What a way to wake up to 2010… in the middle of Carnley Harbour on the 1st of January, ready to step foot onto the Auckland Islands! After enduring two days of rough waters and admiring hundreds of seabirds on the Southern Ocean, we were finally ready to set foot on a piece of land where only 600 people per year are allowed to go.
I was lucky enough to be selected for an Enderby Trust Scholarship through Heritage Expeditions - an award-winning New Zealand expedition travel company. Each year they provide opportunities for young people to visit the Subantarctic Islands by offering several scholarships to join them onboard their ship to the great Southern Ocean. The criteria were: you must be between the age of 18 and 30 and write 400 words or less about your fascination with the area and why you would like to travel there. If you are reading this, want to visit the Subantarctics and think that you fit the above criteria, I highly urge you to apply! Unless you’re lucky enough to get involved with scientific research work down there, there are almost no other ways to get to these islands.
I have had a fascination with, and a longing to visit, New Zealand’s Subantarctic islands for as long as I can remember. Not only did the places we visited live up to all my dreams, but gave me so much more insight into what it would really be like to get to know the place well by living and researching there for a significant period of time.
We first visited the Auckland Islands group (50.5º S) – the largest of the New Zealand and Australian Subantarctic islands, with a total area of over 62,000 ha. From Carnley Harbour at the Southern end, we could see the pristine Adams Island to the south as the Zodiacs sped us from our 70 metre Russian ship to Tagua Bay. After a short walk through the moody realms of the rata forest up a hill to the lookout point I realised the area is richer in human history than I had thought. As we wandered along in the rain, thunder and lightning, looking and listening with fascination, we learned of many tragic tales of shipwrecks, failed attempts at farming, the introduction of mammalian pests and subsequent damage to the existing flora, fauna and natural ecosytem function. When I originally imagined myself visiting these islands, my main interests only involved the natural biota, but now I understand that these are also places of significant human interest and historical value. People have been almost defeated by the inhospitable nature of these islands, which further highlights just how special and hardy the animals and plants that inhabit these islands really are.
Luckily enough we now get to visit at a time when a number of these islands have undergone eradication of certain introduced animals or been declared totally pest free. One of my favourite days of the journey involved visiting Enderby Island, at the northern end of the Auckland group. The island is now free of rabbits and mice and populations of megaherbs such as Anisotome and Stilbocarpa are recovering. It would be interesting to conduct research into the recovery of invertebrate populations after such large-scale mammal eradications. On Enderby Island, I had the chance to sit and watch the wildlife and relish the remarkable beauty and uniqueness of the subantarctics. I was mesmerized by the flurry of life happening all around me… giant albatross nesting amongst the megaherbs, and penguins waddling down sandy dunes while Auckland Island pipits and banded dotterels were scampering over lush fields of Bulbinella looking for insects. The size and outstanding bright colours of the flowers was striking, and they seemed to yell “look at me!” to the insect pollinators. The sheer numbers of seabirds that soared overhead above the rocky coastline with such effortless gliding action was purely magnificent to watch, while shags busily collected nesting materials to take back to their rocky overhangs. Not only was there all this life, but death happening before my very eyes. I stood at Sandy Bay, one of the largest Hookers sea lion colonies in the world, and watched pups being born, while at the same time watching others being squashed by giant territory-seeking males. Opportunistic skuas loomed in the vicinity watching with an eager eye to savagely engulf any meat they could get their beaks into.
Another highlight of the trip for me was to explore the southernmost territory - Campbell Island (52.3º S) – an amazing conservation success story. Perseverance Harbour was stunning with early morning glimpses of sun appearing through the mist, making the land that we were about to step on to illuminate golden in patches Without rats for the last 9 years, our group became the first members of the public to see the Campbell Island snipe, a bird only rediscovered in 1997 on the tiny Jaquemart Island, off the south coast of the main island. They were able to re-establish back onto the main island after the eradication of rats http://heritage-expeditions.com/article/campbell-island-snipe-sighted. I was super excited after finding a Campbell Island weta while searching through Chionochloa tussocks and shared my findings with the group. During the day I watched dozens of young albatross gamming, and felt alive in the howling wind standing on the cliff tops above the Col-Lyall saddle, looking out to all the small surrounding islands and rock stacks, jagged and eroded ancient volcanic peaks protruding up from the sea, being amongst fields of Pleurophyllum daises and trying to find the less common endemic plants such as Damnamenia vernicosa and Veronica (Hebe) benthamii. It was a wonderful day all round, and pure coincidence to arrive there exactly 200 years since the island was discovered!
Our trip was greatly enhanced through having legends on board our expedition like Rod Morris (New Zealand’s best known wildlife photographer and natural history film maker), Andris Apse (stunning landscape photographer/book writer), and Martin Cawthorne (marine mammal expert and pioneer of the Hookers sea lion research) along to share stories, knowledge and expertise with us through their many valuable years of experience on the islands. The crew were friendly, knowledgeable and keen to point out what they could to help us all get the best understanding of the place. I am tremendously grateful to the Enderby Trust for providing me with this scholarship and to Heritage Expeditions for making this trip possible and if you would like more information about the islands, I am happy to share with you what I know.