Last days on the ship

Days 27 (cont)  – 29: Final days of the voyage

Back on board after our zodiac trip around the foreshore of Campbell Island, Australian Chef Bruce provided an interesting tour of the galley, including storage areas, food preparation and cooking appliances. We were intrigued to see how they managed to prepare one hundred steaks to all be ready at the same time – they were first seared on a hot plate then slow cooked in the oven. They had huge rotary mixers, 

and the storage rooms dry goods,  fresh produce and desert cakes were amazing (see the deserts below ready for dinner) .

Note that they still had fresh vegetables after 27 days at sea!.

Rodney showed two groups through the immaculate engine room with green painted floor and the two bright yellow, six cylinder 1400 hp locomotive engines. Every five years the engines, which are each connected to a ‘Ka me wa’ (now part of Rolls Royce) gear box, are stripped down. There are three generators. I also noticed racks of spare porthole glass – which apparently were needed on a similar voyage when rough seas shattered several cabin windows.

The chief engineer made himself comfortable in his control room







At 1.10 pm we departed Perseverance Harbour for Bluff with 360 nautical miles to go. It took little time to leave the harbour and we were soon beginning to roll in the westerly winds. Many still found the library a good place to sort photographs and to catch up on the last month. 

Day 28. Friday 7 February - en-route to Bluff.

Noon position: Latitude 48^o52’ South; Longitude 168^o38’ East

Air temperature: 15^oC; Water temperature: 12^oC

After a comfortable night with the pale grey sea now calming, we rose to a cloudy day with a pale sun. 

At 10 am two excellent documentaries on Campbell Island were screened by Dr Eric. With 42 species of New Zealand birds now extinct and many on the endangered list, ‘The Battle for Campbell Island’ focused on the eradication programme of an estimated 50,000+ Norway rats in the winter of 2001. Rats had been released by sealers and soon became a natural history problem. The second documentary entitled ‘The Impossible Dream’ –described the rediscovery of the Campbell Island Teal  in 1975 (by our leader Rodney), which led to a subsequent successful release by the Department of Conservation in 2004. Progeny of ‘Daisy’ a female captured on La Dent in 1984 (she died in 2002) re-appeared at Beeman Station the following year. 

These programs were followed with an excellent presentation by Katya about ‘The Russian Far East – The Wild Frontier’ and focused on the human and natural history, from the Kuril Islands in the south to Wrangel Island in the far north. This is another fascinating and beautiful area, where Heritage Expeditions operates a range of itineraries during our winter. The pictures of indigenous peoples, villages, wild life, botany and landscapes, were outstanding with many photographs taken by Katya herself who spent a lot of time with her parents on Wrangel Island, a World Heritage area with Arctic diversity.

By afternoon the sea was very calm with some dolphins sighted and bird life including a Back Bellied Petrel feeding on the surface. I took the last opportunity for some more bird watching, enjoying the flying acrobatics of the albatrosses and my attempts to 'capture them' digitally. We passed a colony of albatrosses further north on Campbell Island so saw lots wheeling around.

Campbell's yellow eyed albatrosses 

(you have good eyes if you can see it!)

And there were also the ubiquitous Cape Pigeons

Grey -headed albatross

 We enjoyed a quiet day which included packing and a passenger de-brief. 
 Rodney and staff farewelled the group and thanked them for contributing to what has been a highly successful expedition. Samuel then screened his superb 22 minute slide show

(Leader Rodney Russ, Historian David Harrowfield, Naturalists Samuel and Katya)



This evening as we passed Stewart Island to port, Bruce and Michael provided a sumptuous farewell smorgasbord dinner. This included a ravioli entré, main course with hot ham and roast beef carvery, chicken fricassee, roast potatoes and assorted vegetables, a seafood selection with salmon, prawns and salads and desserts including lemon curd and chocolate cheese cakes, mini-Pavlovas and a cheese board.



Pre-dinner drinks in the Library/bar.


Drew with waitresses Toya and Natasha

Chefs ready to carve

Farewell dinner

Chart showing the log of our Heritage Expedition ship Captain Kromov alias Spirit of Enderby from Bluff, NZ, to Ross Island  in NZ Antarctica via Auckland Islands, Macquarie Island and return to Bluff via Campbell Island, after travelling 4675 nautical miles (8658 kms) over 28 days.

Day 29. Saturday 8 February – Disembarkation 

Latitude 46^o35.630’South; Longitude 168^o20.35’East

The pilot boarded Spirit of Enderby at 6.30am. We breakfasted together for the last time and New Zealand Customs and MAF Quarantine officers boarded at 7.45am. 

(Crew polishing the bell before arrival)

After a group photograph was taken to record this momentous journey, we said final farewells.

Jane is standing in a blue jacket third from the left of the photo, and Drew beside her fourth (note his white beard).

  

Birds and basalt columns

Day 27. Thursday 6 February – Zodiac trip of Campbell Island

Waitangi Day in New Zealand

Noon position: Latitude 52^o33.072’South; Longitude 169^o09.617’East

Air temperature: 10.8^oC; Water temperature: 9.8^oC

Heavy rain and fog prevented a climb of Mt. Honey today. Instead after breakfast we gathered in the lecture room to consider options for morning activity. These included a further trip to Col Lyall for those who did the long walk yesterday; a muddy walk to the old Coastwatchers’ huts; Zodiac cruise in the outer harbour and tours of the galley and engine room. We opted for the latter activities.

The party which visited the remains of the Coastwatchers’ hut and a red-painted meteorological hut found a very muddy track through Dracophyllum scrub and Bracken. The met hut was in good repair and had furniture along with beer signs on the walls. An unusual stove or boiler was marked ‘UNIQUE’. An aggressive male Sea Lion was carefully avoided on the way back to the ship.

By late morning the sun endeavoured to brighten the day. The Zodiacs trip along the foreshore was very interesting, with misty Scottish/Irish hilltops rising above us.

We were delighted to see a lone Rockhopper Penguin hiding in a little cave in the cliffs while he/she was moulting. We also saw three Yellow-eyed Penguins swimming,

 Light-Mantled Sooty Albatross chicks all alone on nests.

and a family of cormorants.

I was fascinated by the patterns of string kelp in the water.

Drew was especially interested to see where old lava had flowed over sedimentary rock and volcanic basalt columns, some vertical and some curved. They were coloured yellow, white, black and brown. A dyke was examined with caves at the base.

 Herbfields above the cliffs

Campbell Is and Albatrosses

Day 26. Wednesday 5 February – Campbell Island at last 

Noon position: Latitude 52^o32.991’South; Longitude 169^o09.577’East

Air temperature: 9^oC, Water temperature: 9.8^oC

Most of us had an excellent sleep on calmer waters. It had rained a little in the night and we got up to a generally fine day, with scattered cloud and the sun appearing from time to time.  At 7.15 am we Rodney gave us a well-illustrated introduction to Campbell Island and we were instructed to adhere strictly to quarantine requirements with special emphasis on cleaning (vacuuming) our clothing, including footwear and back packs, to prevent movement of weeds and disease onto or off the island. We had a choice of day activities: 14 hardy souls opted to do the ‘Samuel Safari’- a 14 km all-day walk from Camp Cove, with an ascent of 200 m, then across the island to Capstan Cove, followed by the inevitable 200 m descent and return to the ship. Passengers on the long walk were the first away and reported seeing five Campbell Island Snipe, two Antipodean Albatross with low flights of about 300m, an amazing field of purple Pleurophyllum speciosum along with other vegetation on the glaciated landscape.

The remainder of us chose the half-day Zodiac cruise to Tucker and Camp Cove. This focused on their history, with the rusting Shacklock Orion stove the only visible remnant from the farm homestead, attracting most attention. 

Birds seen included a Giant Petrel (which has conspicuous external nostrils on its bill),  and Kelp gulls.

The flightless Campbell Island Teal were seen near Tucker Cove. Our guide Rodney had been the ranger to rediscover them after they were thought to be extinct.

We returned via Garden and Venus Coves, with an huge, wind-pruned old spruce tree that has survived since early settlement.

A few seals were seen on the beach and among the tussocks.

 .. and Campbell Island cormorants.

After lunch, we then hiked along the boardwalk to view nesting Southern Royal Albatrosses and mega herbs This was to be the highlight of Campbell Island.

The hike up the board walk started from the former meteorological station began with us being confronted by an arrogant bull Sea Lion who was jealously guarding his harem of three cows. A former met man on our trip explained what the various buildings had been used for.

Katya trying her persuasion skills, and nearly landed in the water!

Rodney was firmer with the bull seal

The general landscape (and weather) reminded me of SW Tasmania, complete with cushion plants and Dracophyllum, but buttongrass was replaced with large tussock grass, and the megaherbs (giant daisies etc) are unique to the sub-Antarctic Islands including Macquarie Is. 

 It was very windy, so windy in places that it was hard to stand upright, let alone hold the camera steady.We were still in the furious fifties.

Scrub with lichen-encrusted trunks

After passing through flowering dwarf Dracophyllum scoparium (also a Tasmanian genus) scrub in the Sub-alpine Vegetation Zone below Beeman Hill (187m),... 

we entered the Lower Alpine Zone with interesting ground cover, including some greenhood orchids ...

 cushion plants. 

and the megaherb, purple  flowering Pleurophyllum daisy. 

From Col Lyall (named after Lyall on Ross’s expedition) we looked across to Northeast Bay (site of earlier whaling) and back to Perseverance Harbour.

The highlight of the day was lots of nesting Southern Royal Albatross which we soon spotted on the hillside, including some paired birds among the tussocks. 

We spent a lot of the time sitting quietly on the boardwalk watching the albatrosses interacting with their partners, with elaborate grooming, greeting and pairing rituals whenever one of the pair returned to the nest. 

 Old nest

One bird landed some distance from his/her nest (both sexes look alike and both tend the chicks) and walked within about 1 m away past us while we sat on the boardwalk (too close to focus the camera!). They look eye to eye with us when seated so are quite intimidating with their long bills but they showed no sign of aggression or disturbance by us. Researchers apparently can reach underneath a brooding bird to fetch out an egg or chick for marking/weighing.

 We noticing that they had only to unfold their wings (they fold into three) and let the strong wind lift them aloft. Here they did not need runways to take off, as we saw in some places. Some birds actually had trouble landing in the strong wind.  

For those of us who battled the gusting nor-west wind (having to crawl the last few meters and then lie flat on the herbs), we had a wonderful lookout over the precipitous cliffs into Northwest Bay and the wild westerly ocean.  That was what we would be sailing into when we left the shelter of our harbour!

Heading back down the valley to the ship - very reminiscent of Tasmania (Macquarie Island with its megaherbs).