Calm waters: Port of Ross, Auckland Is

Day 4. Tuesday 14 January – Auckland Islands

Noon position: Latitude 50^o.32.5’South; Longitude 166^o13.5’East

Air temperature: 10^oC, Water temperature: 12^oC

We reached our waypoint at the Auckland islands in  the calm waters of Port Ross, sheltering behind Enderby Island, at around 7am. A 10.4 knot wind was blowing and the sea had a generous coating of white. In places waves were shooting up the cliffs. As the sun came out the dense Southern Rata (Metrosideros umbellata) forest with some trees in flower and Dracophyllum scopoarium (Turpentine tree) looked beautiful in the early morning light. 

We assembled in the lecture room on deck 2 at 9 am for our first landing briefing. Rodney who has been venturing south since 1972, said the voyage from Bluff to the Auckland Islands, was one of the more difficult he had experienced. He then discussed, our life jackets (our ticket to board  the zodiacs),  the Zodiac embarking and disembarking procedure (there are five on board) and finally, the all-important quarantine measures that we had to go through before and after every shore landing: vacuuming our back packs and coats to remove every last grass seed, and then washing our boots and walking stick in disinfectant (see photo - including the wheels of Christine's wheelchair).

 Later in the morning Rodney gave a fascinating insight into the history of the Auckland Islands, as preparation for a visit to in Erebus Cove and nearby Terror Cove.

 After lunch we had our first of many zodiac trips ashore, to Erebus Cove, the site of Charles Enderby’s Hardwick Settlement (1849-1852), a wet landing (meaning we had to wear our gumboots to step into the water) on a beach with basalt boulders. Somehow Ron and the crew managed to get Christine ashore and into her wheelchair.









A stream flowing from beneath the Rata forest was stained black from trickling through peat. 

The remains of a stores hut and a more recent boat shed stood nearby. 

From here we hiked (and Ron pushed Christine) up a board walk through Rata and Dracophyllum, to the lonely cemetery with a nice picket fence and is surrounded by Dracophyllum and Rata with many trees in flower attracting Bellbirds.

The small cemetery has poignant memorials such as those marking graves for Isabella Younger (died 1850) when just three months old; of Janet Stove (died 1851) when four weeks old, along with John Mahoney (died 1864) from starvation. 

 

 Returning to the shore, we then walked along the site of the Hardwick settlement road under the twisted Rata trees, with a carpet of red stamens on the moss among the ferns, passing a quantity of bricks, perhaps indicating the site of a building or chimney.

In the middle of the forest was the Victoria Tree. The ancient Rata stump still has some of the original inscription carved in 1863.  

From here we took a short zodiac trip to nearby Terror Cove which was the site of the unsuccessful German Expedition (1874) to observe the Transit of Venus, and alighted on a similar boulder beach with a wave-cut notch in the cliff of conglomerate. On a low terrace was the original instrument plinth of brick that once supported scientific instruments used by the German expedition in 1874, along with brick bases for other equipment on a low terrace beside the beach. While there many of us heard a Yellow-eyed Penguin calling.

Soon after 5 pm we were back aboard the Spirit of Enderby enjoying a convivial hour in the Globe Bar. Our chefs produced an exceptional meal with roast venison or John Dory fish, followed by pavolva with summer berry compote and Chantilly cream. The forecast for the following day was good so we motored out closer to Enderby Island, hoped to have a full day on the Island next day.