bits in the soles of my hiking boots but it turns out that I won’t be using them and would use the provided mud boots instead.

Today is the official boarding day of the “Galapagos of the Southern Ocean” cruise.  Almost all passengers will disembark today (only 5-including the 3 of us- are staying on) and we will get a full ship worth of new passengers in the afternoon

The staff asked “what do you want to do today” and we said “what would you recommend” and they said “hike on Bluff Hill” so we said “we’d like to hike on Bluff Hill”.  It was amazing, the cruise director drove us to the start of the hike and then when we were finished, she picked us up and brought us back to the ship.

Yesterday the highest temperature in all of New Zealand was in Milford sound.   Thank goodness it wasn’t that hot today it was about 60 degrees.

We really enjoyed the hike it was around a peninsula and we were up a bit from the ocean and then we went up hill and inland to the top of Bluff Hill.  On the way down from the top of the hill we took the longer path so we could see the native forest. We had some amazing bird songs at various points along the trail and we even saw some of the birds that were singing and calling.  We ended up walking aver 6 miles.

We got back to the ship about 3:30/4pm just before the new passengers embarked.  And we participated in all the briefings we had the first day we joined the cruise- safety drill, introductions, and zodiac briefing and because we were kayaking we had a short introduction to the kayaking group and basic info on how it would work.

We left Bluff about 6:30pm.

Pictures of the trail.

Pictures of some of the birds we saw on the trail.

New Zealand had no mammals until they came over on ships. They have decimated the native birds. Many of the native birds were flightless and nested on the ground. The mice, rats, cats, pigs, etc ate the eggs, birds and their food source. Quite a few species went extinct and a few are on the verge of extinction. Many of the nearly extinct species live on remote islands. New Zealand is trying to eradicate all predators- especially on those islands with the animals that are nearly extinct. They use various means of killing these predators- poison, shooting, and special traps that kill them. We saw many, many traps along the trail. Islands that have no predators are called predator-free islands.

We have noticed that there is much more birdsong on predator free islands. Also there is more underbrush and more varied vegetation in the predator free islands. New Zealand is spending quite a lot of money to become predator free across the country.