Auckland and Adams Islands  

The ship departed Enderby Island and through the night we followed the eastern coast of Auckland Island to its southern tip and entered Carnley Harbour. Like many mornings in this region the dawn arrived on high winds, rough seas and with cold, wet weather.  The expedition leader and ship’s captain concluded we would not land due to the conditions but that we could zodiac the harbour and bays.  Zodiacs were launched and we went off in the tossing waves to explore the northern reaches of Carnley Harbour, Coleridge Bay, Musgrave Harbour and the Musgrave Peninsula.

I like to hand hold my digital cameras.  There is no stable place on a tossing zodiac even if one were using a tripod.  I was here to collect images of the penguins, albatrosses and the environment.  Since most shots are impossible for me on a zodiac in these conditions I kept my cameras under water-resistant cover and just enjoyed the scenery and descriptions as we passed the oldest granites on the island (about 100 million years old) and other early rock and volcanic formations.

As we rounded an outcrop we came into an area where we were out of the wind and some Auckland Shags were watching us approach.  I was able to take some good images of them.  Zodiacing along the coast we came upon a white pole with a directional pointer that we were told showed the way to survival gear and food for ship-wrecked sailors. From my point of view one had to be right in front of the pole to see it.   If you happened to be trail breaking through the underbrush and twisted rata forests you could easily miss it.  More importantly was the zodiac driver said he had only seen this one pole for all of Auckland Island.  If one were on the western or eastern side of Auckland Island you would have no idea that such a thing even was to be found, let alone seen.  The vegetation looked like it would be a formidable resistance to walking around these islands.  In fact the flora of all of the Sub Antarctic islands in this region is amazing and deserves its own photographs of its diversity, originality and color.

Kelp gulls are found in many areas of the Southern Ocean.  Its large size, all white head and red-spot on beak with the distinctive tail make it easy to identify. I liked this particular gull sitting on a rock in a formation area where a particular granite or basalt could be 30-100 million years old and be part of some of the foundations of Auckland Island.

We returned to the Spirit of Enderby.  The Captain kept the ship in the sheltered harbor while we ate lunch.  After lunch I went on deck as we returned to the sea while watching the coastline of Adams Island pass.  Adams Island is written about as being uncontaminated by human beings and our usual flora and fauna imports.  The rata forest we passed appeared to be very dense.  It seemed so intertwined that one might image it to be the inspiration for a naïve weaving.

We left the protection of the Harbor and began our day journey to Macquarie Island.   A southern skua was floating in the wind near where I stood at the rail. A man was standing next to me with his movie camera.  He was filming soaring seabirds.  Suddenly on silent wings the skua dropped slowly on top the camera and seemed to be trying to take it away from the surprised and completely unsure-what-to-do-next photographer. Both parties clearly wanted to maintain control of what they thought was their property.  Fortunately the camera was not dropped by either party, but I would have liked to see what the skua would have done with it had it won the wrestling match.  Maybe its skua-view would have produced a documentary segment worth seeing.

It was a crystal-beautiful afternoon of bright sun, high winds, and white-capped seas and gloriously soaring Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, a few Gibson’s Wandering Albatross and the White-capped Albatross.  Several varieties of Petrels abounded in their jet-fighter flying styles as they looped the ship and strafed the tops and troughs of the sea.   However, it was not long before most of bow riding birders and outdoor adventurers abandoned that forward perch because we were crashing through the swells throwing a ferocious spray back over the ship.  If one wanted to watch the sea birds it was much dryer and more comfortable to be on the stern or in the bridge.

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