New Zealand Sub Antarctic Islands – Campbell Island

It seems that every place in the Southern Ocean is a place I look forward to the arrival and time ashore.  No place do I regret visiting and always feel that I needed more time to hike and gather images.  Macquarie Island was no exception.  We had one day with sunshine and decent weather, a rarity for any given day there…but more importantly there were only a few hours of landed observation in Sandy Bay and Buckles Bay.  Macquarie is a place of so many more places and promises.  After returning the “ranger” to Buckles Bay the captain set course to Campbell Island, two days away to the northeast through wind and snow.

I like being at sea in the Southern Ocean.  The motion of the ship can be relaxing and at times surprisingly violent.  I do not recommend the violent moments but they are part of the trip, whether planned or not, and one needs to be prepared for those hours when any movement out of your cabin is not recommended.  Nonetheless my cabin is my sanctuary where I can work at cleaning the cameras, brushing up on the destination ahead and filling in my notes on where we have just been.  Outside the cabin there are often talks, films, bird and ocean watching from the deck or the bridge—it all takes hours and hours of time.

Campbell Island is volcanic in origin, about 6 to 10 million years old, embedded in the continental crust with ancient Paleozoic basement rock at least 450,000,000 years old.   The islands were also eroded during the ice ages of the last two million years and for this reason one finds glacial moraines, cirques and glacial “U” shaped valleys.  Much of the island is covered in peat fields and these soils contribute to the flora found on the island.  Europeans tried to farm the island and introduced sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits, cats, and inadvertently mice and Norwegian rats.  These introduced animals destroyed a large amount of the endemic plant and bird life before the New Zealand conservation effort began eradication programs nearly thirty years ago and within the past ten years successfully removed the last of the introduced species, the rats.  Since then there has been a remarkable resurgence in endemic species.

Campbell Island is unique in that it is a nesting territory for 6 species of albatross, one of which can only be found on Campbell, the Campbell mollymawk.  Crozet Island in the Indian Ocean hosts seven different albatross nesting colonies.  Campbell is also what is considered the home breeding ground for Yellow-eyed Penguins, the rarest penguin.  In 1997 on Dent isle, just off the coast of Campbell, researchers discovered what turned out to be a new kind of sub Antarctic land bird, the Campbell Island Snipe.  Since then and with the eradication of the rats the snipe has migrated in small numbers to Campbell Island.  Researchers have been moving some of the snipe eggs and birds to other locations in order to try and preserve this tiny population.  Campbell has unique and rare plants. It is a challenge to be going to such a rare place and to know that you will only have a few hours shore time.  For that reason I was focused on spending time with nesting Southern Royal Albatrosses.  The nesting is on a long ridge on the upper northwest side of the island.

We arrived at Campbell Island Nature Reserve with snow on our decks and a similar dusting on the mountains.  The Spirit of Enderby anchored in Perseverance Harbour so that we could take zodiacs to the meteorological station and Reserve headquarters, and from there hike the wooden walkway to the north end of the island about 1.5-2 hour hike away.  I did not see a single person around the station, but I understood later that this is where researchers live and work.  The board walk turned out to be one of the longest I have ever hiked and the walk took us over one mountain ridge, through a valley and up another ridge to the Southern Royals nesting area about 6 or 7 kilometers away.   Having hiked through raw tussock grasses, over wet peat bogs, through indeterminate types of undergrowth in the past it is my opinion it would have been a difficult and physically taxing hike without the boardwalk, not even to mention damaging to the local environment. I might not have chosen to make such an arduous terrain crossing in the short time allotted.

Along the way rare Campbell Island Pipits seemed quite common.  I was alert to watching for Yellow-eyed Penguins, but I did not see any.  Of course from my last experience with them I suspected they were watching us but would not show themselves.  We hiked though all types of weather from snow flurries to light drizzle.  There was a bit of sunshine too but it was cold and windy at all times.  Of course as we crossed over ridges or attained the heights where the Southern Royals were to be found the wind was more forceful.

I think the ridge of the Southern Royals is several kilometers long.  I looked one way and the other.  Royal couples and individuals were spread out in both directions and not particular close to each other.  This was the time of arriving and getting together with or finding a mate.  Nest building had not yet begun in the area I could see, but couples were chatting away and sky pointing and doing the formal things albatrosses do to reinforce or form pair bonding.  A number of individual birds were soaring along the ridge looking over the territory.

I sat down on the ground to watch a pair about 40 feet away.  Another individual bird walked up to the couple.  They all eyed each other, said a few albatross pleasantries and the individual turned toward me and began the albatross “slow-sway” walking my way.  For want of another pronoun, “he” kept his eyes directly staring at me as he covered the 40 feet between us with a measured and, I thought, formal approach.  His head was level with mine, these are big birds.  He never waivered in closing the distance between us.  When he was about 10-11 feet away I laid my camera in my lap and continued to maintain eye contact with him.  He kept coming and veered to my left a few inches so as not to run into my outstretched legs and feet. He continued forward until he was no more than twelve’s inches away.  I could see every detail of his face and beak lined in bright blue.  His white feathers appeared to be perfectly groomed and very clean.  I had this moment of fear that he might reach out and poke me in the face with that beautiful, but suddenly wicked looking 10-12 inch long beak. However, his eyes were gloriously alive and surrounded with the most wonderful eyelashes.  I heard him take another step with feet larger than the palm of my hand.  He lend forward until his left eye and my left eye were maybe two inches apart and his beak went over my shoulder and past my ear.  We looked at each for 15 or 20 seconds, neither of us moving.  He did not whisper any Southern Royal sweet nothings in my ear.  We just looked eyeball to eyeball.  He then continued walking in the same direction.  I could hear him moving away behind me, but I did not want to turn around and perhaps frighten him with a sudden movement.

After a few moments I did take a peek and I could see he was headed toward Otto Plantema, a photographer friend of mine, who was prone on the ground 30 feet away, watching me and the albatross who was now moving toward him.  The albatross came to a stop about 10 feet from Otto but did not venture closer.  I had my camera up and took a few picture of their encounter.  Later Otto explained to me he had the wrong lens on his camera and that once my meeting started he did not want to make noise or movement that might interrupt the moment.  Otto said he was quite content to watch the event unfold.  Then when the albatross went over toward him he was able to take pictures of his inspector.  We both agreed that our experience was quite extraordinary.  I have added this contact to my treasure book of thrilling encounters and wonderful memories.

There were more Campbell Island Pipits bouncing in and out of the tall grasses on the ridge.  Compared to the albatross these little guys were tiny.  I kept thinking that I had the identification wrong because they were so common but I was later reassured that they were common on Campbell Island.  Of course they are not found anywhere else.

Returning to the zodiacs did not seem so arduous.  In fact it seemed like an entirely different island than the one I hiked up.  On the way down I had a chance to look at the megaherbs growing along the boardwalk.  They were just beginning to flower.  I still did not see any Yellow-eyed Penguins concealing themselves under the dense foliage but I was still sure they were there waiting for a time when we were not.  Back at the zodiac we went cruising around the Perseverance Bay.  Hooker Sea Lions accompanied us.  We went past a small colony of rare Campbell Island Shags before boarding the ship.

New Zealand Sub Antarctic Islands: Previous Blog : Part 6 < > Next Blog : Part 8